Berhane Ras-Work

Berhane Ras-Work (born c.1940) is an Ethiopian anti-FGM activist. She was the founding President of the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC).

Life Born Berhane Asfaw, into a Christian Ethiopian family, she attended a European-run primary school and at the age of fifteen went to boarding school in Addis Ababa. She gained a BA in education at the Jesuit University. After marrying a US-trained engineer, Terrefe Ras-Work, she accompanied her husband to Geneva in 1970. She gained a MA in International Relations from the Graduate Institute of Development Studies in Geneva.

A television program "started her thinking" about female genital mutilation, and what could be done to raise consciousness and confront the issue.

In 1995 Berhane Ras-Work received the United Nations Population Award.

Works (ed.) Traditional practices affecting the health of women and children in Africa: report on a seminar. Dakar: Ministry of Public Health, 1978 'Female genital mutilations', Voices from Africa, No. 4, pp. 89–96 'Violence against women as a traditional practice', in Yvonne Preiswerk and Mary-Josée Burnier, eds., Tant qu’on a la santé: Les déterminants socio-économiques et culturels de la santé dansles relations sociales entre les femmes et les hommes, Genevalie: Graduate institute publications, 1998 the unbidden pain. Janus publishing co, 2014.