A dusty compound in southern Malawi. Four teenage girls are gathered in front of me. Their heads bowed, their bodies wrapped in white cotton cloths. A group

of older women dance and sing around them.

Welcome to assignment with me Ed Butler on the BBC World Service.

This reenacted ceremony shows the first step in a ritual marking these girls transition from childhood to womanhood.

Every girl in this remote community has to go through it,

and for many of those forced to do so,

it will powerfully and dramatically shaped their lives.

There was nothing else I could have done.

I just had to do it for the sake of my parents because it's our culture.

You hated it when it happened to you.

I still hate it up until now.

Few outsiders get to see what really goes on in these rituals.

Even most Malawians are unaware.

But for this program, I've gained some rare first-hand accounts,

both from those forced to take part and from the people in

charge. It does contain details of wide-ranging abuse of women and girls.

I'm coming through this dusty village now. It's I guess the kind of village you'd see anywhere in this part of Africa.

Mud brick houses with straw roofs, many of them. People sitting out with

maize drying in the sun, chickens, ducks, and the odd dog scurrying around our feet.

The sound you can hear is the sound of children pumping water from the one standing pump in this community.

And I've come to visit a man who lives here and he does well I'll let him explain what he does

hello I'm. Hi, hi, hi.

...