In this etching, an older woman holds a child upon her lap. Her hand covers the child’s eyes to shield her from the monstrous, almost hermaphrodite figure that comes toward her to perform female genital mutilation. Behind them in the shadows stands an older girl holding her skirt up. Is she next? In a box behind the chair is a child’s doll, arms raised in horror. Despite the title ‘Lullaby’ there is nothing remotely comforting about this image.

Paula Rego made the Female Genital Mutilation series in a protest response against the barbaric and inhumane practice of FGM that is still carried out in 30 different countries worldwide on girls between infancy and 15 years old.