Agnes Pareiyo (born 1956) is a Maasai Kenya women's rights activist, politician and Founder and Director of the Tasaru Ntomonok Rescue Center for young girls, who campaigns against female genital cutting.
Pareiyo was initially able to persuade her father to allow her to not be 'cut', but social pressure from other women meant that she underwent the procedure, and afterwards vowed to stop girls undergoing the same pain. Pareiyo has spent time challenging cultural practices and engaging with communities that propagate the procedure, suggesting and demonstrating alternative rites of passage for young girls to undergo.[1]
Pareiyo was the first Maasai women to be elected Deputy Mayor of her locality.[2] Pareiyo has also analyzed the patriarchal social effects of FGM, including the ways that the procedure is used to take girls out of education and other means of economic and social independence.[3]
Pareiyo was named United Nations in Kenya Person of the Year in 2005, for her work achieving gender equality and empowerment of women.[4]