The prosecution is the largest brought against the practice of female genital mutilation in France and the first to be triggered by the complaint of a victim.

Rite: Many see the practice as vital

It is also the first tried by a woman, Judge Martine Varin.

The case stemmed from a complaint by Mariatou Koita, 23, a French woman of Malian origin who is now a Paris law student.

She demanded to see a judge five years ago after the defendant, Hawa Greou, went to her parents' flat to circumcise her younger sister.

Africa reporter Caroline Hawley: "Growing opposition to the practice"

Ms Koita recognised Ms Greou, 52, as the woman who had circumcised her a decade earlier, when she was eight.

"My mother said she was taking us to have injections," she said. "But then I heard Sira [another sister] scream."

"Then it was my turn. There were several women. Two forced me to lie down, one held my legs, the other my arms. The third bent down and circumcised me.''

'The way my grandmother did it'

After Ms Koita filed her complaint, investigators identified about 50 other girls who had been taken to Ms Greou for the operation between the ages of one month and 10 years.

Circumcision is often carried out with crude instruments

Investigators also found razor-blades, creams and compresses at the home of the defendant who has been in custody since mid-1994.

Ms Greou reportedly told police: "I do it the way my mother and my grandmother did it. I cut the clitoris, I take clean earth and I mould it into a charm that I place on the child's sex."

Reuters news agency says she faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

The parents are being tried as accomplices and face lesser sentences.

'Ancient African tradition'

"Greou is being tried for some 50 circumcisions, but she has performed many more," said lawyer Linda Weil-Curiel of the Commission for the Abolition of Genital Mutilation.

Ms Greou's lawyer Jean Chavais did not contest the facts, but said circumcision was a deep-rooted African custom that the justice system was not well equipped to fight.

"If the trial can help bring about an end to this custom, then it will be useful,'' he said outside court.

''But punishment is not as effective as education and prevention. If we want to fight it we must use means other than the courts.''

Muslim practice

Female circumcision became a crime in France in 1984, but it was not until 1991 that the first conviction was handed down.

The practice, which many Muslims believe is required by Islam, has been carried out on tens of millions of girls in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

But the procedure has been banned in several African nations including Senegal, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Ghana and Togo.