[8][9] The book has been cited by the United Nations as having played a major role in the advocacy against female genital mutilation.
[10] Cathleen Miller was born in the United States but has traveled widely in pursuit of research, adventure, and experience.
"She has interviewed diplomats and heads of state on five continents, patients in an Addis Ababa Hospital, rape camp survivors in Kosovo, and midwives in the mountains of East Timor.
Her work sometimes places her in strange circumstances, for example cruising St. Petersburg in a Winnebago to interview prostitutes, and running down a Brazilian mountain at midnight fleeing bandits."
Her work has appeared in many magazines and newspapers in the United States, including the San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Los Angeles Times.