The Sierra News, the state-owned newspaper said the women made the pledge at a public ceremony that they will now work towards "safeguarding the health of women and girls."
The government says the fifteen, who were not named in the article, have carried out up to a third of female genital mutilation (FGM) operations in Lunsar, located about 90 miles north of the capital. They are widely regarded as highly skilled in the practice.
The women publicly set their instruments on fire as a symbolic gesture at a rally organized by the Amazonian Initiative Movement, a local non-governmental organization.
The Ministry of Welfare estimates that between 35 and 40 percent of women in Sierra Leone undergo female circumcision, a traditional custom believed to control female sexuality and make girls more "marriageable."
