Salimata was always told she should be proud to come from a family of wife beaters.
"You're the daughter of a woman whose husband broke her hands. Your grandmother's legs were fractured by her husband. You must be loved," Salimata said, citing her mother's words.
The 19-year-old woman from Mauritania's Soninke ethnic group, married to a man who also beats her, said she taught herself to believe what her mother told her.