Can You tell which girl has had her lips sewn?
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About 140 million girls and women worldwide are currently living with the consequences of FGM. (www.who.int)
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Be informed. Break the silence. Learn more about Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
There are only a VERY FEW things that induce my gag reflex MORE than having the notion of someone slicing off the hood of my clitoris with a razor blade… (That was difficult to even say).
Just a quick lesson on the types of FGMs. The 2nd & 3rd types of FGM are “Excision” and “Infibulation”:
Excision is the partial (or total) removal of the clitoris and the labia minora; with or without excision of the labia majora (which are the lips that surround the vagina).
Infibulation is the narrowing of the vaginal opening through the creation of a covering seal. The seal is formed by cutting and repositioning the inner or outer labia; with or without removal of the clitoris.
Tools in the above picture, for example is an old razor blade. My head starts to reel when I look at that. Almost nausea sets in.
Infibulation includes the sewing of the vagina. SHUT. Only to be ripped open again on their wedding nights… like rusty zippers broken open until they split.
Picture yourself as a young, 13-year old girl in Western Africa. Today is the day of the traditional ritual known to as female genital mutilation, that you are about to undergo, to become a “woman”. As a woman, you are cringing thinking about this. Also, there is no anesthesia for this, either. How would you feel??
I distinctly remember watching one episode in particular, of Americas’s Next Top Model, years ago, and getting weak in the lungs as I watched it. Fatima (Siad), was the second runner up from Season 10 of America’s Next Top Model. I saw this striking beauty and once she started to speak, her outspoken attitude about her ordeal was simply so tragic and painful to listen to, as she told the judges (and the world watching) about her having her clitoris removed and her labia sewn together (my heart breaks) as a child at the age of 13.
While she didn’t support the tradition, she made a very important point. She accepts that there may be a more functional way of helping young girls who are forced into it, like requiring it to be performed by a qualified doctor – it is usually done by a town woman who is the one that performs it on all women, using the same blade on many.
Reaching out to young girls who have already experienced it, was very important to Fatima, “I want young girls to be able to express themselves because I feel like there’s a whole part of them that’s dead, and that they just don’t talk about it.”
-Truth of the matter is that it has to be discussed. Fatima’s point of view is obviously different than that of mine – I want it to stop, it is simply infuriating that it is happening (right now, at this very moment) to a young girl. Fatima has had it done, her view is that of her having nothing she can do but accept & educate & talk about.
http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/movies-and-books-about-fgm
“‘How can you jail a responsible man who was preparing his daughter for marriage? It was only unfortunate that the girl died. It was not the intention of the two to kill Sasiano,’ said Mzee Saning’o ole Gilisho, 70, at his Parkitabu home on the edge of the Maasai Mara game reserve” (Sigei, 2010, http://fgcdailynews.blogspot.com/2010_06_01_archive.html)
“. . . while the practice served its purpose in the past, culture was dynamic and people should change with it” ~ Henry ole Kulet ~ (Sigei, 2010, http://fgcdailynews.blogspot.com/2010_06_01_archive.html)
“I want to make it very clear that the American Academy of Pediatrics opposes any form of female genital cutting, and that would include the ritual nick” ~ Dr. Judith Palfrey, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics ~ (Adhikari & Salahi, 2010, http://fgcdailynews.blogspot.com/2010_06_01_archive.html)
“It’s very easy to take the high road in cases like this,” said Diekema. “But when you’re dealing with religious or cultural beliefs, saying no sometimes is not sufficient for people and it will not necessarily eliminate the practice” ~ Dr. Doug Diekema, pediatrician at Seattle’s Children’s Hospital and former chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ bioethics committee ~ (Adhikari & Salahi, 2010, http://fgcdailynews.blogspot.com/2010_06_01_archive.html)
“Even though cultural practices may appear senseless or destructive from the standpoint of others, they have meaning and fulfil a function for those who practise them. However, culture is not static; it is in constant flux, adapting and reforming. People will change their behaviour when they understand the hazards and indignity of harmful practices and when they realize that it is possible to give up harmful practices without giving up meaningful aspects of their culture.”
– Female Genital Mutilation: A joint WHO/UNICEF/UNFPA statement, World Health Organization, Geneva, 1997, reiterated in 2008.
*For more related news and stories about the ethics and opinions fueling the endurance of FGM in Africa, the Middle East, and even the USA among its immigrant populations, visit http://fgcdailynews.blogspot.com/2010_06_01_archive.html
Female Genital Mutilation is beginning to peak over the horizon when it comes to the American dialogic and literary forefront, and three particular authors have in recent years joined in sharing their own firsthand experiences with native African colonialism.
Chinua Achebe, author of Things Fall Apart, published in 1958, does not directly discuss FGM in his novel but does touch upon the intricacies of the Igbo tribal life in Nigeria, Africa. Implicit references to “ogbanje”, evil-spirited children known to die and re-enter their mother’s womb continuously, and African tribal “medicine men” are just a few examples of the colonial mindset.
Henry ole Kulet, author of several novels including Is it Possible? (1971) and To Become a Man (1972), wrote explicitly about FGM in his fictional novella Blossoms of the Savannah (2008) in which the two main characters, sisters, move with their family back to their father’s native land and must defend themselves against desirous villagers’ attempts at performing the ritual of FGM on the young women. Having dealt with controversies and claims of being a dissenter from his native Massai clan, Kulet declares of his writing “‘When you say things in black and white you stop being an artist and become an activist. Creative writers ought to be subtle. They merely dissect society so that people can see things for themselves'” (Sigei, 2009, p. 1). For more information regarding Henry ole Kulet and his career as an outstanding outspoken novelist, please visit http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=1144017992&pageNo=1 to read Kipkoech Sigei’s article “Henry ole Kulet: Portrait of a writer.”
Ousmane Sembene, writer and director of the film Moolaade, or “Magical Protection,” takes his stance against what he sees to be the abomination of FGM in subtly and latently exposing the horrors and strife that FGM causes among the African villages in which its prominence still reigns. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070701/REVIEWS08/707010301/1023
Making the Cut 