Fgm

10 Pages 2538 Words

Screams Heard Around the World

“The little girl, entirely nude, is immobilized in the sitting position on a low stool by at least three women. One of them with her arms tightly around the little girl’s chest; two others hold the child’s thighs apart by force, in order to open wide the vulva. The child’s arms are tied behind her back, or immobilized by two other women guests…
Then the old woman takes her razor and excises the clitoris. The infibulation follows: the operator cuts with her razor from top to bottom of the small lip and then scrapes the flesh from the inside of the large lip. This nymphectomy and scraping are repeated on the other side of the vulva…
The little girl howls and writhes in pain, although strongly held down. The operator wipes the blood from the wound and the mother, as well as the guests, verify her work, sometimes putting their fingers in. The opening left for urine and menstrual blood is minuscule…
Then the operator applies a paste and ensures the adhesion of the large lips by means of an acacia thorn, which pierces one lip and passes through into the other. She sticks in three or four in this manner down the vulva. These thorns are then held in place either by means of sewing thread, or with horsehair. Paste is again put on the wound…
But all this is not sufficient to ensure the coalescence of the large lips; so the little girl is then tied up from her pelvis to her feet: strips of material rolled up into a rope immobilizes her legs entirely…”

—M.A.S. Mustafa, Muslim resident of Djibouti

The passage above describes a typical procedure known as female genital mutilation (FGM) or female circumcision (FC). For many generations, this practice has been a normal and accepted scenario for women around the world, but has now become an issue for international controversy. It is estimated that 137 million females around the world have undergone FGM/FC, and at least another 2 m...