By Adan Makina
*This article contains graphic pictures illustrating the
horrors of Female Genital Mutilation. Viewer discretion is advised.
I have a bone to pick with the contributors, readers, and administrators of WardheerNews. For almost two decades beginning with the fall of the military junta in 1991, the most burning issue posted on the articles section of WardheerNews and continuously debated over and over echoed topics related to the state of the Somali nation yet little attention has been given to aspects pertaining to social issues–especially the most excruciating practice that has been the cause of unspeakable pain and suffering experienced by our daughters, sisters, mothers, nieces, and grandmothers–living or dead. It is a practice that is commonly known as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)–a practice whose origins remain shrouded in mystery. Nowadays, it is known as Female Genital Cut (FGC). Other than unreliable mythological explanations, questionable rationality, historical narratives devoid of relative validity, and philosophical thoughts immersed in objectivity, societies who practice FGM have failed to come up with religiously and theoretically convincing evidence regarding its benefits to womankind. Female circumcision, often called Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), is a practice found in some African and Middle Eastern cultures whose origin goes back to the era of the pharaohs of Egypt (though no historical data exist to substantiate such claim) where women underwent the ritual of clitoridectomy which implied the removal of the clitoris, and infibulations meaning to surgically cut-off either the labia minora or labia majora or all at the same time. Many reasons have been given as to why people of those days applied this agonizing procedure to their female kinfolk. One theory suggests that Egypt of those days was constantly embroiled in wars internally and externally which meant women and girls left behind fell prey to servants and other men around them. We also learn from authorities familiar with the cultural practices of
The picture shown above depicts an innocent baby girl being circumcised without regard for medical ethics; without antiseptics; without painkillers; without anesthesia; and without simple numbness inducing creams perhaps by a feeble lady (for such a task was reserved for elderly women) or by a visually impaired midwife assisted by the mother of the child and her accomplices. The surgical tool illustrated in this operation, regardless of whether it is a Nacet blade, a Wilkinson sword or a double-edged Gillette platinum could be contaminated and may even have been used dozens of times. As a rule, in a procedure like this one, the biological mother of the child or guardian must be present to witness the nature of the operation. In some instances, it is the child’s caretaker who navigates the circumciser’s hand and the surgical tool for the sake of mutilating the most sexually agitating, corruptible, and men-tempting sensitive parts. The removal of parts targeted by the parent or guardian will place a cap on the young girl’s impulsive sensuality in the presence of men when she attains marriageable age leaving no room for horseplay and satanic temptations. By the time the procedure is over, the mother is assured her daughter will grow up sexually virtuous until such a time when she is wed to a husband who will bear witness to the new bride’s unbroken virginity. In some rare cases, the mother of the new husband who is the new bride’s mother-in-law may investigate the bride’s purity of virginity before pronouncement of the wedding ceremony by inserting her two fingers in the vaginal opening of her son’s new wife. A wider opening is cause for fornication and could result in the annulment of the wedding. A husband may dissuade his mother from such a harrowing experience by wedding his new wife without strings attached. Positive news denotes the new wife has had unblemished character. This can be easily verified by the husband by observing the splatter of blood spill on the white bed sheet–a sign of broken virginity.
To discourage a victim of circumcision from raising any objection to the procedure in adulthood, parents ensure their daughters undergo the cut at an early age. Here are some key facts from the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding FGM:
- Female genital mutilation (FGM) includes procedures
that intentionally alter or injure female genital organs for non-medical
reasons.
- The procedure has no health benefits for girls and
women.
- Procedures can cause severe bleeding and problems
urinating, and later, potential childbirth complications and newborn
deaths.
- An estimated 100 to 140 million girls and women
worldwide are currently living with the consequences of FGM.
- It is mostly carried out on young girls sometime
between infancy and age 15 years.
- In Africa an estimated 92 million girls from 10 years
of age and above have undergone FGM.
- FGM is internationally recognized as a violation of
the human rights of girls and women.
The healing duration depends on the strength of the victim’s immune system. Medications used during convalescence include application of sifted ash to affected area, herbal medications, sprinkling of capsule powder (preferably antibiotics) or any feasible medication. For many women, FGM is a rite of Passage. In many societies where the practice is widespread, it is societal pressures that lead women to undergo the procedure as a precondition for marriage. Regardless of the implications this pharaonic practice may have on women and girls, leaders who are strict in the observation of local customs condone the continuation of the practice as a deterrence to prostitution, HIV/AIDS epidemic and other sexually transmitted diseases. In some communities such as in Sudan and Somalia, the practice is so common that it is as if those engaged in the practice are going by the adage, “old customs die hard”. Almost 90% of women in Djibouti, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, and Sudan have had the cut in one form or the other. Worldwide, the practice is pervasive in 28 countries. “It is estimated that 95% of Somali women have undergone FGM (UNICEF, 2004); and 80% of Somali women in Britain (Black and Debelle, 1998).”[2]
Feeling emotionally broken, females who feel affected most
by the cut may have the propensity to resort to atheism or other religious
practices after renouncing the faiths they grew up in. With help from human
rights advocates, willing literary activists, social campaigners or if literate
themselves, some of these aggrieved women who are vocal, impressive,
attractive, artistic, rambunctious, sociable, and fortunate enough, could find
themselves catapulting to celebrity statuses overnight by producing
much-admired manuscripts full of harrowing tales, award winning documentary
films, and even Hollywood movies in real life drama or in fabricated form. In
some documented cases, immigrant parents living in the west have been accused
of taking their daughters back to countries of origin to undergo the cut while
others, knowing that they won’t face prosecution against the practice due to
the nature of secrecy involved and the laxity of the law, mutilate their
daughters during summer vacations using surgical tools bought with taxpayers’
money.
While many who practice FGM cite religious references, some Islamic scholars
disprove it in the strongest terms. Those scholars who refute FGM claim it is neither
obligatory nor supererogatory and that it is simply a culture widespread among
nomadic and uncivilized peoples. FGM leads to lacerations, microbes, and
deformities. As you will see on a YouTube debate between two Arabic-speaking
scholars conducted by a female moderator on MemriTv, 95% of Egyptian prostitutes are circumcised while 100% of
prostitutes of the west aren’t. So why is this practice widespread only among
poor communities with high illiteracy rates? Why do we have to endorse a
practice that is the cause of pregnancy complications and death among women?
The agony faced by the millions of women who
had had the cut cannot be described in a simple essay. Removing the clitoris of
a woman is like removing the penis or tongue of a man. Where there is no
tongue, there is no sense of taste; and where there is no penis, sensation,
arousal, erection, climax, and penetration are hard to achieve. No matter how
many Viagra, Cialis, or Levitra a penis-less man consumes and no matter the
pressure and suction power of an erection pump, sexual satisfaction will remain
an elusive attraction. Among modern semi-literate Muslim men who are considered
scholars, citing fabricated Hadith for female circumcision and known as “Sunnah
Circumcision” seems to be gaining ground. Islam does not condone the
application of FGM and nowhere in the Qur’an and Hadith is female circumcision
mentioned. Sunnah circumcision denotes the cutting or shortening of the
clitoris and that’s unphilosophical, inhuman, and out of context theologically.
Circumcision is only meant for men and it has been in existence for millennia
among the People of the Book and Muslims. Without an iota of doubt, male
circumcision is obligatory and not supererogatory because, it is unhygienic for
a male organ, especially the prepuce to dangle from an uncircumcised penis.
We'll leave
it to our experts to come up with remedial measures to save the rest who are
waiting in line for the procedure from further harm and sexual ruination.
Please pick up the pen and raise your objection to this inhuman and unholy
practice.
References
[2] Somali women’s experience of childbirth in the UK:
Perspectives from Somali health workers Lianne Straus, MSca, _, AndyMcEwen,
PhDa, FadumaMohamedHusseinb
Retrieved August 8, 2010
from http://www.ucl.ac.uk/hbrc/tobacco/pubs/Somali%20women's%20experience_39.pdf[2]
[2] Samir Muscali (2009).
Iraqi
Kurdistan: Girls and Women Suffer the Consequences of Female Genital
Mutilation, June 16, 2010
Retrieved August 8, 2010 from http://www.ucl.ac.uk/hbrc/tobacco/pubs/Somali%20women's%20experience_39.pdf
NB: This article previously appeared on www.wardheernews.com on August 5, 2010.
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