Waris Dirie's Experience Of Becoming A Woman

SUMMARY The author of the book Desert Flower, Waris Dirie, recalled her experience of “becoming a woman” based on the Somali’s culture beliefs. For this specific assignment, chapter four was read and she described her experience of becoming a woman. In the Somali culture, a girl enters into womanhood by circumcision. The circumcision involves the removal of the clitoris, labia minora, and most of the labia majora. The Somali ancestors believed that these parts of the woman’s body were unclean and needed to be “fixed” in order for the woman to be considered for marriage. The circumcision is done by a Somali gypsy woman, who Dirie referred to as “killer woman.” Dirie recalled the excitement that all the young girls have for this special day

However, Dirie makes it clear that as young girls they do not know what this special day entails. Dirie had lost her older sister, Halemo, to this procedure. When it was time for her sister, Aman, to have the procedure done, Dirie followed her mother and sister to the spot in the woods where the circumcision was to take place. Dirie’s mother had told her to stay behind and watch her younger sibilings, however, Dirie was very curious. What Dirie saw, was not what she had expected to see. She was mortified and ran home. When it was Dirie’s turn to enter into womanhood, she already knew what was going to happen, even though her mother did not know this. She gave a deep description of how painful the procedure was and how she had passed out a few times throughout it. She talked about her recovery time and how she had almost died because of infection and the inability to urinate due the pain it caused her. In the end, she realizes how lucky she was to be able to walk away from the circumcision because a lot of young girls die due to infection, bleeding to death,

The experiences that the girls recall are very similar to the experience that Dirie talked about in her book. The girls described it as being very painful, but something that needs to be done in order for a girl’s future husband to accept her as being a virgin. Being uncircumcised leads the men to believe that their wife is not a virgin because there is nothing that proves she isn’t. The girls describe the circumcision as being a normal ritual that is done within their tribe. This is seen as a cultural difference between many cultures. For example, it is common for a baby boy to be circumcised at birth in the United States, however, not a baby girl. Circumcision in the Somali and many other tribes of Africa is a universal practice. It is done on both boys and girls, ranging from the time they were born to the time that they are 5 years