Female Genitalia Mutilation

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Female Genitalia Mutilation

Picture this, a young innocent girl, between the age of eight and twelve, running around, playing, and having a good time. Then she is snatched away to a foul hut, whose floor is nothing but dirt. Once in the hut, the helpless girl is stripped of all her clothing and pinned to the dirt floor. Her tiny legs are spread and held wide apart with a tight grasp. Soon afterward, a midwife, with no education in human anatomy or medicine, enters the hut and says a prayer. While the young girl is held down in this most vulnerable position the midwife takes a handful of sand and rubs it all over the girl’s genitals (Walker 106). With no anesthetics and a jagged rock, that merely has a sharpened edge, the midwife begins to cut on the most tender area of the young girl (Rushwan). The midwife cuts away the clitoris and the tissue at the entrance of the vagina. When the midwife is finished cutting and perfecting her excision, she takes a thorn bush needle and sews from the head of the clitoris all the way down to the vaginal opening with the exception of one small place where a sliver of wood is placed. The wood is put into place so that when the scar tissue forms a minute opening is left for urine and menstrual flow to escape. After the raw edges have been sewn up a mixture of butter and herbs is placed over the wound. This is done to cease the blood that is now gushing out of this helpless young girl (Female Genital Mutilation). The above is only a brief description of a type of mutilation that millions of girls encounter every year in Africa. What is it that would cause parents to inflect such pain on their little girls?

Female genitalia mutilation consists of four principal types. One type of FGM is ver...

... middle of paper ...

...t)

Walker, Alice, and Pratibha, Parmer. Warrior Marks. New York: Harcourt Brace &Company,1993.

Works Consulted

“Banjul Declaration on Violence Against Women.” Women’s International Network

News 24.4 (1998): 27. (Ebsco Host)

“Mali: Centre Djoliba.” Women’s International Network News 24.4 (1998): 32. (Ebsco

Host)

“Nigeria: Strategies and Tactics for Prevention and Eradication of Female Genital

Mutilation.” Women’s International Network News 24.4 (1998): 30 – 31. (Ebsco

Host)

Hecht, David. “Standing Up to Ancient Custom.” Christian Science Monitor 90.131

(1998): 131. (Ebsco Host)

Saran, Ama R. “Turning Up the Volume on Our Sister’s Voices.” Essence 28.12 (1998)

: 172 – 173. (Ebso Host)

“Symposium for Religious Leaders and Medical Personnel.” Women’s International

Network News 24.4 (1998): 27. (Ebso Host)

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