I know what you did last summer
Article written by: Samsam Elmi reports
Launching its summer campaign, the Metropolitan Police is taking the unusual step of offering a maximum £20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of anyone carrying out female genital mutilation in London. Waris Dirie, said: “I welcome the initiative by the Metropolitan Police in taking this important step in raising the profile of FGM and support this stance wholeheartedly”.
Some experiences might be more traumatic than others, and certainly being taken for
a holiday only for your body to be violated is one that most of us would hardly forget. While this seems like a scene from a movie, it is a ‘rites of passage trip’ for hundreds of girls from communities who practice female genital circumcision here in the UK. The reasoning behind the ritual might in hindsight be regarded as an old wife’s tale, yet when I tentatively mentioned the topic to a group of Somali women only 10 years older than me, their views and beliefs on the issue seemed somewhat pre-historic to me. Indeed one said “it is healthy and clean, and I want my daughters to have it done.” Another admitted that whilst the procedure she had was painful, she would make sure her daughter had a ‘milder’ procedure. While these women remain anonymous for legal reasons, they believe that circumcising their daughters is an act of motherly love which will protect their daughters’ honour. The more they talk, the more it strikes me that strong traditional beliefs can cloud a person’s logic.
Female genital circumcision (FGC) is a surgical procedure performed on the genitals of girls and women in many parts of the world. The age and time at which FMC is performed differs from community to community, but usually is done before the girl reaches her teens. To those communities who practice FGM, the procedure is a highly valued ritual, the purpose being to mark the transition from childhood to womanhood. Whether the communities practicing this ritual are from Africa or Asia and regardless of their religious beliefs, the function of FMG is to reduce the woman’s sexual desire and so ensure virginity until marriage. Certain communities practice it as they believe that their religion requires it; this is particularly true to North and East African Muslims. Other reasons why people practice this ritual seem more ridiculous than others: there is the urban myth in some communities that the woman’s clitoris will grow into a penis unless it is cut! Many girls go thorough this violating and painful procedure as it is the norm in their society, believing it as being part of a woman’s duty. This was the case for Faduma, a 26-year-old British Somalian.
“There are many things in my childhood, which I don’t remember-but for some reason the day that I had FGM done still remains clear in my mind. I was 4 years old and my older sister told me what was going to happen. Obviously I knew what the procedure was as most of my friends and older cousins were having it done. But I knew one thing - I did not want it. It would be painful, I was going to bleed and after I would not be able to play with my friends. I was told to lie on a table in our house and the man who was performing it injected something that numbed my lower body. I felt some pain during the procedure, but the most horrible part were the weeks that followed in which I was even to scared to pee and walk because of the pain.”
