Every 11 second a girl child in the world falls victim to Female genital cutting

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female genital mutilation

one lethal cut

"When men are oppressed its tragedy

when women are oppressed its tradition"  

                                     - Letty cotton  pogrebin    

that particular day was quite interesting and it was only my neighbor's daughter that said to me "oh, you must be looking forward to today".  I was like, "okay it's not my birthday, what the hell is going on and she said, "you're having your 'gudniin' done".so "gudniin" means  "FGM" in Somalia. she must have been 8, 9 years old. so a child telling another child what's about to happen to them.

 she started to explain what it was, and I'm sitting there thinking, "but mommy told me no one should touch my body" so these are conflicting messages that were going on in my head. but as she's is explaining this, I could hear a  scream coming down from the other end of the other side of the house, like screaming. it was my sister. it was like an out-of-body experience, before I could even do or think anything, it was like get Leyla, get Leyla, it's Leyla's turn and I mean, I ran off. I'm 7 years old there's only so much running I can do. so they grabbed me,  pinned me on this table. the women who held me down, these were aunties, family members, you know,  family friends. before I knew it, I was screaming I could feel my flesh being cut off. but I just remember him saying, "you have been naughty . behave yourself . it doesn't hurt". and I blacked out from that moment. 

so I had FGM done, was home for two weeks, recovering, the weekend after, we were back at the beach, life was normal again. That's just the way it was. once you undergo something like this, there is no way back, there is no way back from this. my mother wasn't just cut once, she was cut twice because a neighbor thought, not enough flesh was taken away, and for me when we talk about FGM, there is so much focus on the type and what happened. what we need to focus on is this idea that can just go and examine children's genitals. what I experienced was one of the worst forms of abuse. the doctor who cut me would never be seen as a pedophile because he checks my genitals under the label of a  "doctor". people will give many reasons, " it's their religion, it's their culture". I mean none of the holy books mentioned it. it's practiced amongst many religions. however fundamentally, FGM is there to control women's and girls' bodies, especially their sexuality. I mean every 11 seconds a girl is being cut so the fact we're not outraged, it's crazy to me.                                                                                                                                           

The above dialogue is from Somalia-born British activist Leyla Hussein who is both a victim and survivor of this FGM.

Leyla  

Hussein

A few days ago, while scrolling through Twitter, a tweet came to my notice, in which a mother told her story that she was originally from al-Mahrah Yemen. She accidentally killed her own five-year-old daughter while FGM. And that one tweet made me write this blog. female genital mutilation targets little girls, fragile angels who are helpless, who cannot fight back. It's a crime against a child, a crime against humanity. it's absolutely horrible and barbaric and evil and we have to stop it. 

A #Nigerian (name withheld) Recalls Hers:

“I was only 6-years-old when my mum and two of my aunts came into my room. Somehow, I was in a panic about what they wanted.
My mom said there was 'something in my vagina that needs to be removed so that in the future, pic.twitter.com/A2t5GE1hzU

— GIRDLE #EndFGM #Endchildmarriage: News! Advocacy! (@thegirdlengr) February 14, 2022

 

A MOTHER'S AGONY💔
I'm from al-Mahra in Yemen; I accidentally killed my own daughter during #FGM!
I have 5 daughters, all except the last one, who is 18 years old, who are circumcised. I performed the circumcision on them but that last one, I cut too deep and she bled to death very pic.twitter.com/jCd4Hj9VGB

— GIRDLE #EndFGM #Endchildmarriage: News! Advocacy! (@thegirdlengr) February 15, 2022

   

                         what is female genital mutilation?                                   

FGM (female genital mutilation) is a traditionally harmful practice that involves partial or complete removal of a woman's external genitalia or injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. FGM is carried out as a way to control women’s sexuality, It is thought to ensure virginity before marriage and fidelity afterward.

There are so many types it's hard to say. And all of them are very dirty and brutal, but the most barbaric type of it is infibulation (Extreme female genital mutilation) involves complete excision of the clitoris, labia minora, and most labia majora, followed by stitching to close most of the vagina.

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TYPE 1:  partial or total removal of the clitoris.

TYPE 2: (EXCISION) complete or partial removal of the inner labia, with or without removal of the clitoral glans and outer labia.

TYPE 3: (INFIBULATION) removal of the inner and outer labia and the fusion of the wound, leaving a matchstick-sized hole for the passing of the urine and menstrual blood; miscellaneous practices, including symbolic nicking. girls legs are often bound together to immobilize them for 10 14 days, allowing the formation of scar tissue 

tools used for FGM

FGM is performed by elderly people in the community or sometimes relatives or your own mother. FGM is carried out with knives scissors pieces of glass or dirty razor blades. anesthetic and antiseptics are not used and it gives living torments hell. 

FGM originated in Nubia, Sudan in 800 BCE.it spreads across groups as more resource endowed males meet less resource endowed females in circumstances of inequality. marriageability is its main reason for continuation. 

 FGM is practiced mainly by Christians, Muslims, Jews, and some animist groups in Africa, particularly guinea and mali. the only Jewish group known to have practiced FGM is the Beta Israel of Ethiopia. about Christians, the bible does not mention FGM Even so, Christian girls are a victim of  FGM in 17 African countries. In Nigeria, for example, 55% of Christian girls have FGM. FGM is found mostly within and adjacent to Muslim communities. although the Quran does not mention FGM it is praised in a few hadith as noble but not required. 

It is not possible to say how many girls worldwide have had FGM because even though this barbaric act is carried out in secret, UNICEF estimates that at least 200 million girls and women are alive today living in 30 countries have undergone FGM 

worldwide prevalence of female genital mutilation.

According to Ayan Hirsi Ali Somalia born American social activist who is also a victim of FGM at the age of 5 says that 5 lakh girls in America are at risk of FGM or have already been the victim of  FGM. FGM is performed within the Bohra community in India, Pakistan, Yemen, and East Africa.

 This practice is a paper ban in many countries. However, it is still practiced illegally in the 21st century, and the government has failed to curb it. The biggest irony is that this practice is more prevalent in developed countries like USA and England than in developing countries like India. In these developed countries, which give lectures to the world on human rights, democracy, and liberal thoughts and freedom, this barbaric practice is carried out in front of their eyes, which is a real surprise. However, instead of giving free advice to each other, this evil practice should be stopped all over the world ASAP.