My mother's mother is Manyua Sesay; she passed away long before I could ever learn to know her as most children know their grandmothers. I can recall in my youth, a tall regal woman with radiant skin that reflected the deepest shades of brown. She seldom spoke to me, yet I detected a burning nostalgia in her eyes as she dreamt of returning to her home - Sierra Leone, West Africa. She was born into the Mandingo tribe, one of the many tribes in Sierra Leone that to this day practice female genital mutilation.
In a variety of its forms, female genital mutilation is practiced to some extent in Middle Eastern countries (Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Syria and southern Algeria). In Africa it is practiced in isolated villages in the majority of the continent including Kenya, Nigeria, Mali, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Egypt, Mozambique and Sudan. Neither my mother nor I know for sure if Grandma Sesay was a victim of this surprisingly prevalent practice; she was not the type to delve into such taboo matters. Yet, my mother suspects that her mother may very well have followed the ascribed cross-cultural and cross-religious ritual of having her genitals mutilated.
Many Americans are ignorant to the fact that there are several degrees of female genital mutilation: partial removal of the clitoris or removal of the entire clitoris and labia minora. Or, in FGM's most extreme and inhumane form, the entire external genitalia are removed and the remains of the outer vulva are stitched together. In the aforementioned form, the legs are then bound together tightly until scarring almost entirely closes the vaginal opening, leaving a tiny and inadequate opening for urination and menstruation.
While women in this prosperous nation of America are struggling to be heard in the arenas of equal pay and equal opportunity in the work place, women in Third World countries such as Sierra Leone are fighting to gain control over the destiny of their vaginas! What could be the motive for such a cruel and seemingly nonsensical act? In such male dominated societies as Saudi Arabia and Mali for instance, women are not at all encouraged to flaunt their sexual prowess, so for a woman to go as far as to experience sexual pleasure in the act of love making is totally forbidden. The solution - mutilate their genitals! The most frequently cited justification for FGM is that it diminishes sexual instinct, which, if not kept in control, reduces the woman to the perverted condition of animalistic sexual behavior. The underlying fear in all this is that women will be capable of straying from their mates and could potentially disrupt family life by practicing adultery. Imagine such a condition in which the mere thought of male penetration incites such fear and pain that a woman could never hope to enjoy any form of sexual contact.
The aftermath of this mutilation has various physical and physiological side effects: painful scars, keloid formation and sterility just to name a few. Additionally, the woman loses a sense of her femininity; she lacks sexual appetite. Orgasm no longer exists in her vocabulary. Depression sets in.
An ethical dilemma presents itself in trying to combat these atrocities. What grants Westerners the right to enter these countries and ban a system of tradition that has been instilled almost since the beginning of time? I totally disagree with what is going on in these nations; I clearly understand the potentially deadly confrontation that could arise if such practices were to be challenged by "high and mighty" Westerners. The ritual is so deeply rooted in the lives of these people that some women who have gone through the ordeal have an attitude of nonchalant indifference - it is just something that must be done, no questions asked.
On Tuesday Feb. 4, 2003 four wives of African presidents joined hundreds of women in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to call for zero tolerance to FGM. For the first time, a common pan-African agenda is being drawn up in order to tackle the practice. According to studies, some two million girls are subjected to mutilation each year with 120 million women in 28 African countries having suffered through the torment. This problem is quite obviously one that needs to be addressed delicately and immediately because as women's health activist Leah Muuya poses: "What can be more important than the health of thousands of women? About 70 percent of the food produced in Africa is the work of women. Women also carry the burden of raising children and running the household. Without women, African society would fall apart." Despite my grandmother's silence, the pain of female genital mutilation rings piercingly in the screams of young victims.
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