My aunt cut my genitals when I was seven years old. The culture of silence surrounding this FGM/C means laws alone won’t finish itI was sitting in an anthropology seminar at the University of Texas cramming for a final,only half-listening to a fellow classmate represent her research project. “Female genital mutilation is the partial or total cutting of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons,” she mechanically described. “The procedure typically take places when the girl is seven years old. The process is normally carried out by an older female relative. And once the ritual takes location, and it is almost never discussed.” As she spoke,goosebumps began to form and I sat paralysed in my seat. Memories I had suppressed since childhood came flooding to the foreground.
I was seven years old. My parents had sent my brother and me to visit family in India for two months. On a humid mid-summer afternoon, my dad’s sister decided to throw a party for my brother, and celebrating his completion of the Qur’an. At the party,she pulled me aside, wielding a jumbo-sized Toblerone. She said that whether I stayed on my best behaviour, or I wouldn’t have to share it with anyone,including my brother. I was overjoyed.
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Source: theguardian.com