<>Week 2-Culture<>

I found the Somali policy on female genital mutilation absolutely horrifying. Just reading about it had me cringing! Just a little bit of an advisory that this might upset someone because it is very difficult to think about and a little graphic!
“In Somalia, like many countries across Africa and the Middle East, little girls are made “pure” by having their genitals cut out. There is no other way to describe this procedure, which typically occurs around the age of five. After the child’s clitoris and labia are carved out, scraped off, or, in more compassionate areas, merely cut or pricked, the whole area is often sewn up, so that a thick band of tissue forms a chastity belt made of the girl’s own scarred flesh. A small hole is carefully situated to permit a thin flow of pee. Only great force can tear the scar tissue wider, for sex.
Female genital mutilation predates Islam. Not all Muslims do this, and a few of the peoples who do are not Islamic. But in Somalia, where virtually every girl is excised the practice is always justified in the name of Islam. Uncircumcised girls will be possessed by devils, fall into vice and perdition, and become whores. Imams never discourage the practice: it keeps girls pure.
Many girls die during or after their excision, from infection. Other complications cause enormous, more or less lifelong pain.” (p 31)

This is an enormous cultural difference between America and Somalia. Most people would consider this incredibly cruel, especially considering that this procedure is performed sans anesthesia. The practice of genital mutilation in females speaks about the Somali culture: the patriarchal society and the value of chastity. Chastity until a girl’s marriage is clearly important if such excruciating measures are taken to ensure her purity. Also, it is the females who must endure these “fixes”, but what about the males? There is nothing that ensures male “purity”.
A friend of my mother’s is Somali, and when my mom asked her about this book, Safia (the friend) said that the author of the book, Ayaan is a “crazy lady”. I also found it interesting to hear that Safia is debating whether or not to send her four-year-old daughter back to Somalia to have this procedure done to her. Although Safia recognizes the cruelty and pain, she is concerned that if her daughter doesn’t get this female genital mutilation that no man (Somali of course) would marry her with her purity in question.