FGM: Hope for the Hurting
January 10, 2008
Our two truck loads of armed guards had just gone missing. They vanished in to thin air. (We would find out later that they decided to take a beer break.) George Thomas, videographer Moses and I were stuck. According to UNHCR policy, we could no longer move between the refugee camps of Dadaab on the border of Somalia. We were not allowed to go anywhere without our security team.
Not wanting to lose precious filming hours, we all hopped out of our truck and struck up conversations with the locals (even though most of them couldn't understand us very well). We had considered doing a story on female genital mutilation while we were in the camps. So, while George talked with the men, I spoke with the women. As I was talking with the ladies, I was suprised by their candor. They poured out their hearts to me and were even willing to let their stories be shared with the rest of the world!
As we sat in the dust under a scrub brush tree in the 120 degree heat, the ladies' recounted how they were cut as little girls.
The practice of female genital mutilation is carried out around the world, but FGM is most popular in Africa where the Islamic surah about cutting a young girl is mixed with local, indigenous superstitions. About two million girls a year are subjected to FGM.
Among the many reasons parents choose to do this the idea behind FGM is that the procedure keeps their daughters chaste.
There are varying degrees of FGM...from just cutting the clitoris to the extreme procedure of taking off all the female's private parts. Where we were on the border of Somalia, in the sprawling Somali refugee camp called Dadaab, this extreme form of FGM is still performed. There, the thorns of the acacia tree are used to literally sew up the girls. According to native and Muslim tradition, the girls grow in to womanhood with openings the size of a tiny pebble.
The ladies' haunting stories show that many still carry the emotional as well as the physical scars. I sat in the dust with these ladies as they poured their hearts out. It was a humbling experience.
Female circumcision is not a onetime trauma. Girls have this procedure done anywhere from ages six through 12. Although, there is a tribe in Ethiopia that cut their daughters on the eighth day. This is much more rare, but either way, as they grow in to womanhood, the girls are in excruciating pain once a month for the rest of their lives. Many die in childbirth.
There are those that are speaking out against the practice. We met up with one great muslim sheik in Dadaab who has spoken in the mosque about the need to stop FGM. He is not allowing his daughters to have the procedure done. The girls are being "persecuted" for this decision. They have been beaten, can go no where alone and are not allowed to attend school. The girls tell me they are also worried they will not be able to find a husband.
With in the little group of women under that scrub brush tree, a few twenty-somethings that have been educated about the health risks associated of the procedure told me they are deciding not to circumcise their girls. The local anti-FGM movement is definitely in its infancy, but the good news is that now they are beginning to stand against the brutal act.
Leaving those ladies in the dust of the refugee camp, I wanted answers to why God would allow this horrible practice to continue. I know with my head that we live in a fallen world, but in my heart I still struggled.
Months after I came home, a missionary friend from Ethiopia gave me a book called Cut Flowers by Sandy Wilcox. The slim book gives a solid Biblical response to FGM. It's a fantastic work of education and love. Finally I had answers. Her book also offers hope to women who have had FGM. Wilcox cites verse after verse to counter every argument for cutting.
I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who has had FGM, to the parents of adopted girls from Africa who may have had this done and to anyone who may be ministering in areas of the world where this practice is carried out. The book is hard to find, but you should be able to find it on the web.
AFRICA MATTERS Main Page >>
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.
