FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION IN INDIA

 

Every flower which blooms is plucked. Every flower is let to bloom just to be plucked. 

WOMEN, have always been subjected to constant suffering. May it be patriarchy or may it be sexual harassment, they undergo psychological stress everyday and it is to such an extent that those sufferings have become a part of their life. Especially in our Indian society where mensuration is considered as impure, an exposing bra strap is thought to be against the cultural norm, a woman embracing her sexuality is considered as a sin.

An Indian woman is caged behind the bars of religion and its insensitive traditions. While, one religion bounds women with cultural stereotypes another religion performs the so-called purity acts of brutality in the name of tradition.

Female Genital Mutilation is one such tradition… 

BLED THROUGH AGES  

FGM is basically an unethical and a non-clinical method of removing or partial nicking of clitoris and other external female genitalia which is mainly operated with non-surgical tools. The type of procedure and age at which girls are operated varies from each culture, but mainly it is done before the age of 15. There is another type of procedure called infibulation which comes under the type III of FGM in which vulva is sewed together with just a urethral opening for urinal excretion and menstrual flow. The legs are bound together for 2-4 weeks so that the wound heals. Only after the marriage the vagina is reopened by the husband and further opened during the parturition of an offspring, later the vagina is again stitched back once and for all.

                                                                 

She stood watering a rose plant in the backyard. She had always wanted one but her grandmother wouldn’t allow, anyhow she convinced her grandmother to have a rose plant. She found herself attracted towards the flower for no reason. However, she never plucked any, all she did was watering the plant. Her grandmother took the responsibility of plucking the flower.

Africa is known for its versatile culture which holds traditions from sacred ones such as “The Healing Dance of The San” to most brutal ones such as “Breast Ironing”. FGM was not an exception. It is said that the early Egyptians circumcised male and female in their fourteenth year as they considered this particular age as the right time for the marriage. This procedure is done mainly to control a girl’s sexual desires before marriage.

Later FGM, came in as a helping hand during the period of slavery, where genital mutilated young women were demanded by the “Masters”, as that would make them loyal slaves who would sweat hard without any distractions of personal desires.

Sooner or later gynecologists of Europe and United States started removing clitoris as a treatment for masturbation. They thought masturbation was an act of insanity and it was nothing but an itching sensation down the clitoris which made women to masturbate. An English gynecologist named Isaac Baker Brown went on to remove the clitoris of women with an ideology that it can cure hysteria, epilepsy and certain forms of insanity, later he was expelled from a certain medical society for his brutality.

   

A woman in her mid-twenties walked up to a girl, who was standing in front of the mirror and admiring herself with a graceful smile which dented her cheeks with a dimple.

‘do you want to grab some chocolates from the store?’ asked the girl’s mother.

Shockingly, the world had already adopted this procedure and started to oppress women in the name of tradition. Until the 20^th century, it was never spoken about and suddenly out of nowhere the word spread across the globe. It was received with criticism and anger; people came out opposing such acts and yet it didn’t stop there. It is estimated that more than 200 million women around the globe have undergone FGM and at least 3 million girls at risk of undergoing FGM every year. 

KHAFZ

… Female genital mutilation is one such tradition which is practiced in India by a community called Dawoodi Bohra. This is performed on girls at the age of 7 by local midwives. FGM in India had been kept as a taboo until November 2011, when a Bohra woman had posted online petition requesting the leader of that community to ban FGM, but it was ruled out stating that it is necessary to abide religious procedures without any arguments.

Her lips were painted with chocolate, as she licked the remaining from her finger tips. They kept walking, until they reached a dingy house around a dark corner.

‘ma, what is this place?’ the girl asked with a hesitation in her voice.

Without any words she took the girl into the house. The place was filled with uncomfortable smell and it was unusually dark except for a dim light from an adjacent room where an old lady sat behind a curtain heating something… it was a knife.

In 2016, the issue was raised again by a group of Bohra women who petitioned the United Nations requesting to recognize India as a country which practiced FGM. The issue broke out and various organizations came together opposing this custom and few came opposing the opposers. They stated that Khafz is not FGM, as the tradition only administrates by cutting small prepuce of the clitoral hood. Anyhow, according to WHO’s classification of FGM, Khafz does come under type IA, which is the partial or total removal of clitoral glans or the prepuce of clitoral hood.   

The girl was pinned down by two assistants , she shrieked and fought to escape from their grip, while the mother stood watching her being pinned down. Hearing the screams and cries, the girl from the backyard came running into the house and stood next to a pillar and watched her grandmother spreading the legs of the girl, who seemed to be her peer. The girl’s undergarment was pulled down, her mother turned away with moistened eyes and the next moment there was sharp cry which bounced around the walls.

A public interest ligation case was filed in Supreme Court, seeking for a ban of FGM in India as it violated children’s right under Article 14 and 21, that is Right to Equality and Right to Life respectively, while the opposition stated that it was their right under Article 25 and 26, to practice the religion.   

The girl on the floor sobbed, her thighs had been painted with blood. The girl standing next to the pillar flinched, little did she know, that she would be cut in some days.

LET THERE BE HOPE  

FGM, is not something which is similar to a male circumcision, as there is neither a health benefit nor a religious benefit, but only leads to physiological and psychological problems in women.  These types of traditions were merely adopted to suppress women and her desires. Our Indian society has misconceived the concept of purity. A woman is constantly judged upon her virginity, she is considered to be impure if she losses her virginity before marriage.   

 Why?

Why shouldn’t a woman explore her sexuality?

Why is it considered to be a sin?

Why is that only women have restrictions?

Why is a woman still stereotyped as a sexual object?

‘why should this happen grandma?’ asked the girl when her grandmother was in the backyard.

‘Because… it is meant to happen’ saying that, her grandmother cut the rose by its twig.

Let a woman not be barred behind the cages of religion and traditions, let she not be perceived as sex machine, let she not be considered impure because of losing her virginity before marriage, let she not be cut, let she fly high in the boundless sky without any arrows of patriarchy piercing her heart. Let there be Hope.