the worst cut !!
2 milion girls each year are forced to get their clitoris cut !!
All these years while I have read about feminism (minus pseudo feministic rituals!) quite often I have been sadly surprised to know that I am no different to be on receiving end of what we say “Right to be treated as humanly as other male counterparts”. ........
During the recent PSBT film festival I happened to see this documentary 'A day i will never forget' by Kim Longinotto. The movie showcases the horrifying details of an age old practice of Clitoridectomy more famously known as Female genital mutilation. A shame for human civilization this practice is still continuing in 28 African countries. The cutting of clitoris which is mandatory as per the African traditions involves the partial or total excision of the external female genitalia. It is performed by a female elder using a razor, knife, or piece of glass, usually without anesthetic, while several women hold the girl down. Agonizingly painful, it robs her of sexual pleasure and frequently causes medical problems, including hemorrhaging, infection, urinary incontinence, infertility, and complications in childbirth. Uncut women are associated with promiscuity and lack of social respectability. Deadening the woman's sexual pleasure is a way of guaranteeing her virginity and fidelity. But whether they wish to be excised or not, the choice is not theirs. Living in a staunchly patriarchal world, they are dependent on men for social and economic survival........
The auditorium was gradually vacated by women audience members as the film proceeded …… Director has filmed the whole sequence of little girls being forcefully circumcised without anesthesia .....they scream they die with pain but nobody comes to their help. They feel betrayed by their own parents (as one of them says, when asked "whom are you afraid of if you are sent back to your home ..."Nu mama" (my mother) she says !)……
All these years while I have read about feminism (minus pseudo feministic rituals!) quite often I have been sadly surprised to know that I am no different to be on receiving end of what we say “Right to be treated as humanly as other male counterparts”. ........
During the recent PSBT film festival I happened to see this documentary 'A day i will never forget' by Kim Longinotto. The movie showcases the horrifying details of an age old practice of Clitoridectomy more famously known as Female genital mutilation. A shame for human civilization this practice is still continuing in 28 African countries. The cutting of clitoris which is mandatory as per the African traditions involves the partial or total excision of the external female genitalia. It is performed by a female elder using a razor, knife, or piece of glass, usually without anesthetic, while several women hold the girl down. Agonizingly painful, it robs her of sexual pleasure and frequently causes medical problems, including hemorrhaging, infection, urinary incontinence, infertility, and complications in childbirth. Uncut women are associated with promiscuity and lack of social respectability. Deadening the woman's sexual pleasure is a way of guaranteeing her virginity and fidelity. But whether they wish to be excised or not, the choice is not theirs. Living in a staunchly patriarchal world, they are dependent on men for social and economic survival........
The auditorium was gradually vacated by women audience members as the film proceeded …… Director has filmed the whole sequence of little girls being forcefully circumcised without anesthesia .....they scream they die with pain but nobody comes to their help. They feel betrayed by their own parents (as one of them says, when asked "whom are you afraid of if you are sent back to your home ..."Nu mama" (my mother) she says !)……
As a student of literature we always used to debate the very concept of Stree lekhan(female writings) and Dalit lekhan( literature written by exploited ) most of us believed that one does not need to be a Female or a Dalit to write intimately about them ………it is now that I firmly disagree with the fact ……for I know what it means when I overheard a lady coming out of the auditorium saying “ let them(men in the audi) see it …they can…. because they don’t know how it hurts !!” it is now that I realize why Eve ensler needed to write vagina monologues, and make this world hear, what a vagina speaks……..
We all re entered gradually and overcame these impulsive reactions but nothing can dilute the truth that sexual liberation is the last thing this civilization would donate to its women!! simpely because it is directly related to women empowerment ...Thankfully I did not find traces of FGMs in India, as I came back and searched about it …… but the fact does not rescue India from being a nation of women who fake orgasms, of young girls who are shameful about menstruating, millions of painful and forced penetrations and uncounted married women who die without discovering their prized possession………. A Clitoris!
Does this remind of all those debates and protests against sex education in schools ?????
We all re entered gradually and overcame these impulsive reactions but nothing can dilute the truth that sexual liberation is the last thing this civilization would donate to its women!! simpely because it is directly related to women empowerment ...Thankfully I did not find traces of FGMs in India, as I came back and searched about it …… but the fact does not rescue India from being a nation of women who fake orgasms, of young girls who are shameful about menstruating, millions of painful and forced penetrations and uncounted married women who die without discovering their prized possession………. A Clitoris!
Does this remind of all those debates and protests against sex education in schools ?????
1 comments
Labels:
Films
