Personal Narrative: My First Woman
“It all felt as if though I was going to be a sheep being taken to a slaughter house.” Her older sister underwent the atrocious process a year before she did, so she knew exactly what was going to happen to her. It all happened 33 years ago, and it left a scar within her, that to this day, still haunts her. It was all performed by women who appeared to be exceptionally amateurish, “I felt that their only mission in life was to give me and the other girls a scare of a lifetime”, she said.
She laid down as they took a piece of cloth, tied it around her eyes and held her head back. They gave her another piece to put in her mouth and bite on it in order to ease the pain. She saw a razor in one of the woman’s hand and she tried to escape but the two women held her legs and hands so tight, …show more content…
Countless questions flooded her head as she listened to the music: what was going to happen next? Will this pain last forever? Will she ever feel whole again? She wasn’t given a chance to say ‘No’; she had no option but to follow her community’s traditions. Fortunately for her, she was able to walk away with part of her clitoris, making her the first woman in her family to partially ‘escape’ her dreadful fate.
This woman’s name is Nahed Khalil, and she is my mother.
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), also known as female circumcision, or female genital cutting, has been practiced for several thousand years in almost 30 African and Middle Eastern countries. FGM refers to a procedure that involves partial or total removal of external female genitalia for cultural or other non-medical reasons. Its main purpose is to prevent a woman’s potential promiscuity.
(Fun fact that isn’t actually fun: As you’re reading this paper right now, there are between eight and ten million women and girls in those nations who are at great risk of undergoing one form or another of FGM. (123HelpMe)
She laid down as they took a piece of cloth, tied it around her eyes and held her head back. They gave her another piece to put in her mouth and bite on it in order to ease the pain. She saw a razor in one of the woman’s hand and she tried to escape but the two women held her legs and hands so tight, …show more content…
Countless questions flooded her head as she listened to the music: what was going to happen next? Will this pain last forever? Will she ever feel whole again? She wasn’t given a chance to say ‘No’; she had no option but to follow her community’s traditions. Fortunately for her, she was able to walk away with part of her clitoris, making her the first woman in her family to partially ‘escape’ her dreadful fate.
This woman’s name is Nahed Khalil, and she is my mother.
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), also known as female circumcision, or female genital cutting, has been practiced for several thousand years in almost 30 African and Middle Eastern countries. FGM refers to a procedure that involves partial or total removal of external female genitalia for cultural or other non-medical reasons. Its main purpose is to prevent a woman’s potential promiscuity.
(Fun fact that isn’t actually fun: As you’re reading this paper right now, there are between eight and ten million women and girls in those nations who are at great risk of undergoing one form or another of FGM. (123HelpMe)