Female Genital Mutilation - A Fictional Story

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Female Genital Mutilation Most girls around the world would choose not to undergo the procedure. The process is painful and to make the matter worse, no anaesthetics are used in the process. This makes it painful and unbearable to the victims. The practice has been around since time immemorial and up to now, most communities have kept the tradition. For someone who has not undergone through the process, it is hard to imagine the amount of pain they have to endure. It is hard to tell people who are embedded in their ways of life to get rid of the practice. I believe that the young girls need to be saved and effective strategies need to be implemented. That is why I want to write a story about a young Maasai girl who underwent through the procedure. Years later, she decided that she had to stop the practice as it is possible that one could die. The essay presents a fictional story on a gender issue in the community. Ole Tipat is a 30 year old educator at a school in Maasailand. When she was eleven years old, her parents told her that she was about to be a woman. All she had to do was to undergo the cutting procedure for it to be complete. The thought of being a woman excited her and she could not wait for the ceremony. After several days, she was prepared to go under the knife. After the procedure, she bled and almost died, because there was a complication. The ‘surgeon’ cut the wrong part of her vagina. The simple mistake almost killed her. She stayed indoors for more than six months and when her condition had improved, she ran away from home to seek medical attention. She joined the missionaries who had settled in the hills. At the mission school, she learnt how to take care of herself and the dangers of FGM. Having escaped death by a whisker, she decided to help younger girls by creating a subsequent ritual. The ritual she created was aimed at replacing Female Genital Mutilation. The FGM ritual has had multiple effects on religion. It is a practice performed in different cultures and religion around the world, especially in Africa. This means that the practice should not be regarded as a religious issue only. Different beliefs have been carried on concerning the existence of FGM. Different cultures and religions carry out surgery for different purposes. There are some who believe that the practice would help maintain the virginity of a girl until marriage (Rhianon & Holly 1). Also, FGM is considered to help promote faithfulness in marriages and to increase the sexual pleasure of the man. Ole Tipat has learned a lot about the practice and nineteen years later, she has not forgotten what happened to her. Some communities associate the practice with securing the marital future of the daughters. This is to mean that more dowries would be paid for a virgin, raising the economic status of the family. These are just a few examples of why some communities still believe in the ritual. The African continent has the highest number of FGM cases. In countries like Canada and Britain, FGM has been outlawed (Odukogbe et al. 138). The occurrence and the way the practice is carried vary across the different cultures. The West African countries like Guinea, Mali and other countries still believe in such methods. In countries like Sudan and Egypt, FGM has not been abolished. Instead of FGM, other alternatives can be carried out although, I would still advocate for the abolishment of the practice in all the continents around the world. I would create an alternative ritual for FGM in the Maasai community. According to the Maasai culture, FGM is a way of marking the change from childhood to adulthood. The process involves the removal of the clitoris, labia minora and partially removing the labia majora (Reisel & Sarah 49). This is a painful process because there is no administering of anaesthetics. ...