With the Somalis, the circumcision of girls takes place in the home among women relatives and neighbors. The grandmother or an older woman officiates. At each occasion, usually only one little girl or at times two sisters are operated; but all girls, without exception, must undergo this mutilation as it is a requirement for marriage.
The operation itself is not accompanied by any ceremony or ritual.
The child, completely naked, is made to sit on a low stool. Several women take hold of her and open her legs wide. After separating her outer and inner lips, the operator, usually a woman experienced in this procedure, sits down facing the child. With her kitchen knife, the operator first pierces and slices open the hood of the clitoris. Then she begins to cut it out. While another woman wipes off the blood with a rag, the operator digs with her sharp fingernail a hole the length of the clitoris to detach and pull out the organ. The little girl, held down by the women helpers, screams in extreme pain; but no one pays the slightest attention.
"The operator finishes this job by entirely pulling out the clitoris, cutting it to the bone with her knife. Her helpers again wipe off the spurting blood with a rag. The operator then removes the remaining flesh, digging with her finger to remove any remnant of the clitoris among the flowing blood. The neighbor women are then invited to plunge their fingers into the bloody hole to verify that every piece of the clitoris is removed.
But this is not the end. The most important part of the operation begins only now. After a short moment, the woman takes the knife again and cuts off the inner lips (labia minor) of the victim. The helpers again wipe the blood with their rags. Then the operator, with a motion of her knife, begins to scrape the skin from the inside of the large lips.
With the abrasion of the skin completed, according to the rules, the operator closes the bleeding large lips and fixes them one against the other with long acacia thorns.
At this stage of the operation, the child is so exhausted that she stops crying, but often has convulsions. The women then force down her throat a concoction of plants.
The operator's chief concern is to leave an opening no larger than a kernel of corn or just being enough to allow urine, and later the menstrual flow, to pass. The family honor depends on making the opening as small as possible because with Somalis, the smaller the artificial passage is, the greater the value of the girl and the higher the bride price.
When the operation is finished, the woman pours water over the genital area of the girl and wipes her with a rag. Then the child, who was held down all this time, is made to stand up. The women then immobilize her thighs by tying them together with ropes of goat skin. This bandage is applied from knees to the waist of the girl, and is left in place for about two weeks. The girl must remain lying on a mat for the entire time, while all the excrement evidently remains with her in the bandage.
After that time, the girl is released and the bandage is cleaned. Her vagina is now closed, and remains so until her marriage. Contrary to what one would assume, not many girls die from this torture. There are, or course, various complications which frequently leave the girl crippled and disabled for the rest of her life."
I knew this stuff happens but reading this just made me cringe.
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