The scream of young girl ShukriAli continued as an old woman carried out the ritual of circumcision on her in a clinic in Hamaweyne district in south of Somali capital of Mogadishu. Women relatives of the young girl outside the room were intermittently ululating in celebration of the initiation of the girl to womanhood through female circumcision.
Female circumcision is an old practice that every Somali girl undergoes in one form or another but the practice has recently been under scrutiny from many sectors of Somali society despite about two decades of civil conflict in the country.
Halima Hassan, a social worker with the Mogadishu based in Dallaalo Humanitarian and Development Organization, said the ritual does irreparable physical and psychological damage to Somali girls.
"The practice is known as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and has been practiced not only in Somalia but also in many parts of the world for centuries and has no religious bases as some believe," Halima told Xinhua.
Halima said the societal rationale for circumcising girls is that it helps in the chastity of the girl or woman but that is totally a false notion. The physical and physiological effects of the mutilation under gone by Somali girls go well into their adult life.
"FGM affects women while having her menstrual periods, in childbirth and above all an irreplaceable sensitive part of her is lost forever."
Girls are circumcised while they are between the ages of five and ten and are unusual for them to undergo the ritual under the age of five and to have uncircumcised girls over the age of ten.
However, the taboo over the issue has been fading over the past years as religious leaders and social workers like Halima have been talking to people about the horrors of female circumcision and the long term effects on women's health and family life.
The practice of the most dangerous form of FGM known as Fironi has tremendously dropped in urban areas because of the awareness campaigns carried out by both social workers and religious figures who made it clear that the Fironi form of female circumcision has no place in religion.
"The trend now is the Sunni form of circumcision in which no substantial mutilation is carried out on young girls as the Fironiform," says Halima, who has witnessed a number of such rituals and consults families on female circumcision.
Nearly all girls in rural areas are circumcised with traditional methods and without the use of anesthesia unlike in cities and towns, where modern, sterile medical equipment are used by trained albeit traditional circumcisers
"We circumcise girls because we want them to be chaste girls and good wives for their husbands," says Fadumo Harun, a traditional circumciser in Mogadishu. "This is our religion and tradition and we cannot just abandon them as many are doing these days."
Somalis in Diaspora, where circumcision is illegal, are bringing their daughters back to Somalia to perform the operation on them.
But people are beginning to understand that this practice which they thought has was religiously sanctioned has nothing to do with religion and has medical ramifications.
Basher Nur, an educated young man in Mogadishu, says that he is not engaged now but would opt for a Sunni circumcised girl as he does not want to demand what is essential mutilation for women.
"This is outdated practice and should be criminalized and banned all together like they did in other parts of the civilized world," says Nur.
Yasmin is eight and has not been circumcised because her educated parents do not want their daughters to undergo the traditional ritual of the Fironi circumcision.
"I do not want circumcision. It is bad and dangerous, not good for the health and is unIslamic," says young Yasmin, who says she will work to stop the practice when she grows.
Asli Muse, a mother of four young girls, expresses dilemma as she is pulled apart by need to conform to her family tradition of practicing circumcision and the realization that the ritual has nothing to do with Islam and adversely affects the health of her daughters.
"I am really in two minds about the matter and have not yet decided what to do as I cannot go against my family tradition and cannot risk the health of my girls for something said to be unIslamic ," says Asli as she contemplates her next course of action.
Source: Xinhua
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