Monday, August 13, 2012

The silent reality

I’m going to tell you a story. It’s an unpleasant one, but everyone must be aware of this situation. It’s a story about a woman, Daphne Pratt, who was forcibly circumcised by a cult which defends women circumcision. It happened at night, like so many other cases. They accused her of spying on their activities and later on, divulge their traditions. They grabbed her and cut her genitals with no anesthesia. After leaving her in the middle of the street, she went to his uncle’s house, who took her to the police station. The police couldn’t care less about this issue, instead they told her to go to a tribal court, because it was a “tribal matter”. Weak and unprotected, she went to the hospital. She had to stay there for a month. According to the gynecologist, she needed 15 stitches and a blood transfusion. Daphne is 28 years old and she lives in Sierra Leone. In this country, 90% of women are circumcised when they are young, in order to deny them any sexual pleasure during their lives. Every society has its own rules and traditions, but this one, female genital mutilation is totally harmful and it can lead to death, in some cases. Some of the instruments they use are broken glass, for example, and they use them in a great number of girls, which increases the risk of blood transmitted diseases. There are different types of female mutilation, but in all cases if the child or woman dies from complications, nobody is not held responsible, rather the death is attributed to evil spirits or just fate. Imagine all of those women worldwide who had been circumcised. How do they feel psychologically? Probably incomplete or depressed, they may have lost their self-esteem or trust in themselves. They must be weak and they don’t have any mean of expressing their fear or look for help. They suffer in silence. And looks like nobody cares.


4 comments:

  1. That's awful! I don't see how anyone could do that! & then to take the situation to the police & such & them do nothing about it?! Horrible!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Que horror =/=/ Infelizmente há muitas situações semelhantes, e não sei mesmo quando mudarão as mentalidades para isso deixar de acontecer...

    Beijinho*

    ReplyDelete
  3. é que é mesmo! pois, parece que não :s

    ReplyDelete