Browse Items (218 total) Browse All Browse by Tag Search Items Browse Map of 5 Sort by: TitleCreatorDate Added Mahmoud et sa mère Denis Dailleux Mohamed et sa mère Denis Dailleux Sohyl et sa mère Denis Dailleux Irine and Monika – El Bashra, Upper Egypt Irine comes from a small Coptic village in Upper Egypt. She was circumcised one day after school, when she was 12 years old. She doesn’t have much memories of it, but says she’s still deeply traumatized by the violence of the event. She got married at a young age, and gave birth to six kids. Two of them died during the delivery. Consequences of FGM are indeed going way beyond psychological trauma, since obstetrical complications can occur to the victims, such as post-partum hemorrhage, need of episiotomy, tearing of the tissues or flesh, while the rate of death among new born babies is higher. After the birth of her first daughter, she had long discussions with her husband about FGM. « He actually supported my choice, I think he understood it didn’t have anything to do with religion and could only arm Moneka. His family, however, didn’t accept our choice, and still pressure us today. » Chloe Sharrock Mariana, Yoanna and Febroina – Mallawi, Upper Egypt Mariana was circumcised on the same day as her sister and a dozen of young girls taken to the same house, one day after school. There, they were circumcised one after the other by a local da’ya (a village midwife). « Everybody was screaming, some girls tried running away… It was absolutely awful, and we weren’t even told what was happening except that it was for our own good ! » But a decade ago, Father Aghethaton, the coptic priest of the village, started militating against that practice. Through preaches at the church, awareness sessions and discussions with the mothers of the village, he slowly started eradicating that practice. His successor is now following his path, while almost half of the women of that community has supposedly abandoned the practice. Social pressure and religious arguments are often the two main barriers to the eradication of FGM. Chloe Sharrock Marsa and Barbara Anna –El Bashra, Upper Egypt Marsa also comes from a Coptic community, where circumcision is still widely spread. When she was inflicted with FGM at a young age, she suffered from severe bleeding, and had to remain in bed for more than a week. Complications such as infections, HIV or severe bleedings are common in such rurale areas where FGM is practiced with non sterilized razor blades or knives. Tales of women being told to sit in buckets of hot water to heal the wound is also regularly recalled, attesting of the absolute lack of medical attention these young girls receive. While growing up, Marsa couldn’t get rid of the trauma and the fear of that event. Thankfully, women in her village were slowly giving up on that tradition following the public discourses of the local priest taking position against that practice. Chloe Sharrock Umm Malek and Malek – Qalanfil, Delta of Egypt Umm Malek lives in a small muslim village in the Delta of Egypt. She got circumcised at 10 years old and remains profoundly scared by the trauma of that day. « You can easily forget what you’ve eaten on that day, or how the weather was. But you can’t forget the trauma, the pain… » Malek is now fully conscient of the long term consequences of such practice on her mental health as well as in her married woman’s intimate life. « What we tend to ignore is that many divorces happen because of that barbarian practice. Women and men come become unsatisfied, it leads to a lot of frustration and anger. ». After giving birth to a daughter, she started attending awareness sessions lead by a local NGO in a nearby village. The consequences she was facing herself combined to these sessions convinced her for good that she couldn’t perpetrate that practice on her daughter. « I simply couldn’t inflict such misery to my own daughter. I want her to be happily married. » At first, women of her village pressured her to circumcise Malek, threatening that she would never get her daughter married if she didn’t. « But I took these women to the awareness sessions with me, and since then, five of them decided to not cut their daughters ! » Chloe Sharrock Heba, Ataba, Cairo Amélie Losier Zeinab, Maadi, Cairo Amélie Losier Angie, Maadi, Cairo Amélie Losier Nadia, Madinet el Salam, Cairo Amélie Losier Nada, Downtown, Cairo Amélie Losier Rawiya, Tunis el Fayoum Amélie Losier Dounia, Imbaba, Cairo Amélie Losier Mona, Ibaba, Cairo Amélie Losier Samah, Imbaba, Cairo Amélie Losier May, Maadi, Cairo Amélie Losier noura, imbaba, cairo Amélie Losier Browse All Browse by Tag Search Items Browse Map of 5 Sort by: TitleCreatorDate Added Output Formats atom, dcmes-xml, json, omeka-xml, rss2
