Lea Verou, PhD

99% of women and girls in Somalia have been mutilated in the following way: the clitoris is cut off, along with the inner labia. Then the inner flesh of the outer labia is removed before both sides are sewn tightly together, leaving a hole no bigger than a matchstick for urine and menses to trickle through. All of this is done in childhood, and without any form of anesthesia whatsoever. Sometimes the little girl is given a scrap of leather or a stick to bite down on. The cutters use old razor blades, or sometimes a piece of broken glass. This is only the beginning of a girl’s pain. Most wedding nights in Somalia are aided by “the little knife” — that is, the new husband slices his bride open so that he can penetrate her now cut and bleeding scar tissue. Some men, however, simply batter their way through, tearing that tiny hole open by sheer force. When a woman goes into labor, she’s cut open more widely, then sewn back up afterwards so that when sex resumes she will have to be cut open yet again. This practice leads to countless deaths from infection and a drastic increase in maternal mortality, but Somali men still refuse to marry uncut women, forcing mothers to have their daughters cut or face social stigma. Uncut girls are seen as dirty; the term for clitoris is a playground taunt in Somalia, and girls who are not cut are usually ostracized by their peers. The Somali government recently debated the legality of this appalling custom, and the parliament largely split along gender lines. Female MPs roundly condemned FGM, while male MPs insisted that having a clitoris made a woman more difficult to penetrate, and quoted the hadith in which Muhammad condoned the practice. These are educated men who nevertheless claim that cutting a girl is necessary in order to control her sexuality, and that an uncut woman will be promiscuous and untrustworthy. In spite of the Somali government’s continued support for FGM, foreign aid continues to flow into Somalia unobstructed. The West should refuse to give the Somali government so much as a single dollar until they outlaw FGM and take positive steps to combat the problem. One tactic that has been highly successful involves showing Somali men a video of a girl being mutilated. Because FGM is seen as women’s business, most men have no idea what it entails. Men who watch this video are horrified, and the most common reaction has been “Not my daughter!” This proves that FGM is not hopelessly entrenched in Somali culture. Western pressure and resources could make an enormous difference in the lives of Somali women and girls, and put a stop to this barbaric practice.