Title: Female Genital Mutilation in Somalia: The Memories and Mimesis of Pains in Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Infidel: My Life
Olumide Olugbemi-Gabriele
Department of Languages and Literary Studies,
Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria
Abstract
Female Genital Mutilation – also known as female circumcision – is a highly controversial practice that has aroused a cacophony of voices and research across disciplines. This paper privileges Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s memoir, Infidel: My Life to underscore the implications of FGM on the bodies of victims. A discursive engagement of an existential issue that affects the lives of millions of African women and girls daily marks the significance of the study. More specifically, the study holds both socio-cultural and religious significance based on its intent to show that the often-mouthed socio-cultural, religious and superstitious justifications for FGM are no longer tenable in today’s globalised world. A content analysis method is adopted to isolate the nuanced experiences of circumcised/mutilated women in the text. These experiences of FGM victims are analysed within the theoretical framework of Third World feminism; which is a theory that flags FGM as patriarchy’s agenda to police women and their bodies. The traumatic accounts of pains and sufferings shared by circumcised/mutilated women in Ali’s memoir are crucial to the formation of condensed feelings of empathy and rage that are capable of causing effective attitudinal change concerning the controversial practice. This paper finds and recommends that the most persuasive campaigners against FGM remain the survivors whose stories deserve to be at the forefront of the anti-FGM campaign(s).
Keywords:
Culture, Female Genital Mutilation, Memoir, Patriarchy, Sexuality, Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Infidel: My Life
How to Cite this Paper:
Olugbemi-Gabriel, O. (2023). Female Genital Mutilation in Somalia: The Memories and Mimesis of Pains in Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Infidel: My Life. Atras Journal, 4(1), 111-134
References
Abdulah, D. M., Sedo, B. A., & Dawson, A. (2019). Female Genital Mutilation in Rural Regions of Iraqi Kurdistan: A Cross-Sectional Study. Public Health Reports (1974-), 134(5), 514–577. Available at https://www.jstor.org/stable/26780670
Ahmed, S. (2000). Transformations: Thinking Through Feminism. London: Routledge.
Ali, A. H. (2008). Infidel: My Life. London: Pockets Books.
Asaah, A. H. (2009). Female Genital Mutilation (FGM): Ambivalence, Indictment and Commitment in Sub-Saharan African Fiction. In T. Levin & A. H. Asaah (eds.), Empathy and Rage: Female Genital Mutilation in African Literature (pp. 75-92). Oxfordshire: Ayebia Clarke Publishing Ltd.
Asante, M. K., & Mazama, M.A. (eds.). (2005). Encyclopedia of Black Studies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Balzer, P. (2011). Writing & Selling Your Memoir: How to Craft Your Life Story So That Somebody Else Will Actually Want to Read It. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books.
Bennett, J. (2011). Subversion and Resistance: Activist Initiatives. In S. Tamale (ed.), African
Sexualities: A Reader (pp. 77-100). Cape Town: Pambazuka Press.
Boddy, J. (2007). Gender Crusades: The Circumcision Controversy in Cultural Perspective. In Y. Hernlund & B. Shell-Duncan (eds.), Transcultural Bodies: Female Genital Cutting in Global Context (pp. 46-66). New Brunswick: Rutgers UP.
Bukuluki, P. (2021). Human Rights and Medicalization of FGM/C in Sudan. In V. Sewpaul, L. Kreitzer, & T. Raniga (eds.), The Tensions between Culture and Human Rights:
Emancipatory Social Work and Afrocentricity in a Global World (pp. 209–236). University of Calgary Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1nj34m0.13
Carroll, J. L. (2013). Sexuality Now: Embracing Diversity (4th Ed.) Wadsworth: Cengage Learning.
Dirie, W. (2001). Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Life of a Desert Nomad. London: Virago Books.
El Sadaawi, N. (1983). Woman at Point Zero. London: Zed Books.
El Sadaawi, N. (1989). The Circling Song. London: Zed Books.
Eltahawy, M. (2015). Headscarves and Hymens: Why The Middle East Needs A Sexual Revolution. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Farah, N. (1970). From a Crooked Rib. Oxford: Heinemann.
Farah, N. (1982). Sardines. Oxford: Heinemann.
Hosken, F. P. (1982). The Hosken Report: Genital and Sexual Mutilation of Females. Lexington, MA: Women’s International Network News.
Huxley, E. (1952) [1939]. Red Strangers: A Novel. London.
Izugbara, C. O. (2011). Sexuality and the Supernatural in Africa. In S. Tamale (ed.), African Sexualities: A Reader (pp. 533-558). Cape Town: Pambazuka Press.
Johnson, M. C. (2000). Becoming a Muslim, Becoming a Person: Female “Circumcision,” Religious Identity, and Personhood in Guinea-Bissau. In B. Shell-Duncan & Y. Hernlund (eds.), Female “Circumcision” in Africa: Culture, Controversy, and Change (pp. 215-234). London: Lynne Rienner.
Kassindja, F. (1998). Do they hear you when you cry. New York: Delacorte Press.
Kenyatta, J. (1965). Facing Mount Kenya. New York: Vintage.
Korn, F. (2004). Born in the Big Rains: A Story of Somalia and Survival, T. Levin (Trans.). New York: The Feminist Press.
Levin, T. (2009). Assault on Female Genitalia: Activists, Authors and the Arts. In T. Levin & A. H. Asaah (eds.), Empathy and Rage: Female Genital Mutilation in African Literature (pp.1-14). Oxfordshire: Ayebia Clarke Publishing Ltd.
Leye, E., & Deblonde, J. (2004). Legislation in Europe Regarding Female Genital Mutilation and the Implementation of the Law in Belgium, France, Spain, Sweden and the UK. Ghent: International Centre for Reproductive Health.
Lightfoot-Klein, H. (1989). Prisoners of Ritual: An Odyssey into Female Genital Circumcision in Africa. New York: Harrington Park.
Mandara, M. U. (2000). Female “Circumcision” in Africa: Dimensions of the Practice and
Debates. In B. Shell-Duncan & Y. Hernlund (eds.), Female “Circumcision” in Africa: Culture, Controversy, and Change (pp. 95-107). London: Lynne Rienner.
Mohanty, C. T. (1991). Introduction: Cartographies of Struggle, Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism. In C. T. Mohanty, A. Russo & L. Torre (eds.), Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism (pp. 1-47). Bloomington: Indiana UP.
Narayan, U. (1997). Dislocating Cultures: Identities, Traditions, and Third World Feminism. New York: Routledge.
Ngugi, W.T. (1965). The River Between. London: Heinemann.
Nwapa, F. (1966). Efuru. Oxford: Heinemann.
Olugbemi-Gabriel, O. (2016). Forms of Writing. In I. Ajepe, S. A. Edebor & O. Olugbemi-Gabriel (eds.), Communication in English: A Textbook for Higher Education (pp. 140-151). Lagos: Oluwamuyiwa Educational Publishers.
Owonibi, S. (2011). Patient-Writers’ Portrayal of Disease and Psychological Trauma. Dissertation. University of Ibadan.
Rahman, A., & Toubia, N. (2000). Female Genital Mutilation: A Guide to Laws and Policies Worldwide. New York: Zed Books.
Shell-Duncan, B. & Hernlund, Y. (2000). Female “Circumcision” in Africa: Dimensions of the Practice and Debates. In B. Shell-Duncan & Y. Hernlund (eds.), Female “Circumcision” in Africa: Culture, Controversy, and Change (pp. 1-40). London: Lynne Rienner.
Talle, A. (1993). Transforming Women into ‘Pure’ Agnates: Aspects of Female Infibulation in Somalia. In V. Broch-Due, I. Rudie & T. Bleie (eds.), Carved Flesh, Cast Self: Gender Symbols and Social Practices (pp. 83-106). Oxford: Berg Publishers.
Talle, A. (2007). Female Circumcision in Africa and Beyond: The Anthropology of a Difficult Issue. In Y. Hernlund & B. Shell-Duncan (eds.), Transcultural Bodies: Female Genital Cutting in Global Context (pp. 91-106). New Brunswick: Rutgers UP.
Titilayo, A., Palamuleni, M. E., Olaoye-Oyesola, J. O., & Owoeye, O. M. (2018). Religious Perceptions and Attitudes of Men towards Discontinuation of Female Genital Cutting in Nigeria: Evidence from the 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey. African Journal of Reproductive Health/La Revue Africaine de La Santé Reproductive, 22(1), 20– 28. Available at https://www.jstor.org/stable/26493897
Toubia, N. (1988). Women and Health in Sudan. London: Zed Press.
Toubia, N. (1994). Female Circumcision as a Public Health Issue. New England Journal of Medicine, 331, 712-716. http://www.jstor.org
UNICEF Report. (2013). Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A Statistical Overview and Exploration of the Dynamics of Change. New York: United Nations Children’s Fund. Available at https://www.google.com.ng.
Walker, A. (1993). Possessing the Secret of Joy. London: Vintage.
Walker, A., & Parmar, P. (1993). Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Women. London: Jonathan Cape.
Williams-Breault, B. D. (2018).Eradicating Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: Human Rights- Based Approaches of Legislation, Education, and Community Empowerment. In Health and Human Rights, 20(2), 223–234. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26542074
World Health Organization (WHO). (1995). Female Genital Mutilation: Report of a WHO
Technical Working Group, Geneva, July 17-19 1995. https://www.google.com.ng.
Copyright for all articles published in ATRAS belongs to the author. The authors also grant permission to the publisher to publish, reproduce, distribute, and transmit the articles. ATRAS publishes accepted papers under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License. Authors submitting papers for publication in ATRAS agree to apply the CC BY-NC 4.0 license to their work. For non-commercial purposes, anyone may copy, redistribute material, remix, transform, and construct material in any media or format, provided that the terms of the license are observed and the original source is properly cited.