Voices Series: A Reflection on a nine-month journey
By Su Sun When I was contacted by Mariya in the beginning of 2019 to join the Voices to End FGM/C workshop, I’d just found out I was pregnant. Previous experiences of obstetric trauma roamed around my head and it seemed to me that this project could be an opportunity to reunify two vital experiences that I’ve carried with me rather silently: khatna and violence during the delivery of my first child. Khatna follows us in every period of our lives, as a shadow, as a fear, a vacillation, whenever we have to deal with our bodies. How much better could I tell these stories, as I vividly remembered them, if not using the format of a poem? Verses that revive and denounce. Additionally, it was important to me to turn the focus on who is the perpetrator of this traumatic experience and highlight the systems of oppression operating behind them: patriarchy and racism entangled. Nine months of a journey where my belly was growing and the story was being created. The experience of using the digital storytelling format, the first time for me, was a fulfilling one, with encouraging and inspiring dialogues with the team (both Mariya and Amy), flexibility to use our ideas as means of expression. Continuous communication and feedback. It was both creative and therapeutic to imagine the story and how to build it. Moreover, I am very thankful for being part of this project along with other women. [youtube url=”https://youtu.be/LGEuQL1jCn0″] Learn more about the Voices project here.
Forced Clitoridectomies on Athletes
By Masuma Kothari (Several female athletes have been coerced to undergo partial clitoridectomies to participate in competitive sports. Read about female genital cutting (FGC) in sports here.) “Let me try to feel this, as if I was you. As a child I am embellished a rosy world of toyswhich could draw up to any passerby without a doubtwhat I am. I grow fast and in symphony my speed at running, too,adapts, I lean toward the world of athletics andfitness treats. I am changing, there are things happening to me,fine hair shows up where they never were,softer and fuller I feel,I start to menstruate. I definitely know what I am. My emotions attract me toward wonderful boys,They lure me into fantasies rolling up my eye. I definitely know what I am. All along I perform well, I score medalsafter medals, I get noticed with victory bells I get trained, I sit among the best runners,my mind shifts into a resilient achiever with thick endurance,representing every honour, I win all my fearsand I run like a cheetah after his dinner. I still definitely know what I am. What more evidence do you need,I may be giftedI may look testerone highbut how can you disregardall that I have? I am faced with a choice atthe time of my youththe time when I am bleedingto reach my dreams from rootSimply put, I have more couragethan being wisesoI sit under the knifeAnd now you tell me if that is nice?”