Mali - "I suffered female genital mutilation at 10 years old."
More than 200 million girls and women are victims of Female Genital Mutilation in the world. Lotan S., is a Malian lady of 32 years who suffered FGM when she was 10. Today, Lotan tells her story to incite people to abandon the practice
I was 10 when my mother and aunt asked me to get ready for a traditional rite. Which one exactly? I had no idea about it; they did not explain anything to me, except that all girls had to go through that stage. The D day, they just asked me to get ready. I was anxious, but I could not refuse.
2 hour haemorrhage and lot of pains…
When the time came, an old Fulani - a West African ethnic group – lady came in our small village located next to Kimparana in Mali. She was the one who excised me. All without anesthesia. I will always remember the pain I felt at that moment. My mother and aunt had then no idea of the consequences of the practise. I suffered a lot, I was bleeding. Far too much. I was actually bleeding for two hours. It could not be stopped until 2 PM with traditional plants.
Before me, my three younger sisters had gone through the same mutilation. One of them also had a hemorrhage. But this did not prompt anyone to end this practice; at home, excision is a tradition that is part of morals.
A few years later, I started suffering from dysmenorrhea during menstruation, and this is confirmed every month. After my marriage, I also felt pain during sexual intercourse.
During my first delivery, the situation got complicated again, I had a torn perineum. The same happened for my second child. For the third, the tear was wider...the baby did not survive.
In 2012, during my fourth delivery I suffered from a third degree genital prolapse, for which I had to undergo surgery.
I asked for my daughters to be cut, one of them did not survive…
Despite all these signs, I decided to excise my first daughter (my second child) a few years after she was born. I was not at all aware that the pain that I was feeling was due to what I had experienced when I was ten. Excision is a practice that is passed on from mother to daughter, it could not be otherwise. But my daughter did not have a chance to survive; she succumbed to the bleeding, unlike the following girl, who survived the practice.
My view on FGM has changed…
I am now the mother of two boys and three girls, but I have decided not to excise the last two girls, after being informed about the side effects of such a practice.
In 2012, Apaf Muso Dembe Association, World Vision’s local partner, which is fighting against female genital mutilation, conducted an awareness campaign in my village. It is only that year that I realized that the pains and complications I was experiencing during my deliveries were the consequences of FGM.
Apaf Muso Danbe Association organized a film screening at my place. My entire family saw a video showing the consequences of FGM, and it is from that moment that I committed to fight against the practice, with the consent of my husband, who supported me.
Since 2013, I got involved with World Vision and an association referred to as Yiriwaso in order to take actions for ending female genital mutilation. We want to raise all women and men’s awareness in the region of the dangers of excision. Because these have the final say in families; their involvement, as well as that of village heads, is of paramount importance.
Through our collective actions, one of three female circumcisers that were operating in the region has abandoned the practice in Kimparana. Better still, she got even involved in the fight against FGM.
From my experience, I can now loudly speak out against this practice. I must convey the message to all women, especially those isolated in small villages, in order to persuade them not to practice it any more. I am now able to state that FGM has no benefit, only disadvantages. Despite the medical treatment I was able to receive, today I still feel the lower abdomen pain during sexual intercourses.
World Vision is working to end FGM by performing outreach work with women, village chiefs, religious leaders, local councilors, teachers, families and female circumcisers. We conduct awareness campaigns and training sessions in an attempt to inform about the physical and psychological consequences of excision.
World Vision says that « FGM should not be tolerated." It is a violation of the most fundamental security and protection rights for girls and is a form of violence that undermines girls’ right to education, health and physical body integrity.
Lotan testimony is available in French and was published on a French news website . Read it via http://bit.ly/1T86pX7