أطراس
Volume 4, Numéro 1, Pages 111-134
2023-01-15
Female Genital Mutilation In Somalia: The Memories And Mimesis Of Pains In Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Infidel: My Life
Authors : Olumide Olugbemi-gabriel .
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
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