The spread legs, though reminiscent of a porn movie, looked pretty normal to me, apart from the missing clitoris — though hardly something you would expect to be shown by a middle-aged Kenyan woman dressed in full Maasai regalia. There were no vaginal lips, just a large slit between the legs like a doll. It was just solid plastic with some white lines — like a small drawing of a television aerial — across the space where the opening should be. When you looked carefully, you could see a little hole towards the bottom to let the urine and menstrual blood through. After excision, the girl is stitched up until her wedding day. She is literally a gift; a parcel to be cut open by the man.

'If Victims Die, Those Who Mutilated Them Say It's Because They're Witches'


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We had no idea what was about to happen. No one told us that our genitals were about to be mutilated. On the night of August 1, , my stepmom took us to an isolated area about an hour bus ride away from where we lived in Sierra Leone. When we arrived, there were many women waiting outside of a hut. They told us to wait inside the hut while they did something outside. Then one woman told us to take all of our clothes off. They ordered us to go back outside and sit under a tree. First, they came and got my sister, because she was older. They took her into the hut, and, to this day, I can still hear her screams. When they dragged her back to the tree, she was crying and covered in blood.
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Female genital mutilation FGM , also known as female genital cutting and female circumcision , [a] is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. Typically carried out by a traditional circumciser using a blade, FGM is conducted from days after birth to puberty and beyond. In half of the countries for which national figures are available, most girls are cut before the age of five. They include removal of the clitoral hood and clitoral glans ; removal of the inner labia ; and removal of the inner and outer labia and closure of the vulva. In this last procedure, known as infibulation , a small hole is left for the passage of urine and menstrual fluid ; the vagina is opened for intercourse and opened further for childbirth. The practice is rooted in gender inequality , attempts to control women's sexuality , and ideas about purity, modesty and beauty. It is usually initiated and carried out by women, who see it as a source of honour and fear that failing to have their daughters and granddaughters cut will expose the girls to social exclusion. There have been international efforts since the s to persuade practitioners to abandon FGM, and it has been outlawed or restricted in most of the countries in which it occurs, although the laws are poorly enforced. Since , the United Nations has called upon healthcare providers to stop performing all forms of the procedure, including reinfibulation after childbirth and symbolic "nicking" of the clitoral hood.
By Hannah Frishberg. The stimulation triggers an exciting wave of events, from the brain to the female genital tract. The changes include increased vaginal blood flow, lubrication and an increase in vaginal temperature.