Essay, Mara Mabilia

In this essay, Mara Mabilia searches to understand how the women who have undergone practices such as FGM, live in host countries that interpret such practices as unacceptable and violations of human rights. Because of the growing interest on FMG by associations and government, the invisible invisible marks project was created to determine the quantity of the FGM phenomenon in certain parts of Italy. She mentions that some women felt stigmatized by both their host country and original cultures as one of the things that stood out among the processed data. Those women either felt like they were judged by their host country, which had no right to do so because of what happens in their own culture or disapproved by their own original culture because they chose to abandon the practices that made them suffer at marriage.

My initial response to Female Genital Mutilation was that it is a violation of a women’s body and that it is taboo. Especially since I know that it does not have any health benefits but some consequences such a urinal problems and infertility. It makes me think that it’s not fair. Children don’t know what’s good for them and when they grow up, would of course view it as a cultural thing or positive because they might not know what they’re missing. But this topic was brought up in my Women and Gender’s Class and another student said that we really cannot judge what another culture is doing. Because as far we know, when we think of children that are born with two sexes or body parts of both genders, some parents take the initiative to choose one. Therefore, that might also be a violation of a child’s rights.  It is a fair argument and I believe my response to that is to let the women choose what they want to have done to their body. An outsider does not have the right to go into another person’s culture and dictate what is deemed acceptable or not. But if it’s a practice that is done against their will, then I believe that it’s unfair and that there needs to be intervention. At least let people choose what they want; wait till they are about fifteen and ask them if they want to have it done or not.

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