Thank you Netgalley and Little Brown for the gifted book!
by: Nice Leng-ete
rating: really liked
"The roughly two hundred million women worldwide who have had some form of FGM have suffered differently, and their people have cut them for different reasons. But all forms of FGM have one thing in common: they limit and control women's lives."
What an eye opening read. Nice is a woman who grew up in the Maasai tribe in Kenya where "the cut" (more accurately called female genital mutilation) is a cultural practice and expected of all girls if they want to become women. From a young age, Nice did not want to get "the cut" but the circumstances of her life and culture did not make avoiding it easy.
Her sister Soila submitted to "the cut" to help Nice avoid it, and their lives diverged at that point. Nice realized that FGM isn't just a physical marker, but a mental one as well. It tells girls their value in the culture.
Nice began working with Amref (a NGO) to go back to her village and tell her people what opportunities are available to intact women. She was able to bring an end to FGM in her village and continues to fight to end FGM around the world.
This read is powerful and heartbreaking as it makes you consider the women around the world who are in systems that don't lead to their flourishing, but rather their oppression. Understanding the cultural context is so important here to have compassion and also to incite change.
Content Warning: There are several detailed descriptions of the process of female genital mutilation. Be warned if you are a sensitive reader, that these real life horrors are even hard to read.
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