Somalie woman speaks of sex after female genital mutilation

Africa is home to people with different cultures, traditions and religions. Because I am Muslim, I would like to reflect on a Muslim topic that has been there for centuries. Female genital mutilation.

This is also called Pharaonic circumcision. Janice Boddy states that Pharaonic circumcision is “a practice of cutting away the clitoris and labia minora and sewing up most of the genital opening, an operation called infibulations” (477). The purpose of this process is for purifying and hygiene.

It could also been seen as gender identification- what roles women and men play. This is a process where girls transform into women and boys into men. Until both sexes are circumcised, they can play together and the boys could sleep with their mother or sisters on the same bed. At the ages between five and ten, both sexes are circumcised which means that they now have grown to be fully male or female and to follow Allah’s ways. After this, the women are then in the domestic sphere (Boddy called this ‘symbols of the homeland’); they are given domestic responsibilities and the men are public domain- they work outside such as in the farms. When they have gatherings, the men have different entrance; the front entrance is always for men and the back one for women.


There are two kinds of circumcision; one is Pharaonic circumcision and the other (Sunna) traditional circumcision where they only remove the head of the clitoris instead of removing it as a whole. This is healthier and less painful, though many of the Hofriyati people oppose it because they believe it does not purify enough.  In the village I used to live in, Harar, Ethiopia, everyone was circumcised by the age of ten. I came to village when I was nine years old and everyone assumed that I was circumcised. Though three to four years later when they found out that I was in fact not circumcised, I was peer pressured to go with the process. My mom was very much against it because she knew the effects. She is Muslim but she is not orthodox Muslim.

She knew that it would affect me sexually later on and that I would regret it (though she could not explain this to me because I was too young to understand). So she went on and called the midwife but she asked her to do Sunna only. The whole neighbourhood was talking about how she does not follow the rules of the religion and looked at her oddly. I am regretful and at the same time happy. Regretful because, my mom forced me to agree to go through the horrible process, and happy because, my mom persuaded the midwife to not do pharaonic circumcision.

The non-Muslims might find it odd to get through Pharaonic circumcision but if one’s  heritage is circumcision, they can understand better and accept even if they do not agree with it. I would never make my child go through any form of circumcision. The larger issue is, what becomes of sex at a later point in one’s life?
When having intercourse, the circumcised men still feel everything normally whereas the women’s sexual feelings vary. For instance, when women have the Sunna circumcision, they may or may not have orgasm and may not feel anything for that matter. There is 50-50 chance of sexual feelings. With the Pharaonic circumcision, women feel absolutely nothing but pain every time they have sex. The women (when married) don’t enjoy sex; they are just there as baby factories. This is another reason why Pharaonic circumcision is done.

In this part of the world, not many people are aware of female circumcision. In the West, male circumcision is practiced only on men and is a norm considered hygienic. Perhaps the reason there’s no uproar about male circumcision is because men are not harmed by the process as women are in traditional societies.