Young woman tells of the agony of their circumcision and the follow up today

A 28-year-old Sudanese woman has experienced, of which 13,000 girls in Germany are threatened: the genital mutilation of Tradition. For FOCUS Online may describes Ali, what happened to her as an eight-year-old and to this day torments.

May Ali laughs on the phone, when asked whether she was a “desert flower”, such as Waris Dirie. The Somali nomad child who was forced to flea to see, in Europe, a sought-after Model and her fate in the book “Desert Flower,” described have I to do with you nothing to one fact: Both women were circumcised as a little girl.

May Ali, dates back to Omdurman, a city in the Sudan. In 2012, they had to leave their home. Today, the 28-Year-old lives in Berlin and works for the women’s rights organization Terre des Femmes. “I want to help that girl’s fate will be spared, that I have suffered.”

First of all, a big Feast, then the intolerable agony

May Ali was eight years old when the family found it at the time, you can prepare for the future. A Sudanese woman the Tradition means, in accordance with endure a genital circumcision. The only way you would remain pure, and the only way you would later find a man to marry her.

“My mother, who is himself circumcised, of course, was, as she later told me. But you threw under then but the will of the family and the pressure of the community.“ A week before the procedure, the dam was ordered neiderin, then the preparation of a large Feast began. “Of course I had no idea what to expect. I was very proud to stand in the center, to welcome my Friends from school to invite to get gifts and beautiful Henna-paintings.“

“I was in a panic and was scared to death”

May Ali thought nothing of it, as her mother and aunts pleaded that nothing Bad will happen, that it’s not too dangerous, that her older girlfriend would have done it already, and that they would then be pure. “It was only when I was led into a room, my favorite aunt, me tied up on the floor and my mouth over, I got panic. I was scared to death. And still it was, to me, nothing would happen. I should stay calm.“

About what happened then, speaks of may Ali entirely objective and detached, while the journalist gets at the other end of the line of goose bumps. “I’ve got a local anesthetic, so I felt at the beginning of nothing. I also could not see what the old woman was down there. The deep cuts were excruciatingly painful. And I’ve actually been trying not to scream too much. I wanted to be a good girl.“

The female genital circumcision, which is widespread in 28 countries as an archaic Tradition, is on the decline – slowly, but still. It is an uphill battle against deep-rooted myths and traditions.According to Unicef, the number of circumcised women declined in the countries of a total of 51 per cent in 1985 to 37 percent today. State laws prohibit the cruel procedure increasingly, but are still rarely applied consistently, such as in Burkina Faso. There is consistently informed and cropping sanctioned.

The Berlin-based women’s rights organization Terre des Femmes has been for many years actively against female genital circumcision. The employee(s) are engaged. But they are also a focal point for all that are faced in Europe and Germany with the genital mutilation. Because in Europe the number of girls, which are threatened with genital mutilation on the increase due to the refugee flows.

Terre des Femmes maintains contact – and counseling centers in some large cities, where employees from the home countries of those Concerned to appeal to their fellow citizens eye-to-eye, enlighten, advise, also, where you get a genital mutilation medical help.

There is in Europe, for example, the Desert Flower Center in Berlin, Paris, and Stockholm. There Doctors try, the Vaginas of the circumcised women.

The torture is called “Pharaonic circumcision”

The Circumciser made all the work. Although her mother had asked her to cut only a “little” ended on may Ali with the so-called Pharaonic circumcision. The inner labia and the clitoris are removed, the outer labia are sewn together in a way that only a small hole in the Vagina is left for urination and menstrual blood.

“For two weeks, I couldn’t move me at all, at night, tape my feet together so I couldn’t hurt me. Always someone was with me and took care of me. I don’t know what I thought or felt. I was in a state of shock.“ Just in front of their beloved aunt may, Ali had then terrified. Until today she goes out of her way. “I can’t forget that a loved one gave me the feeling to want to kill me.”

Not all in the family reject female circumcision

Up until today, guilt-ridden mother may Ali, however, is not evil. “You just had to obey.” Rather, she appreciates that her mother saved her three younger sisters circumcision. “In two of you has a slip-circumcision around staged with all the trimmings, to satisfy the “Community”. And my brothers, she threatened to never speak with you again, if one should expose his daughter to female genital mutilation.“ Of the five brothers, all not refuse the circumcision.

 

Today, the young woman has large gynecological problems

As a child, may, Ali has superseded the ordeal at some point. The physical problems with the mutilation began only much later, when menstrual blood accumulated in the abdomen and coagulated, as a inflammation of the after another came. Scars, cysts, endometriosis – none of it could last for years, properly treated, simply because of the access to the reproductive organs was sutured. Difficulties in the Sex, the otherwise open may be silent Ali – this is not a topic she wants to talk with the German journalist. Since she is not married, is not for the 28-Year-old is also the question about desire for children and pregnancy currently.

You want your femininity to restore

“The German Doctors to listen to the problems, looking horrified and unable to do much for me,” says the young Sudanese woman. Help is waiting for you in Egypt, where female circumcision is widespread and competent Doctors experience with the Vagina-have recovery. “The first SURGERY I have already behind me. In this case, separate Openings for the bladder and for the menstrual periods were created in blood.“ The reconstruction of the labia majora is the larger Operation, with no guarantee that you can get. For this engagement at the Egyptian Doctor of your trust may saves Ali at the Moment.

And then, when everything is over, she wants to write a book about her life and her experiences as a woman from the Sudan, who had experience as an eight-year-old is a genital mutilation and against the cruel procedure fights. Then there is still a Commonality with the Somali “desert flower” Waris Dirie.