30 years have passed, but Fama remembers it like it was yesterday. “I haven’t forgotten anything”, he says. And there are for that and for much more. That day, five elderly women took her and opened her legs so that a sixth, Ngama, the woman who carried out the genital mutilations, could perform the ablation. He was six years old. She is one of the 200 million girls and women who have suffered female genital mutilation (FGM), according to UN estimates. The United Nations Population Fund estimates that more than 4 million girls are at risk of becoming victims of genital ablation every year, a figure that equates to 12,000 cases every day. In Spain, and according to a study published in 2020 by the Ministry of Equality, the number of girls at risk of suffering this practice then amounted to more than 15,500, almost 3,700 of which were at extreme risk. It is true that in the last 25 years the prevalence of the practice has decreased worldwide, but, despite this, it still has a great impact on the lives of many girls. Ignoring the majority position of established Senegalese compatriots, like her, in Catalonia, Fama, 36 years old and resident of Granollers, decided to reconstruct her genitals two years ago, and her life has completely changed.
On that fateful day three decades ago, his parents did not want him to undergo the ablation. “My father kept crying”, he recalls. But the parents have little to say. The decision is made by the elders of the family.
No one explained what they would do to him or why. “I remember that I got up and all the older members of the family were at home. I thought: ‘what’s going on here?’ Then I saw my mother crying and, later, I heard one of my cousins ??screaming: they were mutilating her.”
It was five old women (one of whom was her aunt) who grabbed her tightly, covered her mouth to stop her screaming, grabbed her legs and pulled them apart. Then Ngama appeared.
Once the ablation was finished, they put hot water, some herbs, and applied traditional medicine. “It hurt me a lot.” Afterwards, they introduced her – she and four other girls: three of her cousins ??and her eight-year-old sister – into a dark room, “as is tradition”. They slept on the floor, on top of some cloths. They were closed for two weeks, until they recovered. A month later, they had a big party. There were dances, drums, gifts… “They bought us new clothes and did our hair. The guests gave us money because we were already women.”
Fortunately, this practice (which is still carried out in 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia and constitutes a violation of the fundamental human rights of girls and women) is prohibited in Senegal, although it is still practiced in the south of the country. It is precisely from there, in the Kolda region, that Fama originates. “Before, they mutilated girls aged 4, 5 or 6, and now, babies just a few months old. Because? That way, they can’t complain and it’s easier to hide it”, he explains.
This practice is often considered a necessary part of raising a girl child and a way to prepare her for adulthood and marriage. Many times, it responds to the conception of what is considered acceptable sexual behavior and aims to ensure virginity before marriage and fidelity afterwards. There is a belief that it reduces a woman’s libido. “If they haven’t made it for you, men don’t want to marry you”, explains Fama.
Having been a victim of this practice has consequences. From the most immediate (hemorrhage, inflammation of the genital tissues, fever, infections or even death) to those that can appear in the long term: urinary infections, vaginal, menstrual, sexual problems, more risk of complications during childbirth and neonatal mortality or psychological disorders (depression, anxiety…).
