Women and Sex
Sexy?
I remember hearing about female circumcision with I was a pre-teen. The whole concept confused me since I wasn’t even sure what my own body parts were for. I had always associated it with how women from the old country just didn’t like the sex, the concept of sex, or giving birth. I have very clear memories of laying with my head on my grandmother’s lap and as she played with my hair she told me of all the different ways she aborted certain pregnancies. It was weird too… like so calm and matter of fact. The children that were born (and she had 9 children) were the souls that lasted through her attempts. I do know that she had been pregnant at least 13 times.
One of my grandmother’s most popular abortion techniques was throwing herself down a long staircase. That story use to scare me because I would ask “weren’t you scared to hit your head?” and she would just laugh. She was 13 when she married my grandfather (her first cousin) back in Iran and she didn’t know what her body parts were for either. Looking back I know she hated sex and thought that maybe she would get lucky and die during her abortion process… but that would be if God willed it and not the staircase, of course.
I had heard echos of stories from the women in my family about “others” that were woken up in the middle of the night to be brought into a room filled with other women in the family. Held down while they were circumcised. This must have been some hella old custom that was during the cave man days for sure. Then I saw an April 7 issue of People magazine and my heart sank.
Somalian-born America’s Next Top Model contestant Fatima
Siad, 22, began to speak out about undergoing genital mutilation (female circumcision) at age 7. She feels that speaking about her experience will help others to come forward and fight for this custom within certain cultures to stop. So this photo of this sexy 22 year old Somalian born woman in white and black lingerie with black pumps on had a whole other story to tell. What a dichotomy this photo and story were for me.
I remember asking my grandmother once if she liked having sex and she turned her head to the side and spit. To the culture this would mean my grandmother was “a good girl” and therefore would and did make a great wife. I guess all the fun was had by the belly dancers.
Multilevel Workshop-January 2009
