Sentenced to Wifehood
by Jeanette Càceres, 10/06/06

Tito is only 12 years old, but already her smile is reluctant and pained. Her eyes tell the story of a life sentenced to wifehood. And like most of the young girls in the Maasai culture, she will not attend school and instead will likely become a mother before she reaches the age of 15.

Just a few days ago, Tito’s father accepted a dowry worth $300 US from a man who is not only three-times her senior, but already married. Before she can become his second wife, she must be initiated and circumcised.

“An uncircumcised girl will not be allowed to participate in important ceremonies to mark key stages of the Maasai culture,” explains 32-year-old Nelson Ole Reiyia, founder of the ‘I See Maasai Development Initiative,’ a community-based organization that advocates for education in the fight against female genital mutilation in Nairobi and Maasai Mara, Kenya.

“Girls are circumcised to prepare them for marriage as there is no Maasai man who is willing to marry an uncircumcised girl,” says Reiyia.

The process of initiation begins at dawn. The young girl is stripped and splashed with cold water. She is then taken to a small room in the hut where cattle normally spend the night. With small openings in the walls providing the only source of light, five women tightly hold onto the girl’s arms and legs, as the old matron—also known as the Enkamuratani, or circumciser—begin cutting at the young girl’s genitals and insides with a sharpened piece of metal called ‘ormurunya.’

“The circumciser will then proceed to wash the wound with milk and do one final bizarre act, inserting a live fly into the girl’s vagina!” Reiyia explains. “The purpose is to invoke a blessing on the girl so that she may be so productive in the childbearing later, and give birth to as many children in equal numbers to the swarms of flies that usually inhabit Maasai homesteads.”

If, by any chance, the Enkamuratani matron feels that the girl’s external genital organs have not been completely scrapped off, the entire process is repeated the next day while other young girls are made to watch so as to psychologically prepare them for their turn.

In some countries, girls are given lavish parties, presents, cars or paid vacations to mark their passage into womanhood. Others are decorated with costly beads, gems and stones. But for many women in parts of Africa and the Middle East, the initiation process has been more bitter than sweet.

Female circumcision is also practiced among immigrant communities in parts of Asia, the Pacific, North and South America, and Europe, even though it has been banned in several Western countries, as well as Britain and France. In Canada, for example, women can obtain political asylum simply because they are at risk of being circumcised. The Maasai, one of the oldest standing indigenous ethnic groups in Kenya and northern Tanzania, are among the hundreds of thousands who still practice female circumcision. “Some Maasai families maintain a very extreme attitude towards circumcision,” says Reiyia, who himself is part of the Maasai tribe. “If a girl ever became pregnant and gave birth without having been circumcised, it will be considered a great dishonorable act to the family. To save face, the girl may be murdered or forced out of the homestead in the most callous way.”

Female circumcision procedures, also known as female genital mutilation, vary from pricking the vagina with needles to the complete removal of the vulva—including the clitoris, labia minora and majora, and vaginal opening. The Maasai practice infibulation, one of the most severe circumcision procedures, in which the labia majora are sewn together to seal off the female genitalia after the vulva has been cut out. The procedure is normally done without any kind of anesthesia on girls between the ages of 9 and 13.

Originated in Egypt, FGM, in particular infibulation, was practiced in Rome by slave owners who would stitch up their slaves’ genitalia in order to control their sexual practices and ensure chastity. Female circumcision today is no different. Whether as a rite of passage or because of cultural superstition, expectations and tradition, too many women are being physically and psychologically traumatized by being stripped of the very organs that distinguish them as beings. They are being robbed of the quality and freedom to be sexually expressive.

Most young girls drop out of school once they have been circumcised because the procedure deems them ready for marriage, even at the age of 10. This explains the 80% illiteracy rate among the Maasai women. Circumcision also scars women physically and psychologically, as the painful memory and process is revisited every time a woman engages in sexual intercourse or gives birth.

In the early and mid-90s, more and more African countries prohibited the practice, inflicting up to five-year prison terms and heavy fines onto those found guilty of excising girls. Today, female circumcision is practically outlawed in Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Ghana, Guinea, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo and Uganda. Legal restrictions, however, have driven the practice underground rather than eradicating it.

Supporters of female genital circumcision blame opponents of wanting to impose western values onto them, while those against female circumcision argue the universality of human rights regardless of cultural expectations. Any involuntary practice is a severe human rights violation.

Reiyia says that, “most young, educated Maasai women are against this practice and only accept to go through it to conform with societal expectations.”

His organization aims to educate the Maasai community about the physical and psychological damages of female circumcision, as well as create alternative rights of passage ceremonies.

“Our main purpose is to transform the Maasai community educationally, economically and culturally without destroying the positive traditional values of this great African tribe,” says Reiyia.

The ‘I See Maasai Development Initiative’ is now gathering funds from conscientious donors to build a facility that will house and educate young girls who are disowned by their families because they choose not to undergo circumcision. The organization also intends to build a community clinic to provide medical care to the Maasai tribe. An American woman by the name of Jenny Batteau has already donated money to refund 12-year-old Tito’s dowry so that she may be able to go to school instead of being married at such a young age.