MOTHER HOLDING DAUGHTER, FGM IN EGYPT
“I visited Doa in Fayoum. She had undergone FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) at the age of 12 and struggled both physically and mentally struggling after the mutilation. Doa’s younger sister was really weak and skinny and I begged her mother not to make her go through this torture as well. The mother’s response was: ‘If I do not, she will be out of control and will end up sleeping around.’ Knowing the harm to come, I went to a police officer but he attacked me saying that my manners were skewed. Egyptian law states that any partial removal of the genital area without medical reason is illegal, but adults make-up medical excuses to justify this cruelty. Doctors are driven by religion and business.”
Although in 2008 a law was enacted in criminalizing FGM, Egyptians still consider it as one of the most important religious and traditional rituals. The community and specifically the family force their own concepts of rules on girls, believing it protects the female’s dignity and honor. According to UNFPA, 86 percent of Egyptian married women between the ages of 15 and 49 have undergone FGM. 2019.
Born in Egypt in 1996, Somaya Abdelrahman is the inaugural winner of TYTW’s Emerging Photographers Fellowship Award. Abdelrahman’s acclaimed personal documentary work, “A Permanent Wound”, explores her experiences surviving and witnessing female genital mutilation.
