Princess by Jean P. Sasson

Author:Jean P. Sasson [Sasson, Jean P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Non-Fiction, Religion, Adult, Biography, History
ISBN: 9780967673745
Publisher: Avon Books
Published: 1979-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

I could see that my sister was close to tears; I asked her what had happened.

For more generations than Nura knew, a large number of the women of our family had been circumcised. Our mother was one of these women. She had been circumcised when she became a woman, a few weeks before she was wed. At age fourteen, when Nura became a woman, Mother followed the only tradition she knew and arranged for Nura’s circumcision to be performed in a small village some miles from Riyadh.

A celebration was held, a feast prepared. A youthful Nura basked in the attention bestowed upon the one of honor. Moments before the rite, Nura was told by Mother that the elder women were going to perform a small ceremony, and that it was important for Nura to lie very still. One woman beat a drum, other women chanted. The oldest women gathered around the frightened child. Nura, nude from the waist down, was held by four women on a bed sheet that had been spread on the ground. The oldest of the women raised her hand in the air; with horror Nura saw that she had a razor-like instrument in her hand. Nura screamed. She felt a sharp pain in her genital region. Dizzy with shock, she was lifted in the air by the women and congratulated on her coming of age. Thoroughly frightened, she saw blood pouring from her wounds. She was carried into a tent and her lacerations were dressed and bandaged.

Her wounds healed quickly, but she did not understand the implication of the procedure until her wedding night; there was unbearable pain and much blood. As the condition persisted, she grew to dread sex with her new husband. Finally, after becoming pregnant, she saw a Western doctor who was appalled at her scars. He told Nura that her entire external genitalia had been removed and that, for sure, the sex act would always result in tearing, pain, and bleeding.

When the physician discovered that three more of Nura’s sisters had been circumcised and that the remaining six would more than likely suffer the same consequences due to the beliefs of mother’s tribe, he pleaded with her to arrange for her parents to visit him in his clinic.

My other three sisters visited the physician. He said our sister Baher was in much worse condition than Nura, and he did not know how she endured sexual relations with her husband. Nura had been a witness to our sisters’ ceremonies and recalled that Baher had fought the old women and had actually managed to run a few yards from her tormentors. But she was caught and returned to the mat, where her struggles caused much mayhem and a great loss of blood.

To the doctor’s surprise, it was my mother who had insisted upon the circumcision of her daughters. She herself had endured the rite; she was certain it was the will of Allah. Finally, the physician convinced our father of the utter nonsense of the procedure, as well as of the health risks.

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