[Sun] Africa has a bad practice that has existed for more than 3,000 years. When a girl was 5 years old, she was cut off a piece of meat from a private place by an elderly woman with knives without anesthesia and then sewn.
(Source: Light Network - World Name Modelli: Declaring War on the Circumcision)
There is an invisible blade on the African continent that has been suspended for more than 4,000 years.
UNICEF figures are shocking: 125 million women worldwide have been forced to suffer the pain of circumcision, and tens of millions of girls in Africa alone are on the verge of danger.
This is not cold statistics, but the pain of Somali girls being pressed against desert rocks, and the fear of girls in Kenyan tribes hiding in the trees and not daring to go home.
When "tradition" became a fig leaf for harm, a group of African women used star-like courage to cut through the darkness. Among them were stars who stepped onto the international stage and brave people who took root in villages, jointly opening a path for tens of millions of girls to escape the shackles. road.
This arrow that lasts for thousands of years is wrapped in traditional concepts such as “virginity” and “adult”.
In the Pokot tribe in Kenya, uncircumcised girls are regarded as "mutilated" and can neither participate in tribal deliberations nor be eligible to marry; some tribes in Somalia even regard them as a "cultural totem."
What is even more regrettable is that most of the sword wielders are respected female elders.
But the “traditional” coat can’t hide the destructive wounds.
Circumcision is often carried out in the early morning without anesthesia. Blades, broken glass and even thorns are common tools. Massive bleeding and infection go hand in hand. In villages where medical care is scarce, many children die as a result.
Wallace Deerey will always remember that early morning in the 1970s, when she was 5 years old when her mother was pressed on the rolling sand, and the shadow of her sister's early death had not dissipated, and the pain of the knife scratching her skin made her faint.
When she woke up, her mother gave her a candy and said, “Now you’re a real woman.”
For the next ten years, she took half an hour every day to urinate, and the infection caused by the blood clot caused her to wake up in her sleep, and these pains, the family told her, were what women had to endure.
At the age of 13, when her father wanted to marry her 60-year-old in exchange for five camels, Wallace escaped into the desert for a night and walked more than 1,000 kilometers barefoot and blurred, and finally arrived in London with the help of the British ambassador to Somalia.
From a restaurant cleaner to a McDonald's waiter, this dark-skinned girl was discovered by photographers at the age of 18 and stepped onto the international catwalk step by step.
She became the first black model to endorse L 'Oreal, appeared on the cover of Vogue, and even Ruifulong makeup company, which never hired black people, extended an olive branch to her.
It wasn't until 1997 that she mentioned circumcision when chatting with British models that the other party's shocked tears made her realize that not all girls all over the world have to suffer this kind of suffering.
From that moment on, Wallis chose to put down her shining career and pick up the microphone of resistance. She disclosed her experience in "Fashion" magazine and published her autobiography "Flowers of the Desert". The sentence "My body belongs to me" in the book shocked the world.
The United Nations immediately appointed her as the special envoy for anti-circumcision, and she shuttled through African villages under the stigma of "national traitor". When the movie "Flower of the Desert" was released based on her story, more people all over the world saw this blade hidden in the desert.
The film's protagonist, Leia Kobed, although not personally circumcised, ended up with the film and the anti-circumcision movement.
She launched the "Protecting Girls" project and led a medical team to remote tribes in Ethiopia. Today, 20 local tribes have replaced circumcision with "cultural summer camps", and girls have completed their adulthood ceremonies by learning handicrafts.
The struggle of these women is driving systemic change.
In Africa, 41 countries have legislation that prohibits circumcision, and Senegal sentenced it to a maximum of 30 years in prison in 1999, while Kenya and Tanzania tripled the rate of circumcision 30 years ago.
The male group has also gradually awakened. Ahmed, a Somali man, set up a "Father Guard" to patrol the villagers during the high incidence of circumcision. He said, "I don't want my daughter to experience what my wife has suffered."
In the past, men were often "acquiesitors" or even "promoters" of bad habits, but now, more and more men are beginning to stand up against this behavior.
The path to innovation has never been flat, but when one woman comes out after another, African women are sewing up hope with courage and persistence.
When tradition is no longer an excuse for harm, and when law and conscience build protective walls, those girls who once trembled in the dark will eventually usher in a future without fear of the blade.
This is not only the salvation of thousands of women, but also a solid step for human civilization to equality and respect.
(Source: Light Network - World Name Modelli: Declaring War on the Circumcision)
There is an invisible blade on the African continent that has been suspended for more than 4,000 years.
UNICEF figures are shocking: 125 million women worldwide have been forced to suffer the pain of circumcision, and tens of millions of girls in Africa alone are on the verge of danger.
This is not cold statistics, but the pain of Somali girls being pressed against desert rocks, and the fear of girls in Kenyan tribes hiding in the trees and not daring to go home.
When "tradition" became a fig leaf for harm, a group of African women used star-like courage to cut through the darkness. Among them were stars who stepped onto the international stage and brave people who took root in villages, jointly opening a path for tens of millions of girls to escape the shackles. road.
This arrow that lasts for thousands of years is wrapped in traditional concepts such as “virginity” and “adult”.
In the Pokot tribe in Kenya, uncircumcised girls are regarded as "mutilated" and can neither participate in tribal deliberations nor be eligible to marry; some tribes in Somalia even regard them as a "cultural totem."
What is even more regrettable is that most of the sword wielders are respected female elders.
But the “traditional” coat can’t hide the destructive wounds.
Circumcision is often carried out in the early morning without anesthesia. Blades, broken glass and even thorns are common tools. Massive bleeding and infection go hand in hand. In villages where medical care is scarce, many children die as a result.
Wallace Deerey will always remember that early morning in the 1970s, when she was 5 years old when her mother was pressed on the rolling sand, and the shadow of her sister's early death had not dissipated, and the pain of the knife scratching her skin made her faint.
When she woke up, her mother gave her a candy and said, “Now you’re a real woman.”
For the next ten years, she took half an hour every day to urinate, and the infection caused by the blood clot caused her to wake up in her sleep, and these pains, the family told her, were what women had to endure.
At the age of 13, when her father wanted to marry her 60-year-old in exchange for five camels, Wallace escaped into the desert for a night and walked more than 1,000 kilometers barefoot and blurred, and finally arrived in London with the help of the British ambassador to Somalia.
From a restaurant cleaner to a McDonald's waiter, this dark-skinned girl was discovered by photographers at the age of 18 and stepped onto the international catwalk step by step.
She became the first black model to endorse L 'Oreal, appeared on the cover of Vogue, and even Ruifulong makeup company, which never hired black people, extended an olive branch to her.
It wasn't until 1997 that she mentioned circumcision when chatting with British models that the other party's shocked tears made her realize that not all girls all over the world have to suffer this kind of suffering.
From that moment on, Wallis chose to put down her shining career and pick up the microphone of resistance. She disclosed her experience in "Fashion" magazine and published her autobiography "Flowers of the Desert". The sentence "My body belongs to me" in the book shocked the world.
The United Nations immediately appointed her as the special envoy for anti-circumcision, and she shuttled through African villages under the stigma of "national traitor". When the movie "Flower of the Desert" was released based on her story, more people all over the world saw this blade hidden in the desert.
The film's protagonist, Leia Kobed, although not personally circumcised, ended up with the film and the anti-circumcision movement.
She launched the "Protecting Girls" project and led a medical team to remote tribes in Ethiopia. Today, 20 local tribes have replaced circumcision with "cultural summer camps", and girls have completed their adulthood ceremonies by learning handicrafts.
The struggle of these women is driving systemic change.
In Africa, 41 countries have legislation that prohibits circumcision, and Senegal sentenced it to a maximum of 30 years in prison in 1999, while Kenya and Tanzania tripled the rate of circumcision 30 years ago.
The male group has also gradually awakened. Ahmed, a Somali man, set up a "Father Guard" to patrol the villagers during the high incidence of circumcision. He said, "I don't want my daughter to experience what my wife has suffered."
In the past, men were often "acquiesitors" or even "promoters" of bad habits, but now, more and more men are beginning to stand up against this behavior.
The path to innovation has never been flat, but when one woman comes out after another, African women are sewing up hope with courage and persistence.
When tradition is no longer an excuse for harm, and when law and conscience build protective walls, those girls who once trembled in the dark will eventually usher in a future without fear of the blade.
This is not only the salvation of thousands of women, but also a solid step for human civilization to equality and respect.