Trigger warning / “A Part of Me” campaign:
This story could contain potentially sensitive and/or triggering material, especially for victims of female genital mutilation. Please remember to check in with yourself as you read and to stop reading if it gets too overwhelming.

I am different than most girls, who didn't know where they were being taken
I was in 3rd year of elementary school, so I understood things.
The thing is, it was I who noticed a protrusion in that area
And I felt it between my labia,
I didn't know what that was then.

I went and told my mama, “I am not sure what this is? It sometimes hurts,”
Mama took me to the doctor, and I thought I had some sort of problem.
The doctor told them, “It’s nothing really. It is not worth a procedure, when she grows up, it will look normal.”
My grandma intervened and my mother listened to her of course.
They insisted I get circumcised, and to cut a piece of my clitiros.
I thought I recovered.
I thought I was cured.
Year after year, I started understanding what happened to me,
My mother could have sat with me and explained things,
And they would have not taken away a part of me,
How did my father agree to do such a thing?

I do not forgive them at all,
My cousins did not undergo such a procedure
Nor any of my friends
I am so scared of how things will be when I get married