No One’s Seeing Me Naked

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.

It was my dad who made the decision.
When my mother objected,
He threatened to get one of his doctor friends to do it behind her back.
I found that out,
Ten years after they took away a part of my body.

My mother found a good surgeon.
He had a clinic in Sayeda Zeinab.
We got an appointment with him,
He kept asking a lot of questions,
Using the most profane language.
I was young then.
I got scared,
And started crying.
I foolishly told them
That no one’s going to see me naked,
Unless I’m under anesthesia.
I didn’t realize
That I was basically handing myself to them on a silver platter.

“Alright! We’ll put you under anesthesia,” they said.
The anesthesiologist came in
With the medication and equipment
In a black plastic bag.
They propped me up on a table.
I was in shock.
The assistant surgeon then whispered into my ear,
“When you wake up,
I’ll marry you.”
I didn’t know why that idiot said that to me.

Years went by,
And I found out more details about what happened.
There were so many more details.

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