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.
Back in my day, we didn’t go in for examinations.
We were circumcised right away.
I was in second grade.
My mother had talked to me about it,
She told me that it would feel like a pinprick.
The woman who came wasn’t a doctor,
She was a doula.
She sat me down on the floor,
And my mother was the one who pinned me down.