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I packed a lot of books with me and I was reading Harry Potter; harry potter and the
prisoner of Azkaban and then you know my mum came to talk to me and she was like oh, you
know its going to be today and I was like, ok, right then
Its not just something and you just do it and it gets better, you give paracetamol and
it gets better. It does not get better. And I know me, it will stay with me 'til the day
I day
AN ESTIMATED 500 British GIRLS will be the victims of genital mutilation ths summer.
It will happen during their scholl holidays.
The only thing they know is we go on holiday cos that's what they say to them.
We all go on holiday we;re going to go visit your uncle or your auntie, you haven't met
them, and we're going their for holiday for a couple of weeks and we're coming back.
Mum took me and she just said that its time to get circumcised, and I was like, oh, ok
then, and then she said we're going on holiday, and I was like we're going on holiday as well,
alright,
WHAT THIS HOLIDAY WILL MEAN, FOR GIRLS AS YOUNG AS FIVE WILL BE A JOURNEY ABROAD DURING
WHICH THEIR *** WILL BE CUT OUT, EITHER ENTIRELY OR PARTIALLY.
This is also happening in the UK
Summer is the most DANGEROUS TIME FOR CHILDREN.
THE SIX WEEK SUMMER BREAK, IS THE LONGEST OF THE YEAR.
Any child who is going away to have FGM, if they have it in this country or abroad and
they will need of recovery of between four and six weeks because the legs are bound together
to allow the wound to heal (commentary starts before she has finished speaking.)
Jamelia lives in Layton, East London. At the end of year 7, during the summer holidays
she was taken to Mogadishu by her mother to BE CUT. She was twelve
Even to the day when it happened, even in the morning when I was told it was going to
happen today, even then I didn't have any objections to it. I was almost kind of, well,
I was I was submissive, I, its something I thought that you had to do- I wanted to do
it. The house is usually empty, we'd rented like a big mansion, it was usually empty but
when I came back into the room there were loads of women there. I was like where did
these people come from, but they was there, I later found out, to hold me down.
Miriam is 32. She was cut in somalia,
My sister was 6, I was 7 when I was circumcised, so my sister was 6. We wasn't circumcised
in a hospital, we were circumcised in our home, in my house, and it was the lady that
who does everybody, in that area. You can cry, but it was kind of like a shameful thing
if you actually cried , or if show that your scared, so you kind of have to this tough,
7 year old child. So then I just lay down,
and I remember looking up at the ceiling and just staring at the fan. The women who cut
me, I remember she had one grey eye,
she was very old, she had one grey eye and I remember, before it began, I was still lying
there, she was negotiating with mum with the money and my mum had to pay her extra for
using a new razor. And I remember, the blood everywhere and actually one of the maids,
we had these Ethiopian maids, one of the maids actually saw her pick up the bit of flesh
they cut out and, because she was mopping up the blood, as there was blood everywhere.
So when the circumcision happened they tie your legs together so you don't take big steps,
because if you did take big steps, you know, the stitches they would come out so they want
you to walk really really slowly. Second, you have to go to the toilet, and pass urine
and that was hell. THREE WEEKS AFTER THE OPERATION JAMEILIA CAME
HOME BEGIN HER SECOND YEAR AT COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL IN STRATFORD
I felt strangely a lot older, a lot lot older and it was odd because no one says to you
this is a secret, keep your mouth shut, but that's the message you get loud and clear
so I didn't really discuss it with anyone. Not even with the girls from my country who
I'd probably assumed had the same done. Do you really talk to anyone? Kind of like personal
pain don't tell anyone else about it, what's the point?
THERE WERe SIX OTHER GIRLS IN HER FORM FROM SOMALIA THAT YEAR.
AFTER HAVING THEIR *** CUT OFF THE GIRLS ARE SEWN UP TIGHTLY LEAVING JUST ONE TINY
HOLE FOR URINE AND BLOOD.
AN ANCIENT RITE OF PASSAGE...
THEY ARE CUT OPEN AGAIN ON THEIR WEDDING DAY
WHEN MIRIAM WAS CUT AT THE AGE OF SEVEN HER WOMB WAS ACCIDENTALLY SEALED.
When my periods started at the age of twelve, I never got a period, I didn't even know I
was having a period, and that time is when I got sick, I got really sick and nobody knew
what was wrong with me. It was when I went into theatre and I had an operation, doctors
realised it was not a cyst it was my period that had started but because there was nowhere
to come out it was staying in my body.
Every day it makes me mad because I wanna have a baby and I can't.
I felt very disconnected with my body because when your a young girl through puberty excited
about all the little things, like you know when your body starts to develop. After that
I didn't really get excited about anything. ((Cries))
These parents don't do this in any way they think they are abusing their children. They
don't do it out of hate or harm, for these communities, they have lost everything. They've
lost their profession, they've lost their livelihood the only thing they can sometimes
hold onto is their tradition,
It happened to a lot of generations back so its not like they not to do it on purposely
to me its just they, they didn't have no clue at that its not a religious thing to do. It
was just a bad cultural thing that has been picked up.
WHAT isn't centuries old is the relatively new phenomenon of children being cut in the
UK.
The NHS have confirmed that cutters are being flown into Britain to cut girls in batches.
Jackie Mathers is charge of safeguarding children in Bristol, she became concerned about FGM
after teachers approached her saying their girls were affected
We had some intelligence that with the credit crunch that cutters may be being paid to come
over cos it would be cheaper to come and do children over here as a large number than
it would be to have families taking flights to other countries. One parent did turn round
and say 'we have parties that was her description, and we would have a large number at a time.
What a large number is is difficult to identify but looking at numbers of sort of twenty probably.
THOUGH WOMEN HAVE BEEN KILLED FOR DARING TO SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE CUTTING OF GIRLS
JUST LAST MONTHS THESE WOMEN IN BRISTOL WERE PREPARED TO MARCH THROUGH THE STREEST TO PROTECT
THEIR DAUGHTERS.
IT WAS THE FIRST TIME EVER IN THE UK THAT WOMEN WERE PREPARED TO SHOW THEIR FACES AND
CHALLENGE THIS UNDERGROUND PRACTICE.
THEY KNOW THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH IT and they can and they are.
THE MARCHES MAY HAVE BEGUN BUT FOR MIRIAM LEFT CHILDESS AFTER HER CIRCUMSICION.
IN FRANCE THEY HAVE TAKEN A MUCH TOUGHER LINE, THIS THIS CUTTER WAS SENT TO PRISON FOR EIGHT
YEARS AND DOZENS OF PARENTS WERE ALSO PROSECUTED.
MIRIAM, LEFT CHILDLESS AFTER SHE WAS CUT, SAYS THERE IS A NEED FOR DIRECT INTERVENTION
AT AIRPORTS But I wish we had a gynaecologist at the airport.
Because that gynaecologist could prove that girl has just been circumcised because if
they know there is a doctor in the airport and when you go he will know and do a check
up and when you come back he is going to do a check up, they will not do it
Some people think that's too harsh Well again, what is too harsh, to ruin a little
girls life, take all her organs, cut them off? So she's just like a shell, walking?
Is that harsh? Is that alright?