CAES 1901 Academic Speech 1st Draft 14th November 2011 Circumcision.

When you first hear this word, what first comes to your mind? I guess, most of you would relate it to male circumcision, which is a ubiquitous practice in many religions, such as Muslim and Judaism. However, few of us may think of FGC, namely Female Genital Cutting. FGC involves procedures to remove or injure the external female sexual organ for nonmedical reasons. According to the WHO, 100140 million women and girls are living with FGC. 100 to 140 million? It may sound a bit abstract. But think of it that way. There are 7 million people in Hong Kong, so in other words, female who have been circumcised equals to the total number of people in 20, exactly 20 Hong Kongs. The influence of FGC worldwide is profound; its influence on female is even more profound. The initial pain they suffer when they receive the surgery is so immense that it probably goes beyond ones imagination. Because the circumcision is entirely non-medical, it is often times NOT carried out by doctors or nurses. Instead, indigenous women will be the one using the scissors. No medicine will be used to soothe the pain. They walk through the torture relying on herbs, leaves, and more importantly, their own determination to live. Yet, how would they ever know that their suffering does not stop there. Following the initial pain is extreme loss of blood. The lucky ones survive. And ruefully, the unlucky one dont. For those who survive, they cannot urinate because their urine system is infected. They cannot discharge menstrual blood because their vagina is sewed up. They cannot walk properly because the wound hurts so badly. In some extreme cases, they cannot even give birth to babies which make them outcast in their village. Knowing that the suffering undergone by this group of women is so intolerable, many feminists in the West feel the weight on their shoulder. They know they have to do something. But they do it the wrong way. In September 1994, CNN brought the entire scene to living rooms around the globe by broadcasting a television report of a ten-year-old Egytian girl in Cairo undergoing FGC. Although it has raised international concern towards FGC in Egypt, the CNN filming had enraged the locals. Some local newspaper even called it a public crime. Imagine you were an African. You are watching the telly on one night in September 1994. On this little black box, you see a group of indigenous women surrounding that young and untamed 10-year-old little girl in an enclosed dark tent. She is being held on the floor, stoutly, forcefully. An older woman is holding a pair of rusted scissors. She slowly pieces the tip of the scissor into the girls vagina. The sound of the metal scissors is ringing in the air. Cut. Cut. Cut. Another is holding a thick stack of rough fabric to take away the removed organ and hold the blood. Cut. Cut. Cut. Those women surrounding her are silent. But the girl is not. She is screaming, calling for mercy, gasping for breath, pleading that her body can be spared. She keeps asking, Why Mum? Why did you let them do this to me?

This sensational scene haunts many. Even though it is a secret to nobody, imagine you were the Africans, would you want to see on screen? Would you want someone to tear apart your own wounds in front of the global population, in front of their dining table. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. The press out there has shown insensitivity towards the Africans feeling, and aroused hatred and discontent among the Africans. To solve the FGC problem in Africa, to fully eliminate brutality in any places in the world, to fight for equal rights to live happily ever after for all girls and women, we must take the first step to understand the issue and put ourselves into their shoes. Lets start today. Show support to any anti-FGC movements, and strive for the betterment of the entire human race, that is free from brutality, free from pain and free from torture. Thank you.