Female Genital Mutilation and its Consequences: Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker and Desert Flower by Waris Dirie By Despoina Anastasiadou Submitted to the Department of English Literature and Culture and the Department of American Literature and Culture School of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Supervisor: Dr. Domna Pastourmatzi Aristotle University of Thessaloniki February 2020 Anastasiadou 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………….…...3 Abstract……………………………………………………………………………..4 INTRODUCTION…..……………………………………………………………...5 CHAPTER ONE: Infibulation and its Aftereffects in Alice Walker’s Possessing the Secret of Joy…………………………...17 CHAPTER TWO: Pharaonic Circumcision and its Impact in Desert Flower by Waris Dirie………............………………………......43 EPILOGUE………………………………………………………………………..58 WORKS CITED…………………………………………………………………..63 Anastasiadou 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my professor and supervisor, Dr. Domna Pastourmatzi for her guidance through each stage of my research project and for inspiring me to work in the field of gender studies. Further, I wish to acknowledge my family for supporting me throughout the challenging journey of postgraduate studies. Anastasiadou 4 ABSTRACT The main concern of my thesis focuses on the cruel practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), through the critical analysis of the novel, Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992) by Alice Walker and of the autobiography, Desert Flower (1998) by Waris Dirie. Precisely, the cultural ritual of infibulation will constitute the axis around which both life stories of the heroines (Tashi and Waris respectively), will be unraveled. My objective is to scrutinize the kinds of torment, which veritably shape the lives of African women and the excruciating suffering females endure as the outcome of female genital cutting. Although literary dramatizations of the traditional ritualized practice of FGM, these two narratives offer readers essential details from the lives of African girls who undergo infibulation. They explore and expose the horrendous ramifications of infibulation on the physical, mental, and psychic health of African females. Both books deal with the tremendous consequences of this practice and expose the deception and exploitation of females, their physical suffering and mental incarceration, as well as the deterioration of their health and the damage to their sexuality. Besides the tradition of female circumcision, the patriarchal social order in both the Olinka and Somali tribes further dictates the permissible areas of female activity, which are limited to the domestic sphere, to certain communal areas, and to farms where women tend their crops. The male elders who determine the destiny of the female members keep girls and women powerless and ignorant. In fact, in both the Olinka and Somali cultures, the father figures are deceitful and reticent about the customs and traditions that regulate the life of tribe and try to the sustain their power at any expense. Anastasiadou 5 INTRODUCTION The cruel practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) is the main concern of this thesis. The objective is to scrutinize the kinds of torment which shape the lives of African women and pin down the excruciating suffering they endure as the outcome of female genital cutting, through the critical analysis of Alice Walker’s novel, Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992) and Waris Dirie’s autobiography Desert Flower (1998). Precisely, the culturally ritualized act of infibulation will constitute the axis around which both life stories of the protagonists (Tashi and Waris respectively), will be unraveled. These two narratives expose the horrendous ramifications of female genital mutilation and infibulation, which affect African women’s physical and mental health and plunge them into psychic turmoil. Because of the patriarchal social order that governs both the Olinka and the Somali tribes, the permissible areas of female activity are limited to the domestic sphere (to take care of the household chores, serve their husbands and raise children), to certain communal areas (such as the huts where the circumcision of young girls takes place collectively), and to farms where women tend their crops. African tribal women have to submit first to the authority of their fathers and then to that of their husbands. The male elders who determine the destiny of females impose marriage contracts on them or make them the objects of financial exchanges and keep the women powerless and ignorant. In her address to the reader, included in her novel, Alice Walker provides some statistics from the 1980s. She states that“[i]t is estimated that from ninety to one hundred million women and girls living today in African, Far Eastern and middle Eastern countries have suffered some form of genital mutilation” (283). She also informs us that the practice of female circumcision has spread in the United States and Anastasiadou 6 in Europe, “among immigrants from countries where it is part of the culture” (283). Christine J. Walley confirms that the initiation ceremony, which includes clitoridectomies and infibulations, is not only a North African and sub-Saharan African concern, but also a European and an American social problem because it has been exported via immigration (405). Furthermore, as Walley notes, genital operations challenge “fundamental understandings of body, self, sexuality, family, and morality” and play “upon tensions relating to the cultural difference, the relationship between women and ‘tradition,’ and the legacy of colonial-era depictions of gender relations in non-Western countries” (406). It is beyond doubt that female circumcision violates women’s individuality and their human rights. The World Health Organization states that “‘female genital mutilation is universally unacceptable because it is an infringement on the physical and psychosexual integrity of women and girls and it is a form of violence against them’” (qtd. in Bell 130). Rahman and Toubia also take the position that “the cutting of healthy genital organs for non- medical reasons—is at its essence a basic violation of girls’ and women’s right to physical integrity” (qtd. in Bell 130). Referring to female excision as an operation and being concerned about the issue of informed consent, feminist scholar, Fran Hosken argues that “[a]ny violation of the physical nature of the human person, for any reason whatsoever, without the informed consent of the person involved, is a violation of human rights” (qtd. in Bell 130). However, African girls are cut at such an early age that they cannot understand what informed consent means let alone give their approval. In 1988, feminist scholar, Christine J. Walley, visited the village of Kikhome, in Kenya to witness first-hand the local custom of circumcision. As she says, this village was remote and difficult to reach by transportation. There she found two Anastasiadou 7 tribes: the Bukusu who lived in the valley and the Sabaot who farmed the hills. Soon after her arrival, the high school students “began telling [her] with boisterous pride about their circumcision ceremonies” (409). The Bukusu circumcised only boys, whereas the Sabaot both sexes. Because the Bukusu ceremonies were already over when she arrived, Walley was assured that she would be able to witness the Sabaot ceremonies “over the December school holidays” (409). Such rituals were a communal affair and were attended by crowds of people of all ages; the teenagers trained “for several months to learn the necessary songs and dances under the guidance of their sponsors” and then went around to invite their friends and relatives (410). The young people were warned by their mothers “not to disgrace their relatives, living or dead, by showing cowardice” (410). The significance of this ritual was tied not only to the initiation of boys into manhood and girls into womanhood, but also to the enforced code of bravery and to the repression of pain. As Walley reports: The cutting was public and demonstrated to the community the bravery of the initiated. The boys were cut by a male circumcisor while standing; the girls were excised by a woman as they sat with legs spread on the ground, their backs supported by their sponsors. The crucial test was for the initiate to show no pain, to neither change expression nor even blink, during the cutting. Remarkably enough to my friend and I, the initiates remained utterly stoic and expressionless throughout. We were told it is this ability to withstand the ordeal that confers adulthood, that allows one to marry and have children, and that binds one's age-mates. (410) What westerners learn by observing such tribal rituals is that the practice of excision for some African tribes is an occasion for celebration. No member of the tribe dares to Anastasiadou 8 criticize or reject it because they will either be accused of cowardice or face social ostracism, as Walley reports. Unfortunately, some African tribal women collude with patriarchal culture’s deceptive teachings, which reinforce anachronistic power relations between the two genders. “They believe FGM ‘saves and protects’ women. Instead, it maintains the balance of power in favor of unmutilated men” (Maher 15). The range of countries involved and the statistics referring to the number of genitally circumcised girls and women are alarming. Excision has afflicted approximately 80 to 120 million girls and women around the world (Maher 12). Accordingly, the