The Planting of Girls

Hey All,

So this week I watched The Planting of Girls for Comm. 399 and all I really have to say is "ouch!"

The entire film (another by Viola Shafik by the way) is a documentary about the practice of female circumsicion in the Middle East. In the film various families get to discuss why they do or do not choose to circumsize their women.

Unlike male circumsicion, which typically happens at birth, female circumsision usually takes place at the onset of puberty or anytime between 7-13 years of age. More often than not, these procedures are done without any kind of anestheic. Basically what happens is the doctor or midwife (or whoever typically performs the procedure in a certain village) completely removes a girl's clitoris and the surrounding tissue...yeah...like I said...ouch!!!

From what I could gather, those who still choose to carry on the practice do so because it's a traditional practice that's been done for many years. Others claim that in the Quran the prophet encourages the practice to keep women pure and clean. In the film more than one mother validated her choice to circumsize her daughter because of the belief that circumzising actually helps calm a girl and keep her mild mannered as opposed to being a boy crazy wild child.

There has been a recent movement however to educate people about the practice of female circumsision and about the major misconceptions people have about the practice. There was one woman in the film who held a sort of sex ed. for grown ups class. She pretty much told these women that female circumsision does not make a girl calmly or pure...she tried to drive home the fact that modern science has determined that our brains are responsible for our control over our actions and if a girl is disobedient its because she chooses to be that way not because of a piece of skin.

Some of the women in the film were truely depressed because of their circumsisions. They have quite a bit of deep seated resentment and hatred toward their family members who one day grabbed them and forced this procedure on them. They were never asked their own permission. Others still were in unhappy marriages and in the midst of divorce. One man, in the film, actually came and complained to his wife's doctor about her inability to feel anything while in the midst of intercourse because of this procedure.

The film was pretty hard to sit through. You know how guys automatically cringe when they see another guy - in real life or even on TV - get kneed in the groin? Yeah, this film was kinda like that only for girls. Lol. The film wasn't graphic and it didn't show any of the actual procedures but just hearing about them was pretty bad. I just didn't quite understand why a mother - who had herself experienced the pain and suffering associated with such a procedure - would put her daughters through the same thing.