Abstract
Why design a pedagogical tool focused on female genital mutilation (FGM)? The answer is quite simply, “Why not?” The seeds for this pedagogical tool were planted in 2007 while I was a doctoral student at the University of San Francisco. At the time, I had been left emotionally shattered after reading the 2011 book Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad by author and activist Waris Dirie. I couldn’t stop thinking about Dirie’s story and all of the millions of unknown girls and women who had been subjected to FGM by the people who were supposed to love and protect them. I was especially moved by the following words:
I feel that God made my body perfect the way I was born. Then man robbed me, took away my power, and left me a cripple. My womanhood was stolen. If God had wanted those body parts missing, why did he create them? I just pray that one day no woman will have to experience this pain. It will become a thing of the past. People will say Did you hear, female genital mutilation has been outlawed in Somalia?’ Then the next country, and the next, and so on, until the world is safe for all women. What a happy day that will be, and that’s what I’m working toward. In’shallah, if God is willing, it will happen. (Dirie, 2011, p. 240)
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© 2015 Susan Roberta Katz and Andrea McEvoy Spero
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Dixon, O.C. (2015). Female Genital Mutilation: A Pedagogical Tool to Explore Global Violence against Women. In: Katz, S.R., Spero, A.M. (eds) Bringing Human Rights Education to US Classrooms. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137471130_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137471130_12
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