honor killings/fgm

I feel so lucky to have a supportive family. This was my overriding thought during Sammar's presentation. I was horrified to actually read the accounts of the honor killings. They were so brutal, and many of them involved young children, either as victims or spectators. I cannot imagine living in fear of my own father or brother hurting or killing me because I had a boyfriend they did not approve of or they thought I was flirting with somebody inappropriately. I also cannot imagine how a parent can kill their own child so brutally. It must be so ingrained in them at young ages; it is brainwashing. In the families that do this it is clear that the women are treated like second class family members. Males can have affairs or pre-marital sex, but women are killed if they are, or even if they are suspected to have had sex outside of marriage. They would even kill females if they were raped--that is crazy; nobody goes out with the intent of getting raped, and it is not the victims fault. Women in those lives must feel so contrained by a lack of choice; they cannot choose their husband or speak their mind. They also have to teach their daughters to be this way too for fear they will be pariahs and not supported if not.

The same thing goes for fgm. I was so upset when we were hearing what that actually is in class. I had heard about them before, but never in that much detail or hearing about the consequences. I don't know how anybody would find that to be a good idea. The most upseting part is that it is females doing this to other females. I was shocked when that lady that said it had to be done to dissipate any sexual desire, because she was a woman in support of woman mutilation. It upsets me so much. I also don't really see why the males in these societies would like this. I'm not an expert on the subject, but I feel like if I were a male and I wanted to have sex with a woman, it would not be as pleasurable if she had undergone genital mutilation. Also, if sex is so painful for the woman with fgm, I would imagine it would be hard to find a woman who was willing to have sex with you. Fgm also has negative effects in reproduction and fertility, so that makes it harder to procreate and give birth; one of the main points of sex. It just baffles me. It just seems like an embarrassment of sorts to the female.