Berlin Clinic Aims To Make Genital Cutting Survivors Feel Whole
At a recent sewing class held in Berlin at Mama Afrika, which helps immigrants adjust to life in Germany, most of the African and Middle Eastern students feign ignorance when founder Hadja Kaba asks them about female genital mutilation.
Turning to one young woman wearing a veil she asks, "Have you been cut?"
"Yes," the woman answers, holding up the cloth she is sewing.
Kaba tries again. "No, not the cloth – Down there!"
The veiled woman shakes her head and turns back to her fabric.
Getting women to admit they've been circumcised is not easy. But a new medical facility in the German capital seeks to help victims of female genital mutilation, also known as female genital cutting, by offering what its founders call the most comprehensive treatment available in Europe.
Doctors there say the goal of the Desert Flower Center is to help women become whole again by ridding them of the physical and psychological pain resulting from forced circumcision. They've turned to immigrant groups and women's organizations like Mama Afrika to find patients, who receive the care for free through German health insurance and donations.
Mama Afrika's Kaba says most of the women in this sewing class had part or all of their external genitalia cut off years ago. The practice is a long-standing tradition across religious lines in most of Africa and in parts of Asia and the Middle East.
The World Health Organization says about 140 million women and girls are living with medical issues like incontinence or abnormal growths called fistulas, as well as psychological consequences of the procedure.
Proponents of the practice – most of whom are women – argue that cutting girls in this manner enshrines their purity and virtue.
“ I don't know what happened, I just feel a very sharp pain, you know? The way you feel, it's like you are already dead.