1/9 Today I had a conversation with my mom about female genital mutilation #FGM and she told me some thing really disturbing
So what happened is, I was telling her about my baby cousin who is 8 years younger than me and how she had undergone #FGM as a baby😔
2/9 Her dad had said no to #FGM so my aunt(her mom) lied she wanted to visit her ill father just so that she can take my cousin away from my uncle and have her undergo #FGM
According to my aunt,she didn't want my cousin to lack a husband later and suffer urinary tract deseases😔
3/9 My uncle found out about it later but all was forgiven😔
My baby cousin sis is now a big girl and she will spend the rest of her life like that. Sad😔
4/9 So my mom was like ooh!They used to do that at your dad's villages (singida) that's why I never allowed anyone to take you to the village when you were young🤨
I was like - "but they wouldn't have done that to me" and my mom said "actually, they wanted to do that to YOU"😲
5/9 Apparently, when I was born, grandmother(my dad's mom) came, I was a baby, and she asked if I had undergone #FGM
My mom said - "no and I dare you to touch my daughter's private parts"😤
B'se of that my mom didn't allow her to even bathe me🧐
6/9 Later(still a child) my grandfather came and asked my mom - "what will you do if someone do #FGM to her?"
My mom said - "I'll take that person to the police"👩🏾✈️
Grandpa asked again - "what if you leave her here, you go somewhere, and someone take her and perform #FGM to her?"
7/9 My mom said - "if I find her like that, I'll take her with blood dripping from her, I'll go straight to the police with her like that and I'll make sure the people responsible spend the rest of their lives behind bars"😠
After that,the topic was never brought up again
8/9 My mom says that, after that she was scared to go with me to singida. She never took me there or allowed me to go there when I was young. The first time I went to singida, I was 17
9/9 Just to be clear - both my grandparents have passed on and they lived long enough to understand that #FGM is an abuse to women and changed their perspectives later in life.
May their humble souls rest in peace
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