00:00Dear Prime Minister, Do you know that thousands of girls are cut every year?
00:07The hood of the clitoris is unceremoniously chipped off under the pretext of a practice
00:14called khatna, khavs or what is popularly called as the female genital mutilation or
00:19female circumcision.
00:20When I was seven years old, my mother held my hand and took me to a clinic.
00:27She and a gynaecologist held me down on a metal bed in the clinic and then there was
00:34just piercing, blinding pain.
00:39There was no explanation, there were no answers and I had several questions.
00:45These were left unanswered for a very, very long time.
00:49My mother passed away when I was 19 years old and this issue was never resolved with
00:55her.
00:5630 years later, in the course of my work, when I interviewed several other survivors
01:02and listened to their stories, their pain resonated with mine.
01:07And it's only then that I realized that I was a victim of female circumcision.
01:14The Daudi Bora community, which practices this practice on its girls, on its daughters,
01:20is a very progressive community.
01:23The women who make these decisions to get their daughters cut are very well-educated
01:27like my mother.
01:30It is incomprehensible how this practice, which is termed as a human rights violation
01:35by the United Nations and is a very well-known fact that has no medical benefits whatsoever
01:41for a woman, continues to be practiced.
01:45Dear Prime Minister, I request you to consider a ban on this practice in India.
01:52Make it illegal, the way it is illegal in the United States.
01:57It is a deeply patriarchal practice, which has no benefits whatsoever, only aimed to
02:03control a woman's body, her sexuality and her right to a healthy life.
02:09I have two daughters now and I know for a fact that I would never put them through this.
02:14And I request that other daughters be saved from the trauma I had to suffer and so many
02:20others like myself have had to suffer for so many years.
02:24Put an end to this.
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