academic speech final
TRANSCRIPT
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8/3/2019 Academic Speech Final
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CAES 1901 Academic Speech 1st
Draft
14th November 2011
Circumcision.
When you first hear this word, what first comes to your mind? I guess, most of you would
relate it to male circumcision, which is a ubiquitous practice in many religions, such as
Muslim and Judaism. However, few of us may think of FGC, namely Female Genital Cutting.
FGC involves procedures to remove or injure the external female sexual organ for non-
medical reasons. According to the WHO, 100140 million women and girls are living with
FGC. 100 to 140 million? It may sound a bit abstract. But think of it that way. There are 7
million people in Hong Kong, so in other words, female who have been circumcised equals to
the total number of people in 20, exactly 20 Hong Kongs.
The influence of FGC worldwide is profound; its influence on female is even more profound.
The initial pain they suffer when they receive the surgery is so immense that it probably goes
beyond ones imagination. Because the circumcision is entirely non-medical, it is often times
NOT carried out by doctors or nurses. Instead, indigenous women will be the one using thescissors. No medicine will be used to soothe the pain. They walk through the torture relying
on herbs, leaves, and more importantly, their own determination to live.
Yet, how would they ever know that their suffering does not stop there. Following the initial
pain is extreme loss of blood. The lucky ones survive. And ruefully, the unlucky one dont.
For those who survive, they cannot urinate because their urine system is infected. They
cannot discharge menstrual blood because their vagina is sewed up. They cannot walk
properly because the wound hurts so badly. In some extreme cases, they cannot even give
birth to babies which make them outcast in their village.
Knowing that the suffering undergone by this group of women is so intolerable, many
feminists in the West feel the weight on their shoulder. They know they have to dosomething. But they do it the wrong way.
In September 1994, CNN brought the entire scene to living rooms around the globe by
broadcasting a television report of a ten-year-old Egytian girl in Cairo undergoing FGC.
Although it has raised international concern towards FGC in Egypt, the CNN filming had
enraged the locals. Some local newspaper even called it a public crime.
Imagine you were an African. You are watching the telly on one night in September 1994. On
this little black box, you see a group of indigenous women surrounding that young and
untamed 10-year-old little girl in an enclosed dark tent. She is being held on the floor, stoutly,
forcefully. An older woman is holding a pair of rusted scissors. She slowly pieces the tip of
the scissor into the girls vagina. The sound of the metal scissors is ringing in the air. Cut.Cut. Cut. Another is holding a thick stack of rough fabric to take away the removed organ and
hold the blood. Cut. Cut. Cut.
Those women surrounding her are silent. But the girl is not. She is screaming, calling for
mercy, gasping for breath, pleading that her body can be spared. She keeps asking, Why
Mum? Why did you let them do this to me?
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8/3/2019 Academic Speech Final
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This sensational scene haunts many. Even though it is a secret to nobody, imagine you were
the Africans, would you want to see on screen? Would you want someone to tear apart your
own wounds in front of the global population, in front of their dining table.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. The press out there has shown insensitivity towards
the Africans feeling, and aroused hatred and discontent among the Africans.
To solve the FGC problem in Africa, to fully eliminate brutality in any places in the world, to
fight for equal rights to live happily ever after for all girls and women, we must take the first
step to understand the issue and put ourselves into their shoes. Lets start today. Show support
to any anti-FGC movements, and strive for the betterment of the entire human race, that is
free from brutality, free from pain and free from torture. Thank you.