Priya Goswami 24 years student of film and video communication got a special mention at 60th National Film Awards for her 27 minute documentary goes where no one has…sting operations and hidden cameras!
In Pinch of Skin, the young filmmaker gets a string of women to openly share the horror of female genital mutilation (FMG), a practice so secretive, often brothers aren’t aware their sisters have undergone it. The one million strong communities of Dawoodi Bohras, a sect of Ismaili Shias concentrated in trade-focused centers of Maharashtra and Gujarat, carry out the practice citing ‘faith’ as reason, although Islamic scholars say Islam doesn’t sanction it.
About 140 million girls and women worldwide live with the consequences of FGM, locally FGM is called khatna, is carried out in secrecy by senior women of the community using blades without medical supervision on seven-year-olds, who the film says are “old enough to remember” The logic is as adults, the girls will practice the ceremony on their children, and since they are pre-adolescent at seven, they are unlikely to suffer severe physiological damage. Goswami managed to get the women to talk without revealing their identity – despite being an outsider, is remarkable.
Goswami’s interviewers tell her the aim of khatna is simple – to curb “the urge” in women, satisfied with their husbands, the women are unlikely to seek pleasure outside the marriage, young interviewers were very angry that a part of her body was removed without explanation or permission, and remains silent when asked if circumcision is aimed at denying women orgasm the answer was “ask the priests” she finally says. Intercourse is painful; a third admits “I guess it is so for all women.”
And so, Goswami succeeds in starting conversation on the practice within the community, she was amazed that women themselves justify the practice and have made peace with it. The term used for the clitoris by the women – “harami boti” reveals a deep-seated revulsion towards their own anatomy and sexuality. This is hardly community-specific, Goswami observes “don’t our grandmother say, women are the root of all trouble?” she asks “don’t we banish young widows to Brindavan?”
Goswami interviewed men; she chose to leave them out of the film. “I wished to depict the practice as one done on women by women, although instituted by patriarchy.” Goswami’s film includes strong voices of dissent, although they are outnumbered. A mother who decided to skip the tradition when it came to her own daughters admits she kept her act of defiance a secret. If the film encourages more women to speak out, Goswami says her efforts will be worth it.
Her statement at the start of the film: “For this film I have no religion nor am I born into any community. All I know is that I am just a woman and that is my only identity.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) defies FGM as all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organ for non-medical reason. The procedure according to WHO website holds no health benefits for women and consequences can range from severe bleeding and infection to complication in childbirth.
The film was screened at the Al Jazeera International Documentary Festival in April.
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