Soraya Mire,Eve Ensler
When Soraya MirÃ© was thirteen years old, the girls on the playground would taunt her, saying she could not play with themâ€”not as long as she walked with three legs. Confused and hurt, she went to her mother, who mysteriously responded that the time had come for Soraya to receive her gift. MirÃ© too soon discovers the horror of the â€œgift,â€ female genital mutilation (FGM), whereby a young girlâ€™s healthy organs are chopped off not only to make her acceptable to a future husband but also to rein in her â€œwildness.â€,In ,The Girl with Three Legs, ,Soraya MirÃ© reveals what it means to grow up in a traditional Somali family, where girlsâ€™ and womenâ€™s basic human rights are violated on a daily basis. A victim of FGM and an arranged marriage to an abusive cousin, MirÃ© was also witness to the instability of Somaliaâ€™s political landscape: her father was a general for the military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, and her family moved in the inner circles of Somaliaâ€™s elite. In her journey to recover from the violence done to her, MirÃ© realizes FGM is the ultimate child abuse, a ritual of mutilation handed down from mother to daughter and protected by the word â€œculture.â€,MirÃ©â€™s tale is a dramatic chronicle of the personal challenges she overcame, a testament to the empowerment of women, and a firsthand account of the violent global oppression of women and girls. Despite the horror she experienced, her words resonate with hope, humanity, and dignity. Her life story is one of inspiration and redemption.
Nonfiction,Biography,Autobiography,Memoir,Feminism,Eastern Africa,Somalia,Cultural,Africa,Contemporary,Adult,Biography Memoir
The Girl with Three Legs: A Memoir