Young children tackle social taboos on stage, TV
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| Courtesy of May Abdeen I DON'T WANT TO DIE: Two young girls listen to their elders as they argue over wheter or not to cirumcize them |
Courtesy of May Abdeen YOUNG TALENT: Fatma Youssef(L), housing director congratulates 13-year old Mohamed Khaled(R) on his performance as a sexually frustrated husband |
“I don’t want to die, Sabah,” said 11-year old Amira Ashraf. As she played the role of a sexually unfulfilled wife, Ashraf remembers the day her cousin died after they were both circumcised.
In the Zamalek dormitory of the American University in Cairo (AUC), five children from Ballas, Qalyubia took part in a play on April 4 about female circumcision, or female genital mutilation (FGM). The performance was part of a talent show organized by Plan Egypt, part of the international non-governmental organization (NGO) Plan International, whose development initiatives focus on children’s issues.
The children were motivated to play their roles by images they had seen and stories they had heard, according to May Abdeen, resident advisor at the Zamalek dorms and an intern at Plan Egypt.
“A girl at my school died; she was circumcised when she was eight,” said Ashraf in an interview with the Caravan. Ashraf plays the role of the wife of another child actor, 13-year old Mohamed Khaled, who plays her sexually frustrated husband.
“I watched a girl bleed to death after she was circumcised at our local hospital. Then I watched the butcher who did it come back and practice medicine,” added Hany Maher, 13, who plays the doctor who carries out the fatal circumcision.
FGM was banned by Egyptian law in June 2007 after the death of a 12-year old girl in Upper Egypt. Despite that, the practice is still considered a necessity by many Egyptians to protect the chastity of their daughters, who lose sexual desire after the procedure.
According to a study by the US State department, nearly 90% of Egyptian women have been circumcised.
Audience reactions were diverse, ranging from shock to awe.
“The first scene was disturbing for me; I couldn’t digest the idea of children having a conversation tilted with sexual hints,” said Mayy El Shiekh, a political science junior. That first scene featured Khaled complaining about his wife’s lack of sexual desire: “I don’t feel like I’m married.”
“It makes sense that they know about this; their lives are affected by it… But I was impressed that they were able to understand this enough to express it,” said Laura Kathy, a political science study-abroad student
“When I found out that girls are circumcised in Egypt more than in any other Arab country and that there is no support for it in the Quran, I felt I wanted to tell people,” said Khaled, who interviewed imams at his local mosque as research for his role. “I know that a father can sleep better after he’s circumcised his daughter, but I know if I were a girl, I wouldn’t want this to happen to me,” he added.
However, female circumcision is not the only thing these children are learning about. As part of the Child Media project launched by Plan Egypt in 2007, AUC students are recruited through the career advising and recruitment services office (CAPS) to help children learn about other issues such as gender equality, drugs and the importance of including persons with disabilities in the community. These topics were all touched upon during the performance.
Abdeen, who worked with the children to produce the talent show, explained that the kids would select a phenomenon they were confused about, such as why Egyptian men divorce their wives if they only give birth to daughters, and she would teach them how to research the topic and then vocalize what they have learned.
“All these kids have the potential, but not the resources, and it’s up to us to help them learn and express what they’ve learned with minimum resources,” she said.
According to Maha El Moslemany, senior officer of experiential learning at CAPS, Plan Egypt needs eight to 12 interns at any given time to work with children. They are looking for journalism and mass communication (JMC) or political science majors, or students of other majors with high interest in developing the community, she added.
The children, who attend a small public school in Ballas, have also performed their scenes about circumcision, gender equality and the necessity of education in several villages, as well as on a 20-minute segment on Esma’oona (Hear Us), a TV program aired every Friday at 11 a.m. on Egypt’s local Channel One.