Coming of Age Ritual: A Cruel Way Of Suppressing Women - Essay Example

“Coming of age” ritual is performed to make a child happy and confident about his or her entry into manhood or womanhood, respectively. However, in African countries, boys and girls suffer humiliation and physical pain in the name of the “coming of age” ritual. Particularly, the girls are put through excruciating pain and suffering in the name of tradition and culture (Croze 100). A deeper look at the psychology behind the girl’s “coming of age” ritual shows that in the African countries, the ritual is used as a weapon by male dominated society to permanently damage a woman’s self-esteem, and to make her weak in every aspect of her life.

Hence, the only way to save women from getting damaged on physical and psychological level, is to make them realize that the “coming of age” ritual is not a part of the culture, but is a method to stop them from living a happy, equal, respectable and satisfied life as men live. The Ritual The “coming of age” ritual for boys is performed in front of a group (Croze 100). The boy, usually between 14 to 18 years, is teased by his friends and is given a cold water bath (Croze 100). The cold water works as mild anesthesia when the foreskin of his sex organ is cut (Croze 100).

The boy is expected to bear the pain without flinching and later, he is showered with gifts, is declared brave, accepted by the group and is given a respectable position in the group (Croze 100). Hence, the ritual gives the boys confidence, strength and strong position in the society. However, the “coming of age” ritual performed on girls is far more painful, cruel and extreme than the ritual performed on boys, and it makes females lose their self-esteem, strength and social confidence permanently (Croze 100).

The female genital mutilation (FGM) causes a permanent psychological trauma to the victims (Karanja 17). A research by medical doctor from Egypt revealed that the psychological and social consequences of FGM are similar to the rape victims (Karanja 36). The inhuman nature of the ritual causes a social maladjustment in women due to humiliation, shame, guilt and silent suffering (Karanja 18). It kills their social confidence and it becomes impossible for them to recover from the trauma. The “coming of age” ritual for girls, practiced in African countries, is called as ‘female genital circumcision’ (FGC) (Karanja 17).

However, ‘circumcision’ is a mild word to describe the cruel ritual in which a sensitive part of innocent and helpless girl’s genitalia is removed (Karanja 17). During the ritual, an old woman acts as a circumciser and removes the sex organs of girl’s private parts without giving her anesthesia (Croze 100). The girl howls with pain and begs her relatives to stop but her wails are not responded as the women participate willingly and actively in the act of mutilation (Croze 100). The extent of the mutilation depends on the amount of destruction caused to the sex organs and it ranges from small pricks and cuts to complete removal of the clitoris (Mathai 209).

The women relatives who participate in the FGC believe in the traditional thinking that genital mutilation is done for the character building of the girl (Croze 100). However, the traditional beliefs are nothing but myths which are created to keep women under suppression and to keep them from having equal amount of rights and pleasure in sexual union and social status. Hence, efforts are being made by NGO’s, modern social workers and doctors in Africa to eradicate the practice of FGC (Croze 101). For e.g.

, the Krobo tribe in Ghana practice a