Women in Kenya--Jacie

Over the past few weeks of learning in our Kenya course we have focused primarily on the lives on women in the culture.  Women in Kenya make up the backbone of society doing both the manual labor in the field as well as raising their families.  The culture overall however is still a patriarchy and women have little no rights at all. 

            In class this past week we viewed an emotionally heavy film on FGM (female genital mutilation) and early marriage in Kenya.  Although both were made illegal in 2001, these rituals/traditions are still practiced in the rural/bush areas of the country.  I am sitting here trying to find the right words to express to you how emotionally charged this film was… but I’m not sure I can find the words to do justice to how terrible of a practice these two traditions are.

            The film featured several interviews with young women who had been victims of both FGM and early marriage. One girl in particular had her story followed from the day she realized she was being given away in marriage to her ultimate rescue. The girls (most of the time they are younger than 14) who are given away in an exchange for—get this, cows—are not told that they are being given away until the day of.  The FGM and marriage rituals begin with the elderly women shaving the young girl’s hair completely off… this is how the girls know that their father has sold them to another, always much older, man. In the film, the man that this young girl had been promised to was old enough to be her grandfather. Watching the young girl walk down the “aisle” absolutely sobbing while her family simply looked on was overwhelming. I wanted to scream at the family, all the while wondering how someone could do that to their child.

            I realize that the above paragraphs are a little jumbled and do not flow very well, but something that needs to be realized is how hard it is to put these emotions into words. It’s very hard for me to express the heartbreak I felt while watching this film and hearing the words from these young girls.

            There is hope though! Thankfully, education has created a change of mind in the younger generations. Families are beginning to understand the value of education for both their sons and daughters.  Girls are staying in school rather than getting married off at such a young age, they are beginning to value their own education… My prayer is that the older generations in Kenya will also begin to realize the importance of education.  It has given freedom to the women in Kenya and even with the young men. Perhaps, if education is stressed even more prominently, the boys who grow up to be men in the Kenya society will also begin to value the women by whom they are surrounded.    

--Jacie