Who doesn’t remember those bedtime stories when the lights went down and the sun disappeared behind the night sky? Our worlds would then get illuminated with stories about mythical creatures, kings and their kingdoms, animals that built houses and about the old lady sewing magical garments in the sky.
Female Genital Mutilation/Circumcision refers to the procedure which involves partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or any other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons (WHO, 2018). FGM/C is broadly classified into 4 major types by the WHO (1996):
Mental health is something very close to my heart. I have grown up seeing my grandma coping with mental illness and every grown up in the house telling me that she has some issue in the head, without going into specifics. In hindsight, I don’t think even they were fully aware of her situation. Later on, I also realised the deep financial crunch that my family underwent for her treatment and how there was little to no support available in any shape or form. These events left their mark on me. While deciding a theme for my thesis, I stumbled upon the economics of mental health, simply by process of elimination. The economics of mental health has had me intrigued, since.
Happiness, as simple as it sounds, has become a ‘#goal’ in today’s time.
I am the soil, the filaments of the roots, the cradle of the shade.
It’s my power to nurture, pouring love
Into the beauty I held inside me.
Anyone that claims, my nurturing a burden,
Masquerading their fear of my power,
Their reluctance to redefine their ideas about shame
Shame not me, as I breastfeed.
Shame you, you failed your soil.
