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| View Larger Image | The Day Kadi Lost Part of Her Life
by Kim Manresa, Isabel Ramos Rioja
| | List Price: | $14.95 | | Price: | $13.45 | | You Save: | $1.50 (10%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 722201 | | Studio: | Spinifex Press | | | Binding: | Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 50 | | Publication Date: | March 28, 1999 | | Publisher: | Spinifex Press |
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CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 5 reviews)
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An extremely effective argument against FGM, among other things. 
Female Genital Mutilation.
Even the term is terrifying to the ears of western women. And in the stunning and controversial book The Day Kadi Lost a Part of Her Life, Kim Manresa, who won several awards for this book including the Silver Medal for Photojournalism, the Visa d'Or for L'Image del Festival International du Photojournalisme in Perpignan and the Human Rights Award for the International Week of Photojournalism and Isabel Ramos Rioja fully and explictly document not only the historicity of the process, but actual visual representation of it.
I first became aware of FGM back in the nineties when one of my favourite musicians, Johnette Napolitano, wrote a song covering it (which I also highly recommend, but that perhaps for another article). After researching it, I was horrified to discover that this was a common practice in several countries around the world and embarked to become as involved as possible in educating others in order to eventually bring it to late in hopes of eradicating it entirely.
Some background: Every year, over two million girls and women undergo FGM. The practice, which removes all or part of the female genitalita by generally one of three procedures:
Clitoridectomy, amputation of sections of, or all of the clitoris;
Excision, amputation of the clitoris and the labia minora;
Infibulation, also known as pharonic circumcision, is the most drastic form of FGM practiced, which includes excision and further cuts being made to the labia majora to cause raw surfaces which are then sewn or clipped together to cause the two flaps to join allowing only a small opening for the purposes of urination, menstruation and intercourse.
It is practiced in over 28 African nations and reported among Muslim populations in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Malayasia, although there are no absolute figures as to how widespread it is within those countries. It is performed without benefit of anesthetic or medical tools, is a tradition that spans centuries and predates both Islam and Christianity. It is important to note that the majority of Muslims as well as Christians are vehemently opposed to FGM.
The prologue, penned by Olayinka Koso-Thomas's, details that it is "typical of every little girl who lives in a community where to be loved, married, and held in high esteem requires you to be genitally mutilated. Failure to undergo the operation leads to harassment, ridicule, abuse, trauma, and eventual ostracism from one's community".
When I first picked up this book, there was nothing in the cover that would indicate the horror that lay within. It begins with photographs. of Kadi, showing her as a beautiful, smiling four year old girl awaiting her `initiation'. The reader is drawn in as the tale becomes devastatingly clear - one woman holding her down while the other slices away at her genitalia. Each picture tells its own story, unfolding into a horrific event that will leave the reader disturbed for longer than it takes to read the book.
Much, much longer. Even now writing this, I cannot shake the violence of the assault on my own feminine sensibilities. I defy even one woman to view this book and not become infuriated by the last page. And I think that was exactly the point of Mancesa - to show, rather than tell. Pictures in this case being more than anything words can ever tell. The choice of black and white pictures as opposed to color do nothing to lessen the impact of horror upon the reader.
I recommend this book, not for its somewhat exploitative nature - I have to imagine Kim Manresa possesses a heart of stone to have been able to stand still to photograph these scenes - but for the very shaking and horrific images that it unseats within the viewer. I think after everything I have reads regarding FGM - this book alone was what really brought it home. The last image of the book, with Kadi standing alone in a hut where she is not allowed to cry or weep, and where she must stay until her wounds are healed, may be even the most disturbing image of all.
The book is published by Spinifex Press, with part of the proceeds dedicated to the London based non-government organisation FORWARD (the Foundation for Women's Health, Research and Development) who work internationally for the elimination of female genital mutilation worldwide.
A final note: one review on Amazon.ca notes this book as 'A must for every coffee table". I wouldn't go that far - this is not something you would ever want anyone (let alone a child) to stumble upon. But as far as bringing a horrific vision to life in a way that only pictures ever can, this book will singularly change your perspective on the horror that FGM is, if not your life.
June 25, 2008 | |
Imperialist Step In the Wrong Direction 
This book has been torn to pieces by every academic I have ever read. This book exploits women who experience FGM and portrays them as barbaric torturers or, alternatively, as pathetic, victims. There is no reason to encourage Westerners to view FGM as a disgusting, foreign practice. This work of fiction only encourages the belittling of African women and the continued mis-understanding of FGM, which varies, family to family, culture to culture over a huge area. Women in the developing world face many challenges. FGM is only one facing fewer than half of African women. FGM is a human rights abuse. It is dangerous and abusive in any form and leads to many deaths every year. There are far better ways to fight injustice than to exploit those who suffer from it.
November 23, 2007 | |
Get out the tissues. You will cry yours eyes out.
This book was so sad and so shocking. But a must read. If enough people would get involved maybe this horrible practice would be stopped!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I cried through most of the book . I'm so angry that Africa, and a few other countries will cut all the babies genitals off . They do this as early as age 1 year old. This woman's story tells oh how at age 6 , she her 3 yea old sister and 1 year old were all deprived on their vaginal parts..together, all in same day. They use knives, scissors, dirty filthy tools used over and over till completely dull. Some even use their teeth!
This is a much needed book to read.
March 14, 2007 | |
Well Done, but EXTREMELY GRAPHIC! DISTURBING & SICKENING!
I checked this book out from the library, and even though I knew that it was about female circumcision, otherwise known as F.G.M. or female genital mutilation, I had NO idea how graphic this book really was!
This book, "The Day Kadi Lost Part of Her Life", by Kim Manresa, is a horrifying photo book detailing the day when a young girl in a sub-Sahara region of Africa, is circumcised in the most unsanitary, unhygienic, unsterile, and torturous way possible.
It is heart-wrenching to know that in the 21st Century, this kind of cruelty is going on, every single day to babies, and little kids all over the globe, but particularly in Africa, and the Middle East. It's so easy for those living in America & protected from awful kinds of tortures like this to ignore the suffering of less fortunate people on the other side of the world.
But a book like this certainly opens your eyes to just how fortunate we all are to be living in a free society like the United States. Women, especially, should thank their lucky stars that we are not born in countries like Somalia, Ethiopia, the Sudan, Togo, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Egypt, and other countries.
This book is extremely disturbing, showing in pictures from start to finish, a young girl named Kadi, having her genitals mutilated, without anesthesia, or even any sterile equipment, and then not even being allowed to cry, forced to keep silent by the evil monster who had just finished torturing her. It was just sickening!
My heart was ACHING just looking at this book. It hurt so bad, that I wanted to just reach through the pages before poor Kadi was circumcised (tortured and mutilated), pull her out of the book, and bring her to live under protection in the United States.
Alas, that is not possible, and day after day this horror goes on and on, despite being outlawed in many countries. There has to be some way to help end this barbaric and cruel practice. F.G.M is WRONG, and it has NO religious basis. Like "honor killing", and the veiling and seclusion of women, it is not sanctioned by ANY religion, Islam or otherwise.
This book is VERY well done, but as I have said before, it is EXTREMELY graphic! It is very disturbing, and it took me several hours of TV to get this book's awful photos, out of my head. Even to this day, I still have this terrible knot in the pit of my stomach, from the pictures fleeting through my mind.
But if there is one thing that this book has done, it has made me grateful every single day that I am an American citizen (albeit an Indian-American) and that I was born and raised in the United States.
It has also made me want to join in the effort to help do whatever it takes to eradicate this cruel and barbaric practice forever.
The media needs to shed more light on this torture that little girls and women are subjected to on a daily basis. This country and other developed nations need to band together to put an end to this ancient and brutal tradition.
June 10, 2005 | |
The day Kadi lost part of her life
A must for every coffee table ...
April 16, 2000 | |
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