"Since my operation, I feel liberated. It's like a new life." Bintou learned by chance that she had been circumcised in her native Mali.
Having lived in France for ten years, she has just undergone reconstructive surgery at Montreuil hospital.
"It was the first time I talked about it. I spent an hour crying," recalls the 27-year-old banking employee after her post-operative consultation.
In a specialized unit of this hospital in Seine-Saint-Denis, victims of excision can see a midwife, a psychologist, a sexologist and then, if they wish, a surgeon to be operated on.
From March 8, International Women's Day, the entire course will be covered by Social Security, not just the operation.
"My family doesn't know yet. I'm going to tell them this summer when I return to Mali. I need to talk to my mom about it, so she can apologize. I was very angry with her," Bintou said, a week after her operation. "I learned I had been circumcised by overhearing a phone conversation. I have no memory of it; I think I was a baby."
– “A revenge” –
According to the Ministry for Gender Equality, the number of circumcised women in France is estimated at 125,000.
In Montreuil, the majority of patients admitted arrived in France after having been circumcised in their country of origin.
"Others were circumcised in their parents' country of origin during the holidays, and a few were circumcised in France in the 1980s," says Sarah Abramowicz, an obstetrician-gynecologist who created the unit in 2017.
Another patient remembers being circumcised at the age of six in an apartment in the Paris region.
She remembers seeing children coming out of the building in tears, without knowing why, and then the pain she felt.
Her circumciser, Hawa Gréou, was sentenced in 1998 to eight years in prison for the mutilation of 48 girls.
"My cousin had her breasts repaired, and she told me it was as if she had been given back what had been stolen from her. It made me want to do it again. I always felt like I was missing something. I felt different from others when I talked about sexuality with my friends," the 45-year-old Malian woman said during her consultation. She will have the operation on March 11.
– “Feminist struggle” –
"It's a fairly easy operation, based on the same techniques as gender reassignment surgeries," explains Emilie Orain, a surgeon trained by Sarah Abramowicz.
"I'm glad I decided to do it on my own, without talking to my parents. It was a revenge, because when I was circumcised, I wasn't asked either," Bintou emphasizes. "Being able to have sex for the first time at 27, and reducing the risk of complications during childbirth, that's what motivated me the most."
"I think it's beautiful, I'm very happy, it made me forget a lot of things," rejoices another patient, Djeni Coulibaly, an asylum seeker, between bursts of laughter. A victim of female genital mutilation at the age of 14 in Ivory Coast and forced into marriage, she underwent the operation three weeks ago after fleeing her country.
For many women, female genital mutilation is only the beginning of a series of abuses. In the unit, many have suffered sexual violence, marital rape, and forced marriage. Some have fled their country to prevent their daughters from also being circumcised.
"I tell myself that it's a feminist struggle," says Sarah Abramowicz.
"The operation can trigger trauma, flashbacks, and nightmares. That's why we perform it under general anesthesia," Emilie Orain emphasizes to patients during consultations.
Generally, "they hide it from their partners, who don't agree. In some cultures, they think that women are uncontrollable if their clitoris isn't cut off," the surgeon regrets.
Two hundred women undergo this treatment program each year. Half of them undergo surgery. In the next three years, the unit hopes to welcome a thousand more.
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