Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Women

Reading this book drives me to tears and anger. How can people be so cruel for their own selfish means? The book was written in sincerity and it is easy read (I finished it in one go) and one cannot help but ask deep questions? When can all these cruel practises to hurt women stop? The opening quotation "Why is the child crying?" summs it up all.

I am Kola Boof, often and truthfully billed as the nation of Sudan's top woman writer. I am also a woman who is "vaginally circumcised"--mutilated, if you will. In fact, Sudan is Africa's leading nation for "FMG" as Americans call it. "Warrior Marks" is a superior work by a superior woman. While so many reviewers here have claimed that there are BETTER books on this subject than Walker's "Warrior Marks"....I would remind them that with so very little written about this subject in the first place--we need to read and value EVERYTHING that is offered on the subject, especially when offered by a Black Woman (Alice Walker) whose obvious love, care and respect for African women...seeps like a healing oil from every page. It's no secret that Alice Walker is one of the great inspirations of my own literary career and much of my work as an African woman from the Nilotic peoples of Sudan is distilled through the prism of her own American voice---as I struggled to find a way to tell my own stories with as much truth and bareness as possible. "Warrior Marks" is a tribute to the WORTHINESS of African women...a book that gives us permission to embrace our sexuality, to value our black bodies and to insist that those bodies be healed. It also gives us the chance for "forgiveness". And through Alice Walker's willingness to lay bare her own personal reactions and observations and "empathies"....a larger story of womanhood is revealed and committed to word. GOD bless both Alice and Pratibah, for such COURAGE.

Warrior marks was the account of all the time that Alice Walker and Pratibha Parmar spent in preparing for the documentary. They did not need to show how the mutilation is done because they painted a vivid enough picture. The book was about the emotional aspect of female genital mutilation. I must say that I commend them, especially Pratibha for the time that they spent preparing for the documentary. The book made me want to see the documentary. When Alice talks about herself in the book, she shows how her experiences were similar to that of the females in Africa. I recommend this book be read and the documentary seen.

I first became aware of female genital mutilation (FGM) when reading "The Color Purple," and again when reading Fausiya Kassindja's "Do They Hear You When You Cry." These two books led me to read "Warrior Marks." Female genital mutilation is a crime, an outrage, a sin before God. How dare the originators of this heinous procedure presume that what God created is faulty or a mistake? "Warrior Marks" enhanced what I had already learned about FGM. Any man (or woman) who tries to uphold this procedure as something that benefits girls and women is of a criminal mind. There is no benefit to putting a woman through this torture. If men were required to experience a similar experience, we would soon see the end of FGM. Please read this book if you seek another point of view. The addition of Alice Walker's poetry and the sharing of her experiences as she and Pratibha Parmar traveled through Africa is an eye-opener, and the way the book is written gives the reader a personal view in the same way that Ms. Kassindja's book does. Ms. Walker gives the women that she writes about a certain dignity, and while the reader may not be able to identify with the physical pain, some of the emotions may be felt. This is definitely a 5-star book.

An incredibly intense book. It is not for the easily frightened. The modern-day atrocities detailed in this book overshadow anything Steven King might think up. YOU WILL NEVER FORGET WHAT IS WRITTEN IN THIS BOOK. I based my senior thesis on Walker's works, and Warrior Marks opens a window into her soul. I would recommend this book to all men and women, especially those who think the modern world is devoid of barbaric cruelty.