In college, I took Women and Literature, and the first book on the syllabus was Alice Walker’s Possessing the Secret of Joy. I am not going to lie…it was bit much for this 21 year old girl. I had never heard of female genital mutilation. I had heard of foot-binding, the stretching of the neck with rings, and facial tattooing — all exposing girls to primitive methods and medicine. 

I was surprised to learn that female genital mutilation was practiced in great numbers in Africa, the Middle East, parts of Asia and Latin America. Some doctors even in America performed the procedure to help control young girls’ urges. The U.N. estimates that 200 million girls have experienced some form of female genital mutilation (some times referred to as female circumcision or “bathing”). This number continues to rise. The U.N. declared February 6 International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation Day.

Possessing the Secret of Joy follows the story of Tashi Johnson, an Olinkan tribal woman living most of her life in America with her husband Adam. Upon returning to her tribe after a war, she decides to undergo the initiation ceremony of the woman because she is torn between two cultures. Tashi knows the risk of the ceremony – her sister Dura bled to death after undergoing the ritual. But instead of feeling free having escaped initiation originally, Tashi feels shame and loneliness. 

Instead of lessening the shame and loneliness, the trauma caused by the ritual causes Tashi to see psychiatrists for the rest of her life. She feels little connection to her husband, her son, and her sister-in-law. She feels voiceless. But will she find the voice she lost before she dies?