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

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

Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation and Sexual Binding of Women, by Alice Walker and Pratibha Parmar

Jonathan cape: London, 1993. Alice Walker is one writer who knows the meaning of pushing against the tide. Having won many honours and awards for her poetry and novels, including the prestigious Pultizer Prize for her novel, "The Colour Purple", Walker still believes that telling the truth and using art as a means to transform the injustices and inequities in our societies is a task more meaningful than the accolades.

Walker's latest push towards change through art has been her two works, Warrior Marks, co-authored with the London-based feminist filmmaker Pratibha Parmar, and Possessing the Secret Joy. Both books, one non-fiction and the other fiction, deal with the controversial issue of female genital mutilation.

An estimated 90 to 100 million women in Africa, Asia and the Middle East have been genitally mutilated, and the practice is far from dying out. Despite the numerous books, articles and films on the subject prior to Walker's works, her most recent tackling of the subject has met with praise, condemnation and resistance.

The loudest voices have been those who condemn, even African women who feel that Walker, who herself is a child of the diaspora, has no right to be talking about an issue which does not directly impact on her...