The Caged Virgin - Ayaan Hirsi Ali [53]
THE FAMILY OF these two girls paid people traffickers a hefty sum of money to let their children go to school in the Netherlands. This was done in a spirit of hopeful optimism; then—inadvertently—the whole thing ended like this.
Anab’s story shows how a girl is sacrificed in the name of the sacred cult of virginhood to save the family honor. And it is not just Anab who becomes the victim of this myth; her children and husband are equally affected. Her husband behaves insanely with her and tells himself it is all right, since “she had lost her virginity, so she was already a whore.” And her two children literally grow up in a rubbish dump. What will become of them?
Anab’s younger sister Shukri leaves for good. She escapes and never wishes to have anything to do with her family again.
THE VIRTUOUS HOUSEWIFE
She is in her mid-forties, has two children, and is pregnant with her third. The doctor tells her that he wants to discuss the result of a blood test that was done as part of a routine pregnancy examination. There is something important he needs to tell her: she is HIV-positive.
The woman is upset: “That’s not true. I have led such a virtuous, chaste life. I have strictly adhered to the rules of Islam and of my family. And when I was young I never so much as looked at a boy. I have never been alone with a boy. I can’t possibly have a sexually transmitted disease.”
The doctor repeats that she is HIV-positive all the same and asks: “What about your husbands’s sexual activities?”
She replies that her husband is very good to her, that he takes good care of the children, behaves in a responsible manner, and comes from a good family. It is out of the question that her husband could have contracted HIV. And anyway, it is a disease Muslims cannot get. It is a disease that affects Christians, and above all homosexuals. Neither she nor her husband has had a blood transfusion, so that cannot be the cause either.
When her husband is examined, it turns out that he is also HIV-positive. He moved to the Netherlands before her. She joined him later when the family was reunited. It seems likely that when he was on his own, he led an active sex life or regularly slept with prostitutes.
“AFTER THE ABORTION, I WILL NEED TO BE A VIRGIN”
I am called by a doctor. “I have little Amma here, a Somali girl,” he says, “who wants to discuss something serious but refuses to see an interpreter. We’ve finally got her to accept an interpreter over the phone. Can you help?”
The girl refuses an interpreter because she is too ashamed to reveal her problems in the presence of another Somali woman. To win her trust I tell her that as an interpreter I am sworn to secrecy. She refuses to give her name. She is seventeen but smart for her age. When I promise her I will not pass on anything to anyone else, she says, “No, you had better not.”
She says to the doctor, “I am pregnant and I want it removed.”
“How do you know you’re pregnant?” the doctor asks.
“I bought a predictor kit, and the test showed that I’m pregnant,” she says. “I wasn’t surprised because I had missed my period.”
The doctor says that she is still officially underage and that he cannot just refer her to an abortion clinic. Her guardian at the trust in charge of underage asylum seekers will have to be involved in the decision.
“No,” she answers. “I don’t want her to know.”
The doctor says that in that case he cannot help her.
“Okay,” she says, “then I’ll go to Rotterdam. There is a Cape Verdean woman there who can do it.”
Afraid of what might happen to her in Rotterdam, the doctor gives in: “All right, I’ll help you. But I insist on having an interpreter present. Because it is my duty as a doctor to explain everything to you.”
She describes how her pregnancy would be regarded in the Somali community: “If they find out, I’ll become an outcast.” At the shelter for refugees, she shares a room with two other Somali women. To prevent them from realizing that she is pregnant, she wants the abortion to go ahead as soon as possible.
SHE ACCEPTS