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

Female genital mutilation is still widely practiced in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Walker, whose 1992 novel Possessing the Secret of Joy explored the life of a genitally mutilated African woman, teamed up with Indian filmmaker Parmar (who was born in Kenya and is based in London) to make a documentary film about this abhorrent practice. This forceful account of how they filmed Warrior Marks in Africa in 1992-93 splices letters, journal entries, photographs, poems and interviews with victims of ``female circumcision,'' their families, women who perform clitoridectomies and activists opposed to the practice. Included is medical testimony suggesting that female genital mutilation may contribute to the spead of AIDS. This remarkable cross-cultural collaboration should help to break the deafening silence surrounding a taboo subject. (Nov.)