The Cultural Impact and Issues of Female Genital Mutilation in Alice Walker’s Possessing The Secret of Joy

Abstract

Alice Walker was an American writer, the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer prize for Fiction in 1982 which she was awarded for her novel The Color Purple. This paper focuses on (FGM) Female Genital Mutilation in Possessing the Secret of Joy.Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a procedure performed on a girl or woman to modify her genitalia for non-scientific reasons. It most usually entails the partial or overall elimination of the outside genitalia. FGM is a contravention of women’s essential human rights.The reason behind the practice (FGM) varies in some African culture and it is seen as a religious belief. Tashi is a minor character in The Color Purple, the protagonist of the novel Possessing the Secret of Joy and undergoes the female genital mutilation (FGM) as a part of ritual practice.