Real Housewives Of Dubai’s Chanel Ayan Says At The Age of 5 She Underwent Forced Genital Mutilation, A Painful Practice Performed To Retain Virginity Until Marriage

Real Housewives Of Dubai’s Chanel Ayan Says At The Age of 5 She Underwent Forced Genital Mutilation, A Painful Practice Performed To Retain Virginity Until Marriage

The Real Housewives of Dubai’s Chanel Ayan is speaking out against the trauma that she experienced in Africa as a child.

During a recent interview, Chanel Ayan shared that she was genitally mutilated in her adolescence. The unruly practice was forcefully performed on Chanel Ayan and her sister in an effort to retain their virginity until marriage.

Following this past Wednesday’s episode, where she detailed the disturbing occurrence, Chanel Ayan said in the interview:

“I’m a survivor. I felt that I was utterly betrayed by my culture and my family. This is just a barbaric practice and it shouldn’t be happening to young girls. It happened to be thirty-five years ago, and I’ve never gotten over it.”

Chanel Ayan

According to the Kenyan model, the “torture and abuse” happened at the tender age of 5, when her aunt and grandmother took the youngsters to a strange man to get their private areas “sewn up.”

She further expanded with how female circumcision is done as an act to please the male counterparts in African territories.

“In my culture, it’s done to keep women virgins. Everybody’s a virgin in my culture because of this. Because how are you going to have sex when you’re sewn as a girl until you’re married? It’s a way to keep men satisfied. This is practiced in over twenty-eight African countries: the Middle East, Syria, Yemen.”

However, although the Bravo star is emotionally scarred from it, her mission is to bring awareness to these types of immoral operations, which have also been done across America, and provide a voice for the voiceless.

“I think the trauma is something that I will live with for the rest of my life. This is why I want to talk about it, because I honestly don’t want this to happen to anyone because I know exactly how it feels, and it’s not good. A lot of girls get depressed, hormones are imbalanced–a lot of young girls die.”

Reportedly, Chanel Ayan plans to use her forthcoming cosmetic line, Ayan Beauty, to raise proceeds that will go toward bringing the dangerous act of genital mutilation to an end.

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[VIA]