That Could Be Me.

I once dreamt of becoming a constitutional lawyer and championing women rights and more, but that remains just that, a pipe dream.
You see, my twin brother and I went to the same primary school, dreamt the same dreams and equally topped the same class, always interchanging the first and second position. Yet today, it is my brother who is a budding constitutional lawyer and not both of us. Yet it could be both of us. Yet that could be me.
That could be me in a black robe and wig, spewing out legal jargons and authoritatively summoning the attention of the apex court of this great Republic. Yet unfortunately, Its not me, I am nowhere near that, and may never make it to that, thanks to Female Genital Mutilation.
You see, when we were about to sit for our final primary school examination, an examination that is mandatory in order to proceed to secondary school, an examination that is vital to the realisation of that dream, I was pulled out of school. Pulled out of school never to return because according to them, I was ripe for the cut. And the cut I was told, is our way of life, is what made women out of girls and most importantly, was mandatory, and that there was no way out around it.
After the cut, I was told that I was now a woman and not a girl anymore, my age notwithstanding. Told that going forward, I was to carry on like the woman I am, I was to forget about the possibility of joining secondary school, of dreaming dreams beyond motherhood and household keeping.
Needless to say, my brother’s education continued uninterrupted. He was more than free to come and go as he wished. He was free to dream and pursue the said dreams to the ends of the world. Something that the cut robbed me off.
That’s why today as I watch him, on this tiny television my thrice-my-age husband keeps reminding me to be grateful for, as I watch my twin brother argue his case before a five judge bench at the highest court of this Republic, I can’t help but cry tears of pain, because were it not for Female Genital Mutilation, that could be me (standing before a five judge bench)