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Alice Walker and Pratibha Parmar. Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Women. San Diego: Harcourt, 1996. 374 pp. $15.00.
Reviewed by Lovalerie King University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
African American Review, Volume 31, Number 3
1997 Lovalerie King
Alice Walker and Pratibha Parmar chart the origin, development, and realization of the 1993 film project bearing the same name as their book. A unique and practical resource, the volume also provides an illuminating glimpse into the minds of its authors. Though each was born under the sign of Aquarius, they emerge as an interesting odd couple in this scenario. Still, their similaritiesa strong sense of mission, spiritual depth, and the uncompromising belief and assertion that "torture is not culture"-allow them to work in complementary fashion to bring to fruition an appropriately multidimensional and multi-perspectival project.
For Walker, the project is deeply personal, and she situates herself in the middle, rendering her narrative from that subjective vantage point. She frames her telling of their collaborative journey around her own blinding in one eye at the age of eight. Her approach is direct and to the point. Parmar's perspective, on the other hand, is generally that of the film's producer and director and, thus, needs to be more objective. Her task, in part, involves capturing the essence of the harmful effects of female genital mutilation without exploiting the women who are victimized by the practice. Though she is an Indian who spent her childhood in Africa, Parmar comes across as both familiar with, and yet distanced from, the subject of her project-like a journalist returning to the hometown left decades before to write a story about the locals. Parmar expresses surprise at being able to speak openly about female genital mutilation. She is most self-revelatory when she admits that she suffered a mini-crisis of self-confidence in the midst of the project and that she felt exposed and vulnerable at the end when she had to let go of the film.
Additional perspectives are provided in the interview section. Interviewees range from internationally recognized political activists like Awa Thiam of Senegal, to survivors of mutilation (or circumcision-depending on vantage point), to the circumcisers themselves. Of course, the inherent weakness even in presenting such a multi-perspectival...