By: Zarlasht Safy Sarsam
As we celebrate International Women’s Day, it’s important to remember the millions of women who continue to suffer because of gendered violence that is excused in the name of tradition. One such form of violence with ancient roots that claims the hopes of many women across South Asia is an act of brutality known as rhinotomy or severe nose mutilation.
Rhinotomy has a long history in almost every known culture and religion.Arabs, Romans andthe ancient Greeks used rhinotomy as a form of punishment. Roman Catholic nuns used nose amputation because they believed it could make one less attractive and hence prevent rape. The old English saying “cutting the nose to spite the face” dates back to the medieval era. Even in the Old Testament a curse spoken upon the “lustful Egyptian prostitute” named Oholibah, mentions God’s threat to “direct my anger towards you, and they will deal with you in fury. They will cut off your noses and your ears, and … consumed by fire.” [Ezekiel 23:25]
In South Asia, women are still subjected to rhinotomy in cultural context of “saving honor” or punishment to restore the honor of men in the family. There is even a common idiomatic expression about having someone’s nose cut to cause dishonor insinuated in all three Indo-European languages spoken in South Asia. For example, “Naak Katwadya”, commonly used in Urdu and Hindi, “Bini mara Boridi” in Farsi, “Paza de Prekra” in Pashto language all point to the act of cutting one’s nose to bring shame.
There have been several documented cases of rhinotomy in recent year, however exact data about the prevalence of this harmful practice is not available since many cases go unreported due to fear of stigma.The most prominent one was perhaps the case of Bi BiAyesha, an Afghan girl from Kandahar. Her in-laws cut off her nose and ears as punishment for fleeing an abusive marriage. The abhorrent act of rhinotomy was done to Bi Bi Ayesha to “restore the family’s honor”. Since then we’ve seen Sitara, Reezagol and Chaman Gul who faced the same atrocity have come courageously come forward to tell their stories.
Afghanistan is not the only country where this violent act takes place. Pakistan’s Allah rakai made it to the news after she underwent corrective surgery 32 years after brutal attack in which her angry husband cut her nose. A more recent case reported in Pakistan was the horrific story of Zahida Parveen whose nose, eyes and tongue were cut as a retribution for her unproven betrayal of her husband. Later on, in 2011, a teenage bride named Bibi Salma came forward after her husband removed her nose and lips.
In India, the threat of rhinotomy is used to silence women. In November of 2017, Hindu fundamentalist threatened Deepika Padukone, a well-known Bollywood actress, with rhinotomy for her role in a movie where she plays the role of Hindu royalty falling for a Muslim conqueror. For fundamentalist Hindus, using the threat of rhinotomy is not new. In fact, in Hindu holy scripture, in the Ramayana epic story, a female warrior Surpankha’s nose is cut after she is accused of seducing Rama- one of the Hindu gods. Accordingly, the mighty king Ravana succeeds in reconstructing her nose by his physician. Nose amputation as a “punishment for moral sins” was also mentioned in early Indian scriptures as Reg Veda. In the ancient surgical book Sushruta Samhita the surgical tools and detailed operative techniques of the nose reconstruction is mentioned. This refined “median forehead flap” reconstruction technique (still known as the Indian method) continues to be used in the medical world. It was used in the nasal reconstruction procedures of Bibi Aisha and Allah Rakai – the two disfigured survivors highlighted earlier.
A Sanskrit scripture titled Panchatantra – which was translated into Arabic and Persian, and came to be known as Khalila wa Dimna – may have played a crucial role in spreading this phenomena further throughout the Indian subcontinent and beyond. One of the many tales in the book tells the story of a shoemaker’s wife and her lover and a barber’s wife as their go-between. When the couple gets caught by the shoemaker, the barber’s wife helps the shoemaker’s wife and replaces her. The barber- believing that his own wife was deceitful – cuts off her nose in dark. Khalila wa Dimna has been circulated in the region around Pakistan and Afghanistan since 5th century.
The remarkably similar outlook on this form of honor-related violence and prevalence of Rhinotomy in south Asia is impossible to ignore. Yet, there has been little to no effort to raise awareness about it and organizations have yet to start a campaign to end it. To fight this brutal form of violence, we first have to speak about it and end the stigma that surrounds it.