ABSTRACT
The chapter examines the practice of female genital cutting (FGC) in the context of the UK through the analysis of four plays: Gloria Williams’s Bullet Hole, Charlene James’s Cuttin’ It, Cora Bissett’s and Yusra Warsama’s Rites and Mojisola Adebayo’s STARS. The aim of the chapter is to examine how solidarity is constructed through cultural practices inscribed on the body which serve both as a form of union and as a space for discrimination in the context of the diaspora. It focuses on the theatrical strategy of oppositional dialogues/narratives, which presents opposing arguments, in this case on the topic of FGC, giving voice both sides without criminalising the communities who continue to practice it. I argue that this strategy stands somewhere between discourses of cultural relativism and those of human rights, inviting the audience/readers to solidarise and reconsider the cultural frameworks through which this practice is often interpreted.
