Today we present a documentary by The Heart that is astonishing.  

"When I was younger, someone took a knife to my clitoris and cut out a small, but significant part of me."

Based on writer Mariya Karimjee's 2015 essay "Damage," we hear a deeply intimate portrait of Mariya's a journey from her childhood in Pakistan, to her adolescence in Texas, through college, all the way to where she is now, back in Pakistan as she navigates family, love, her body and her personal relationships, all despite the physical and emotional trauma that she has suffered.

*****

Original Series Credits:

Mariya Karimjee is a writer based in Karachi, Pakistan. Read her original essay here.

Editorial support from Brendan Baker, Allen Watts, Kelsey Padgett, Samara Breger and Nadia Bajwa. Additional support from Kari June.

Another version of this story can be heard on This American Life.

Image art by Jen Ng