Ouch Ouch Ouch Ouch Ouch!

This boy is Ali. This picture was taken as he was being circumcised in the operating room of the Kemal Özkan Circumcision Palace. The two-story building includes a playground with a go-kart track, a dancing hall, and a restaurant.

PHOTOS BY MAURO D’AGATI

In Islamic Turkey, circumcision is much more than a surgical procedure. Traditionally occurring between the ages of five and 12, and known as the “first joy,” it’s seen as the first landmark in the boy’s religious life, proof that he is strong, brave, and ready to be called a man. To this end, the procedure is generally performed with local anesthetic or none at all, as the pain is an integral part of the ritual. In the festivities surrounding the circumcision, the boy is made to wear a king’s costume, and the assembled family and friends shower him with gifts and tie gold coins to his belt. Almost 30 percent of Turkish parents, including medical staff, choose the traditional method over the postnatal procedure in hospitals, and in rural Turkey up to 85 percent of circumcisions are performed without any doctor at all.

The “circumcision experts” who are called to perform the ritual instead of medical personnel often inherit their position from their fathers. As a result, the official literature is filled with reports of vomit-inducing botched procedures, some of which end with severed urethras, infections, gangrene, amputation of the penis, and even death.

Kemal Özkan, a 58-year-old qualified paramedic, is a Turkish celebrity. He is known as the Sultan of Circumcision. He has allegedly operated on more than 100,000 children in his 37-year career and his famously outlandish publicity stunts have included performing circumcisions on horseback, on a camel, and in flight.
 

Before the procedure, the boy is distracted with music and a clown, all to help him forget the mind-shattering pain that will soon wash over his entire body.
  Mustapha kisses the great Kemal özkan’s hand before his circumcision. Kemal is well-known as the greatest circumciser in Turkey, partially thanks to his PR stunts, such as performing 2,000 procedures in one 24-hour penis-snipping marathon.
 

A boy named Ahmet, wearing the traditional costume, is getting prepared for circumcision by Kemal’s assistant. The clapping people behind him are his immediate family.
    The girls behind the window are trying to get a glimpse of their cousin’s circumcision. Circumcision, although not explicitly mentioned in the Koran, is seen as obligatory for most Muslims. An uncircumcised man, for example, cannot perform the pilgrimage to Mecca.
 

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