If I'd had it my way my son would still have his foreskin. As a mother, I didn't want to be the one responsible for putting my newborn through a world of pain. And my personal interpretation of the religious injunction to circumcise had me arguing that there was no reason to do it now and that we should wait until he was an adult and could make the decision for himself.

But in the end I couldn't hold out against the urging of my husband, my parents and my in-laws.