Female Genital Mutilation, Inhumanity Against Women

Female genital mutilation is a partial or total removal of the external genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organ for non medical reasons.

Female genital mutilation or female circumcision is practiced in western, eastern, and north-eastern part of Africa, Middle East, near east, Southeast Asia and it affects about 135 million women and girls as of 1997.

FGM is usually carried out on girls from few days after birth to age 15 (puberty), occasionally in adulthood. It may take place in a hospital, but is usually performed without an aesthesia, by traditional circumciser using a knife, razor, or scissors.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO)FGM is practiced by 24 countries in the western, eastern and within some immigrant community in Europe, north America and Australasia. WHO also estimates that 100-140 million women and girls around the world have experienced the procedure, including 92 million in Africa?

The health organization (WHO) has classified FGM procedure  into three types; type 1, the removal of the clitoral hood, almost invariably accompanied by removal of the clitoris itself(Clitoridectomy); Type 2 , the removal of the clitoris and inner Labia; and type 3(Infibulations)  removal of all parts of the inner and outer labia and usually the clitoris, and the fusion of the wound , leaving a small hole for the passage of urine and menstrual blood- the fused wound is open for intercourse and childbirth.

It is believed that around 85% of women who undergo FGM experience Type 1 and 2 and 15% Type 3 which is mostly common with countries like Sudan, Somalia and Djibouti. The type 4 is said to range from a symbolic pricking or piercing of the clitoris, cutting into the vagina to widen it (Gishir cutting) and introducing corrosive substance to tighten it.

 In the conditions under which female genital mutilation is performed in the practicing countries especially Africa, even the less extensive types of genital cutting  can lead to partially fatal complications such as hemorrhage, infection and shock.

In an interview with Miss Rosemary  Ngozi Echoke a Nurse and midwife at the university of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), she classified the effects  of FGM as; formation of Scar tissue or Keloid, loss of Libido, Dysparaunia (Painful Sexual Intercourse) Vesico Vaginal Fistula, Recto Vaginal Fistula, painful and difficult Labour, 3rd degree tears during child birth, Pelvic Inflammatory disease, Marital Dispute and death.

In addition, the study of about 500 polygynous men, each of whom had one wife who had been infibulated and one or more who had not, about 300 expressed a definite sexual preferences for the un infibulated wife, also about  100 had married a second time because of the difficulty they experience with the  infibulated wife whose scarred vaginal opening becomes progressively more inelastic after each birth and this could lead to marital dissolution, especially if it affects the woman’s fertility rate.

Reports by experts has shown that infibulated women are almost twice as likely as other women to have lower fertility and more than twice as likely to get divorced. Thus a practice that is supposed to make girls marriageable and safeguard their fertility  may actually increase the risk of marital dispute and sub fertility.

Given the medical complications and consequences of FGM, why does the practice continue, why do we still see this practice as a remedy or a way out of promiscuity? 

Study has shown that this practice still thrives in some communities because a person’s place in the community is determined by linage traced through fathers, thus it (FGM)  reduces the uncertainty surrounding paternity by discouraging women’s sexual activity outside of marriage. In this context, parents see FGM and early marriage as a means to ensure that their daughters remain “pure”. In some African communities, a girl who has not been circumcised is not marriageable. Among the Samburu of Kenya, they concider uncircumcised girls unclean, promiscuous and immature , girls are usually circumcised at the ages of 14-15 usually before they are give out for marriage.

Girls’ desires to conform to peer norms may make them eager to undergo genital mutilation and avoid being teased looked down on by their peers. In addition, the ritual cutting is often embedded in ceremonies in which the girls are feted and showered with gift and their families honored. A girl wishes in any case, are irrelevant it is her family often her father that decides whether she will undergo circumcision over looking the dangers involved in the practice.

Efforts to eliminate FGM has been unsuccessful because opponents of the practice ignored it social and economic context. In some cases, external intervention has strengthened the resolve of communities to continue their genital cutting rituals as a way of resisting what they perceive as cultural imperialism. 

Recently, calls to action by the western finalist and human rights activists have provoked similar negative reactions over the eradication of female genital mutilation. African women have perceived many of these efforts as condescending and derogatory toward their culture.

The strong reactions against depictions of cultures practicing FGM as savage, Violent and abusive of women and children have led to  new ways of approaching the issue. Some international organizations working against the practice are supporting local activist groups with funding , training and technical expertise rather than choosing direct involvement. Numerous projects have been mounted to women’s health and well-being. Some consider FGM a ritualized form of child abuse and violence against women, a violation of human rights.

The debate over FGM is relatively recent the practice was rarely spoken of in Africa and little known in the west until the second half of the century. It was in 1950 and 1960s that Africa activists and medical practitioners brought the health consequences of the practice of FGM to the attention of international organizations such as the united Nations and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Still, it was not until 1979 that a formal policy statement was made. A seminar organized by WHO in Khartoun to address traditional practices affecting the health of women and children issued recommendation that governments should work to eliminate the practice of FGM.

Following this, the wide spread silence surrounding female genital mutilation was broken. After African women organization met in Dakar, Senegal, in 1984 to discuss female circumcision and other detrimental cultural practices, the Inter African committee against Harmful Traditional Practices and other women organizations or networks has contributed immensely to ensure that  this barbaric act is completely eradicated from the world especially from Africa.

The fight against female genital mutilation should not be seen as a fight for the women alone, it is about time the men came out and support this fight against humanity and help protect the girl child from the violation of their right. Let the governments of all the practicing countries enact  and enforce legislation against the perpetrators of practices and acts of violence against women, such as Female Genital Mutilation.