It’s high time we walked the FGM talk to protect our girls
A decade later, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), the ritual removal of some or all of the external female genitalia, persists despite it having no health benefits for women and girls.
It’s unfortunate that the vice is still carried out in some parts of the country despite it being criminalised in 2011. It saddens me that a girl as young as five years can undergo that. Retrogressive culture, coercion by parents, peer pressure and men wanting to marry girls who are circumcised so that the girls can purportedly be faithful in marriage are factors abetting the crime that sometimes causes death.
The short-term effects of FGM are shock, pain, excessive bleeding, infections, damage to adjacent organs, delayed or incomplete healing and urinary tract infections. The long-term effects include damage to the urethra, anaemia, hypersensitivity of the genital area, infibulation and painful menstruation periods.
This causes periods that are longer than normal, formation of cysts and abscesses, increased risk of HIV, keloid scar formation, fistula, painful sexual intercourse, sexual dysfunction and complications during birth.
Some women are unable to give birth or lose their babies because the birth canal is too narrow. Unfortunately, other women get children with disabilities due to brain damage because the child took too long to come out. It’s unfair to marry off a 14-year-old to a man who is twice or four times her age. Then she is subjected to very painful delivery and also birth complications.
During birth, some traditional midwives say that going to hospital is not an option. Even when the girl is bleeding excessively and they do not know what to do. Throughout this process, the girl has no say. The cut is carried out in secret. In some areas, there are no police stations for the victims to file complaints.
Why do parents and the community allow FGM? It is time everyone stepped up. Girls have a right to access education and be protected from harmful thing practices that affect them mentally, physically or emotionally. BY DAILY NATION
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