NAN-HG-3
Mutilation
By Lucy Osuizigbo
Lagos, Jan. 16, 2017 (NAN) Persuasion has more capacity to discourage Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) than condemnation, Mrs Oyefunsho Orenuga, Senior Programme Officer, Inter Africa Committee on Female Genital Mutilation-Nigeria, said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that female genital mutilation, also known as female genital cutting and female circumcision, is the ritual removal of some or all of the external female genitalia.
Orenuga said in an interview with NAN in Lagos on Monday that it would surprise the public to know that mothers, who allowed their daughters’ genitals to be mutilated, meant well for the girls.
Cue in audio (Orenuga)
“When you go to the communities and talk to the women, you will see that they are doing it out of love for their girl children, because in a community where they say that if you are not circumcised no man will marry you.
“Every woman wants her daughter to marry, so they will go ahead and circumcise her.
“And we are saying, do not condemn them; look into their situation and then just use persuasion to discourage female genital mutilation.
“You cannot see hear me using the word `victims`. No! We call them survivors of FGM (female genital mutilation); they are not victims.
“And you cannot hear me say `It is barbaric`, `It is bad`, `It is not good`, because I know right inside that woman she wants what is good for her daughter that is why she is doing it.
“She has not seen it beyond culture and tradition.
“So, we need to use a subtle method to discourage female genital mutilation.“
Cue out audio
The practice is found in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and within communities from countries in which FGM is common.
UNICEF estimated in 2016 that 200 million women in 30 countries – 27 African countries, Indonesia, Iraqi Kurdistan and Yemen – had undergone the procedure.
A comprehensive report released recently indicated that at least 20 million women and girls in Nigeria have undergone female genital mutilation, a figure, which represents 10% of the global total.
Orenuga said that the procedure was carried out in Nigeria for cultural reasons considered important for the socialisation of women, curbing their ‘illicit’ sexual appetites and preparing them for womanhood and marriage.
She said while some communities believed that the clitoris contained powers strong enough to damage a man’s penis or to kill a baby during childbirth, some other communities considered the female genitals as ugly, unclean and unattractive unless they were mutilated.
According to her, the clitoris that is cut off is given to the parents of the victim to bury deep in the ground or in cracked walls.
She stated that the belief in such communities is that the circumcised girls will become promiscuous if animals were to consume the clitoris.
She also said that there are known cases of traditional circumcisers, who sold the clitoris to people “who use it to prepare special local herbs’’. (NAN)
LCO/LAB/YEE
Edited by Lydia Beshel/Emmanuel Yashim
===============================