SINCE it is usually conducted every other year, this year those merciless ‘surgeons’ are doing it again! And whereas telling some mature females from this part of the world about female genital mutilation (FGM) is like playing a flute to a deaf person, a young girl from a culture that practises it grows up well knowing that female genital mutilation is a rite she is supposed to fulfill on her passage to womanhood. She is well aware that if she fails to accomplish this rite she will not be married, since no man is willing to marry an uncircumcised woman, who is regarded as unclean and not yet a woman.
Because of such beliefs, she will find it next to impossible to socialize and freely get involved in community activities. However, this is only if she survives forced circumcision, which is, of course, very rare. With such value attached to it, young girls grow up being trained, dogmatized, and reminded about female genital mutilation by parents and elders.
To successfully indoctrinate these young souls, the elders highly extol the practice, its absurd disadvantages notwithstanding. As a result, many young girls, sometimes despite their level of education, have craved it. Those who try to resist it, by running away or marrying in tribes where it is not practised, have often found themselves excommunicated by the community, purposely to stymie their rebelliousness and the impact it is likely to have on their peers.
The elders have often acted ruthlessly to dissidents, since they are aware that, if given room, these dissidents can influence others — a thing that can put the most cherished part of their culture at the jeopardy of being wiped out forever.
Female genital mutilation is a barbaric act which should be stopped forthwith. During its season, which is every other year, attendance rates in schools in areas where it is practised drop significantly, with many girls busy preparing for initiation instead of examinations. Many lives have been lost due to damages sustained, especially where the ‘surgeon’ is rushing for fear of unprecedented arrests by the government authorities, who have tried to end it, though with little success; poor sight due to old age, as many surgeons are ageing; poor and old surgery tools, to mention but just a few.
Even after circumcision, many candidates have died of excessive bleeding or tetanus; and some have been left with long-term health complications like stench, difficulty during childbirth, difficulty urinating, dripping, severe menstrual pains, and infertility.
Ironically, the very men who say they can’t marry an uncircumcised woman because she is regarded as unclean are not willing to take as their wives women who suffer from some of the abovementioned after-effects of genital mutilation.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), female genital mutilation includes procedures that intentionally alter or injure female genital organs for non-medical reasons, and is mostly carried out by traditional circumcisers who often play other central roles in communities, such as attending childbirths; and that it is increasingly being performed by healthcare providers.
WHO further estimates that close to 140 million girls and women are living with the consequences of this practice, with an estimated 92 million girls from 10 years and above being from the continent of Africa. This inhumane practice is reportedly rampant in East, Central and North Africa. Its existence has also been reported in the Middle East and some parts of Asia.
Female genital mutilation is not only an absurd practice, but is also a gross violation of human rights. With the screw being tightened on it by governmental authorities, some cultures have resorted to doing it at night, under the cover of darkness, in bushes under heavy guard by tribal militias; and by mutilating infants who have no power to say yes or no.
This archaic practice denies women their inherent right to enjoy sex, since the most sensitive sexual organ on their bodies, the clitoris, is the one which is cut. Because there is nothing like enjoyment at all on the part of women, please do not get me wrong if I say FGM reduces women to mere sex robots.
Wondering why this horrible culture has persisted unabated despite attempts by the authorities to end it, I was chanced in June 2009, while attending a conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, to meet an elder who hails from one of the tribes that practise female genital mutilation.
During my conversation with him, I discovered that the practice is rooted deep in history. According to this elder, his male ancestors were great warriors and hunters, who were always moving away from their spouses. In order to avoid encroachment on their spouses by their male counterparts left behind to guard the communities, the ancestors devised FGM to be the best panacea, being aware that a woman whose clitoris has been mutilated would have no sexual feelings; and hence, no room for ‘blows’.
This story may, however, account only for those tribes around Eastern Uganda, like the Sabinyi or their counterparts from Western Kenya, like the Pokoti, given the existence of other varying accounts. For example, it has been attributed to religion in some parts of the Middle East, and according to Amnesty International, some cultures were performing it as a result of fear. They feared the women’s clitoris would grow tall and dangle between their legs and/ or would kill the baby during birth. What is certain, though, is that the practice is very old in many cultures. For example, the great Greek Geographer Strabo reported about its existence in Egypt when he visited in 25BCE. Though one can think Man is now living in an advanced era, the practitioners have not yet called it a day. Their knives are not yet hanged up; and with its ever increasing profitability, now that the ‘surgeons’ are doing it under arrest risks — especially where anti-FGM laws have been passed — no one can claim to know when its end will come. It aches me only because, despite the gross effects this practice has meted on their peers, some girls, in blind pursuit of culture, have not signalled intention to depart from this horrible culture. Instead, they have continued to bay for it.
Young Guyanese girl, thank goodness you will never experience FGM. (Joseph Wangija O’Mugijja is attached to the Department of Education in Region One (Barima/Waini)as a Special Education Needs Specialist)