By Ijeoma Ukazu
Yearly, stakeholders including the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), continues to advocate for the elimination of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), from the Nigerian society.
This advocacy, UNICEF FGM Consultant for South West Nigeria, Olutayo Aderonke said is being carried out in local communities with the belief that the practice is a rite of passage into womanhood has called on those involved to do away with the blades and knives, and let the girl-child live.
To commemorate the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, marked 6th February annually, Aderonke frowns at the practice said, mutilating girls can cause severe bleeding and problems urinating as well as complications in childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths.
According to the World Health Organisation, WHO, FGM is a practice involving the partial or total removal of external female genitalia or other injuries to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.
WHO said this practice is associated with some long-term risks which include; Infertility; menstrual complications; difficulties during childbirth among others.
The global health body further adds that for longer-term effects, the woman could encounter; chronic infections, cysts, and ulcers; painful scar tissue; problems affecting the bladder, uterus, and kidneys; sexual health issues; mental health issues; infertility; menstrual complications; difficulties during childbirth, and an increased risk of infant and maternal mortality.
Treatment of the health complications of FGM in 27 high prevalence countries, WHO estimates that it would cost 1.4 billion USD per year and projected to rise to 2.3 billion USD by 2047 if no action is taken.
While the exact number of girls and women worldwide who have undergone FGM remains unknown, globally, it is estimated that at least 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone some form of FGM.
The United Nations said, “If current trends continue, 15 million additional girls between ages 15 and 19 would be subjected to it by 2030. Girls 14 and younger represent 44 million of those who have been cut, with the highest prevalence of FGM among this age in the Gambia at 56 percent, Mauritania at 54 percent, and Indonesia where around half of the girls aged 11 and younger have undergone the practice. Also Nigeria sharing part of the global burden of FGM.
“Countries with the highest prevalence among girls and women aged 15 to 49 are Somalia 98 percent, Guinea 97 percent, and Djibouti 93 percent. FGM is mostly carried out on young girls sometime between infancy and age 15.”
Recently, UNICEF warns of the rising cases of FGM among Nigerian girls aged 0 and 14 as it plans to launch a community-led initiative to end the harmful practice.
UNICEF said the rates have risen from 16.9 percent in 2013 to 19.2 percent in 2018, a development described as a “worrying trend.”
Female genital mutilation remains widespread in Nigeria. With an estimated 19.9 million survivors, Nigeria accounts for the third-highest number of women and girls who have undergone FGM worldwide,” said Peter Hawkins, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria.
Hawkins said, “While the national prevalence of FGM among women in Nigeria aged 15-49 dropped from 25 percent in 2013 to 20 percent in 2018, prevalence among girls aged 0-14 increased from 16.9 percent to 19.2 percent in the same period, according to the National Demographic Health Survey (NDHS), figures.
“An estimated 86 percent of females were cut before the age of five, while eight percent were cut between ages five and 14. Across Nigeria, disparities in the practice exist. State prevalence ranges from 62 percent in Imo to less than one percent in Adamawa and Gombe. The prevalence of FGM is highest in the South East (35 percent) and South West (30 percent) and lowest in the North East (six percent).”
Continuing,UNICEF Representative in Nigeria said, “UNICEF is initiating a community-led movement to eliminate FGM in five Nigerian states where it is highly prevalent: Ebonyi, Ekiti, Imo, Osun, and Oyo. Nearly three million girls and women would have undergone FGM in these States in the last five years.”
In many of the countries where FGM is performed, a UNICEF report said, it is a deeply entrenched social norm rooted in gender inequality where violence against girls and women is socially acceptable.
UNICEF FGM Consultant, Aderonke said Nigeria can end cutting girls if all stakeholders involve ensures adequate investment in the course, adding that this forms the 2022 theme: “Accelerating Investment to End FGM” — calling for support for programmes to provide services and response for those affected and those at risk; in developing and enforcing laws, and fortifying institutional capacity to eliminate the practice.
Speaking in an interview with Our Correspondent in Lagos, the expert said “This year, over 60 communities in Osun State are ready for a public declaration to stop the practice.”
Aderonke said, in December 2020, some communities publicly rejected the practice and about, “66 communities in three Local Government Areas (LGAs), of Ikole, Ado and Ekiti West in Ekiti State abandoned the practice, in Osun State, we have three LGAs- Olaoluwa, Ifelodun and Ife- Central, and in Oyo State, we have 156 communities in four LGAs- Iseyin, Ogbomosho South, Ibarapa North, and Oyo West.”
Aderonke further adds that the UN agency is actually engaging with a lot of LGAs and currently in South West of Nigeria and are working with 24 LGAs, stating that, “We intend to scale-up interventions to other LGAs this year. I am sure before 2030, we would be able to eliminate FGM in Nigeria because awareness is on the increase.”
Since the UNICEF/UNFPA programme was established in 2008, 13 countries have passed national legislation banning FGM. The programme has also provided access to prevention, protection, and treatment services. In 2018 alone, nearly seven million people across 19 countries participated in education, discussions, and social mobilization promoting the elimination of FGM.
She pointed that, “FGM affects the woman psychologically. Many women who have undergone female genital mutilation go through post-traumatic stress disorder. Most of these women were cut when they could not fight for their rights as babies and as adults realized they were mutilated. The trauma sets in resulting to low self-esteem, post-traumatic stress disorder especially when the woman has to lose her husband to another woman because she was mutilated and could not satisfy her husband sexually.”
“Looking at it, where they actually cut would definitely have a scar when get healed, the woman would find it difficult to give birth, that part of her can tear again resulting to vaginal Vesicovaginal Fistula (VVF), giving rise to not being able to control urine.
“Also, the woman feels incomplete as a woman. She is supposed to enjoy her sexual life just like the man, this is enough to cause a lot of pain, trauma and most of the time, it has a detrimental impact on the health and life of the woman.”
Aderonke adds that FGM affects the sexual functioning of the woman, “Reduced sexual desire or libido because the clitoris that is cut is the only thing that God put in women that allows her enjoy sexual satisfaction and when it is cut off, there is reduced sexual desire and reduced lubrication during sexual intercourse as well. That is why some men would say, “my wife is not good in bed” and then they look for other options.”
On stigma, she said, “Any woman who was mutilated or cut is known to not be good in bed and no man would want to stay with such a woman- the rejection is there for the woman. This stigma leads to the right of the woman being taken away from her. As every man enjoys his sexuality the same way a woman should enjoy hers. Many women have lost their homes to other women because their husband no longer enjoys sexual satisfaction.”
Speaking in an interview with The Daily Newswave, the Executive Director, Child Health Advocacy Initiative (CHAI), Mrs Elizabeth Lola Alonge said from creation, God has made the girl child the way He wants her to be.
Alonge added that, “There is no need to remove anything from the genitalia of the girl child. Clean or not clean, it is just a misconception. The female child is okay. She is clean. It is not like the male circumcision where it is done for obvious reason but for female it is not acceptable.”
The Executive Director said the youth have a great role to play as young activist using the media to raise awareness against FGM.
What this means, Alonge stated that, “Things are changing and so the culture must change for good when necessary.
“Community engagement is important as well with the involvement of traditional rulers, sensitizing them on the need to stop female circumcision. They need to drop the blades and allow the girl child live a healthy and fulfilled life.”
Commenting on medicalization of FGM, The Executive Director of CHAI said, whether it is done in the community or the hospital, it is not acceptable, adding that it poses same danger to the girl child such as: psychological effect, mental, emotional, social and infection often gotten from the process.
Alonge however called on States in Nigeria yet to domesticate the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act of 2015, to adopt it as a law and prosecute anyone who engages in FGM.
According to the United Nations, “The Sustainable Development Goals contain a specific target calling for an end to FGM. When this practice is fully abandoned, positive effects will reverberate across societies as girls and women will reclaim their health, human rights, and vast potential.”
FGM reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes and constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against women and girls. The practice also violates their rights to health, security, and physical integrity, their right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, and their right to life when the procedure results in death.
To promote the abandonment of FGM, coordinated and systematic efforts are needed, and they must engage whole communities and focus on human rights and gender equality. These efforts should emphasize societal dialogue and the empowerment of communities to act collectively to end the practice. They must also address the sexual and reproductive health needs of women and girls who suffer from its consequences.