By: Muzhinga Kankinda
Sexual Assaults are attacks on the body as well as the victim’s dignity. Today, one such type of assault, namely Female Genital Mutilation continues to escalate in some parts of the world. According to the World Health Organization, WHO, Female Genital Mutilation involves all procedures of changing or causing injury to the female genitalia intentionally and for non-medical purposes. The UN Population Fund, UNFPA has also taken time to define FGM as all procedures involving partial or complete removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for cultural or other non-medical reasons. The word culture here is the key, in that this kind of sexual assault is mostly practiced on the premise of culture and traditions, especially in Africa.
The African continent has always been rich in culture and traditions and Africans are praised for their unwillingness to conform to new ways of life that contradict their beliefs and values. As such, Africa is actually one of the continents in the world that has people especially in rural areas denouncing the present way of life by staying real to their cultures including the customs of child marriages, child initiation ceremonies and of course, our current topic which is genitalia mutilation. Nonetheless, according to an article by UNFPA, it has been estimated that 200 million girls and women living today have been subjected to Female Genital Mutilation and the rates of the vice keep on accelerating globally as time goes by with research showing that this practice is highly prevalent in the Sub-Sahara African and Arab regions. Although traces of the practice have been marked in selected Asian, Eastern European and Latin American countries inclusive of migrant populations throughout Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand.
FGM has been categorized in three types including Clitoridectomy (Sunna), which constitutes of the partial or complete removal of the clitoris; Excision which is the removal of the clitoris and the labia minora. Infibulation, a process which involves the complete removal of the external genitalia, leaving a small opening for the passage of menstrual blood and urine. This procedure is known to prevent penetration and calls for an additional procedure that permits sexual intercourse and childbirth and has been discovered to make up for 15 percent of the world’s Mutilation processes.
FGM is practiced under a number of misconceptions and these are highly taken seriously on the basis of culture and tradition. For instance, FGM is administered to girls as young as 15 as a ritual to welcome them into womanhood but this vice ought to be eradicated in that a woman’s value is not dependent on this process; instead of giving her the value of womanhood, it rather subjects females to lifelong increased risks to infections, diseases and other related disorders.
Further, girls and young women in African are subjected to certain procedures before marriage and genitalia mutilation is one of them. Considering that husbands are highly cherished and respected in most African cultures, it is believed that FGM is one way of giving pleasure to a man sexually and some women agree to this myth blindly instead of asking questions like; why do other women who do not practice this vice still have a healthy sexual relationship with their husbands? Such questions should be raised in that the concept of sexual pleasure is quite the opposite for those who have undergone FGM. This is because mutilation makes penetration uncomfortable for the men and even more bothersome for women in that the process becomes highly painful.
Other misconceptions include the idea that eliminating a woman’s sexual pleasure would help keep them safe from any sexual encounters before marriage but, the question is, what happens when the woman is married? She is forced to live a life without sexual desire or pleasure and no husband would certainly want a wife like that. Additionally, unlike the initial claim that FGM promotes easy conception and childbirth, this process is a driver of sterility, complicated childbirth and infant death.
FGM has no health or sexual benefit at all and it is sad that someone came up with such concepts about FGM to justify its existence in culture and tradition but this is a type of sexual assault which should be gotten rid of at all cost because of its short and long term negative impact on girls and women.
The following are some short and long term effects of FGM as stipulated by the World Health Organization, WHO:
Short-term health risks of FGM
● Severe pain.
● Shock.
● Genital tissue swelling.
● Infections.
●Risk of contracting Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
● Urination problems.
● Impaired wound healing.
● Death. Mental health problems.
Long-term health risks of FGM
● Pain.
● Infections:
a. Chronic genital infections.
b. Chronic reproductive tract infections.
c. Urinary tract infections.
d. Septicaemia and death.
● Painful urination.
● Vaginal problems.
● Menstrual problems.
● Excessive scar tissue (keloids).
● Contraction of HIV (Human immunodeficiency virus).
● Sexual health problems.
● Childbirth complications. .
● Obstetric fistula.
● Perinatal risks.
● Mental health problems.
Therefore, no matter how normal it may seem, it is imperative that we all understand that FGM is a criminal offence, standing against the human rights of girls and women and the world needs to come together to speak against it till there is nothing left of it and we would have moved an inch further to our quest of getting rid of all sorts of sexual and physical violence against girls and women.
