Call To End Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)!!

Call To End Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)!!

Is female genital mutilation still happening now?

"Even if it is, it’s probably something that happens in those rural areas, not like in urban areas. Because I don’t think it is something educated people still practice"

These are the reactions people give when they hear about female genital mutilation, they think it is something that is obsolete or something that has already been stopped. But the truth is, there is higher percentage of people who practice FGM in urban areas than in rural areas. The thing is that a lot of people practice other versions of FGM and as far as they are concerned, that’s not really mutilation.

A woman who happened to share with us said that in their place they don’t cut girls anymore, they rather numb the clitoris. She said, 

“We keep massaging it with Vaseline, rub and hot water until there is no more feeling in that area”

Now the problem with this is that, it’s the same as cutting the area off. If a part of a female’s genitals, that has over 5000 nerve endings is numbed completely, what you just did is useless that particular organ, you just made a simple lump of flesh without relevance, and this is the same as cutting it off. And this right here is also a form of FGM.

A lot of people don’t even know why they mutilate their girls, they just do it. A woman was asked why they mutilate their girls and she said she doesn’t know, all she knows is that her grandmother did it to her and she would do it to her grand kids. It’s like an ancestral link or a tradition to them, our ancestors did it so shall we.

A lot of people don’t even know that this is happening in their own backyard.  We asked some youths from the south-eastern part of Nigeria where they think this is happening, they said that it’s probably in the north, but the funny thing is, there is very little percentage of people who practice FGM. It’s higher in the southern part of Nigeria and in fact, it’s almost non-existent in the northern parts. So you see, when it comes to FGM it’s not always as we think it is, it’s happening around us and its high time we find out more about it.

Is it happening close to me? Is it happening in the village nearby? How can we stop it? 

There is no way you’d know until you ask, because this is something that is more like tradition, it’s not something that started just like that.

This is something we all need to stop together. Go to your village, the villages around you, where you live and ask questions. What do you do when you give birth to a child? Do you do this and that? Find out if it happening, because that’s the only way we can tackle this issue. By going to those women who practice it, and pointing out to them that what they are doing is ruining innocent people’s life.

We visited a maternity recently and discussed this issue with some pregnant women, the guilt on some of their faces when we explained FGM was just much. Especially when we talked about the massaging part, because many of them thought it was just normal. And when these women realized what they were doing to their baby girls, the guilt they had on their faces was just too much. Because some of them have been doing it and some were still planning to do it.

Imagine how many women there that changed their minds due to our campaign in that maternity, and that’s what we need to be doing. Saving both the born and unborn kids from this tragic an life changing experience. We need to go about, tell people and get everyone around you informed, because that’s the only way we can stop Female Genital mutilation. Together, we can end FGM in this generation.

As Written by Miss Q, in support of the #ENDFGM movement.