IGBOZURUOKE FORUM

The issue of FGM Has remained a grappling one and this is because its views and presentation by the Caucasians and others, especially, as affluent women from African communities who are prejudiced are grossly misrepresenting it.

Like anything that is hated by the Caucasians, suffers a deluge of attacks and manipulative representations. In the case of FGM, the Caucasian and its allies have been pulling all strings to ensure the practice is abandoned or curbed in Sub-Saharan Africa. To properly position this piece as it tries to highlights FGM, the following articles from Wikipedia and Linda Ikeji’s blogs would assist:

Female genital mutilation (FGM) (also known as female genital cutting,

Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision^[a]) is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the  vulva. The practice is found in some countries of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and within their respective diasporas. As of 2023, UNICEF estimates that “at least 200 million girls… in 31 countries”—including Indonesia, Iraq, Yemen, and 27 African countries including Egypt—had been subjected to one or more types of female genital mutilation.^[3]

Typically carried out by a traditional circumciser using a blade, FGM is conducted from days after birth to puberty and beyond. In half of the countries for which national statistics are available, most girls are cut before the age of five.^[7] Procedures differ according to the country or ethnic group. They include removal of the clitoral hood (type 1-a) and clitoral glans (1-b); removal of the inner labia (2-a); and removal of the inner and outer labia and closure of the vulva (type 3). In this last procedure, known as infibulation, a small hole is left for the passage of urine and menstrual fluid; the vagina is opened for intercourse and opened further for childbirth.^[8]

The practice is rooted in gender inequality, attempts to control women’s sexuality, and ideas about purity, modesty, and beauty. It is usually initiated and carried out by women, who see it as a source of honour, and who fear that failing to have their daughters and granddaughters cut will expose the girls to social exclusion.^[9] Adverse health effects depend on the type of procedure; they can include recurrent infections, difficulty urinating and passing menstrual flow, chronic pain, the development of cysts, an inability to get pregnant, complications during childbirth, and fatal bleeding.^[8] There are no known health benefits.^[10]

There have been international efforts since the 1970s to persuade practitioners to abandon FGM, and it has been outlawed or restricted in most of the countries in which it occurs, although the laws are often poorly enforced. Since 2010, the United Nations has called upon healthcare providers to stop performing all forms of the procedure, including reinfibulation after childbirth and symbolic “nicking” of the clitoral hood.^[11] The opposition to the practice is not without its critics, particularly among anthropologists, who have raised questions about cultural relativism and the universality of human rights.^[12]

^Wikipedia

Foundation warns against stigmatisation of uncircumcised girls in Ebonyi community

Better Health for Rural Women Children and Internally Displaced Persons Foundation in Ebonyi has advocated equal rights and privileges as well as, an end to unnecessary stigmatization of uncircumcised female teenagers in rural communities.

The team leader, Dr Nkechi Echiegu, condemned the stigmatization of uncircumcised girls by their peers and some illiterate parents in the rural communities, which she said has forced some to opt for genital mutilation.

Echiegu cautioned parents to be alive to their responsibilities by protecting and encouraging their children to shun negative family and societal pressures.

She pledged continuous sensitization by the foundation to create awareness due to the many reports of people still mutilating female genitals in the rural communities in the state.

“As of September 2023, we got a report that some girls in Ezza Inyimegu in Izzi local government area of the state went to a traditional birth attendant and demanded to be circumcised.

“Actually, it was even a man that circumcised them. When we heard about it, we tried to know why such occurred.

“It is an international discourse because the UNFPA decided to partner with our foundation to follow up and find out if it was true.

”Lo and behold, at Community Secondary School Ezza Inyimegu, one of the girls opened up that their mothers stigmatised them and called them (Akpapi), meaning, uncircumcised girls.”

Lindaikeji

While I presented the Wikipedia piece to refresh the issue of FGM on what it is and reasons for the clamor to discontinue it, the article from Linda Ikeji Blogs is on engagements by some educated busybody Igbo women in Ebonyi State calling on the government and agencies to tackle what they call the stigmatization of girls who shunned FGM. 

To start with, FGM is a global phenomenon dictated by the desire of our forefathers to curb the act of promiscuity that clitoris, a component of the female genitalia induces. The clitoris is a sensitive hood that forms part of the outer labia and is responsible for galvanizing the female anatomy into sexual arousal and uncontrollable urge for sex.  

The undesirable effect of this on the female is the diminished capacity for her to resist instant sexual arousal at a touch, contact or proximity of a man. Since the female is held in high esteem as a stalwart who maintains a household, the desired to protect, preserve and ensure she becomes an embodiment of moral rectitude in the community   becomes imperative. Thus, the introduction of FGM becomes a tool adopted by some communities to achieve this.

The practice of FGM, which is as old as mankind, has come a long way and is not devoid of drawbacks like every other exercise. In performing FGM therefore, the execution could go right or wrong depending on many factors which includes the contracting of quacks to carry out the assignment on candidates. It is therefore wrong for advocate of FGM cessation to blame most female reproductive debilitation on FGM. This amounts to giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it In the past for example, most Igbo community, of Owerri sub-cultural area, had women who bore more than ten children in their life time. In Mbaise in particular, there is an association of  Ndi gburu eghu ukwu (women, honoured for bearing ten children and above.) So, how come these women who had FGM at different stages of their lives engaged in such gargantuan  child births without complications?

Thus, the linkage of female reproductive problems in Nigeria with FGM is a farce to a large extent, considering the fact that the type of female circumcision practiced here is mainly the one of removing the clitoral hood to diminish sexual urge in females..

The general depiction of FGM as an evil act without differentiations is a deliberate act by advocates to entice a prejudiced notion about FGM and blur the boundaries between the reasons for FGM in Nigeria and the justifications for those opposing it.

Inconvertibly, the objective of anti-female circumcision in Nigeria is simply to allow females to enjoy sex. This aim to any rational human is commendable because what is sauce for the goose should equally be a sauce for the gander, as it is, only an evil being  will willingly deny another fellow, be it a man or woman the right to enjoy or get satisfaction. However, my grouse about the case are the deceits employed to push this narrative. Africans, especially Igbo women should not engage in falsehood to attack an age-long Igbo practice aimed at curbing female promiscuity. If women of Ebonyi found it worthy to stigmatize uncircumcised female in their midst, is it not indicative that the practice is a part of their culture cherished by them and which they wish to uphold? On the quest for gender equality in Igbo land, it would be interesting for this group to elucidate what they really mean and how desirous it will be.

The biggest challenge Africans, especially, those from the Sub-Saharan belt to manage their social affairs is the problem of the so-called enlightened indigenes. These copy-cats who swallow everything Caucasian hook, line, and sinker must be resisted or dealt with, if Africans must abate the eroding ingredients of what is left of their culture. Why is it that, every immoral thing, the morally-bankrupt Caucasians aimed to contaminate the African culture, they do so with vigour and falsehood. Of course, their agents in Africa like those masquerading in Ebonyi State as members of a foundation.

If leaders like Dr.(Mrs) Nkechi Echiegu of Better Health for Rural Women Children and Internally Displaced Persons Foundation in Ebonyi, has the time and resources to help Ebonyi women and children, there are many cases begging for attention. Prioritizing ban on FGM as her and her coterie’s agenda in Ebonyi State is an act of apostate that only an unchaste and a lousy Igbo woman could found rewarding.

Boniface Alanwoko