We must continue the fight against Female Genital Mutilation

The effects of this practice are adverse. The women that get involved in FGM are exposed to HIV/Aids and other infections, formation of scar tissue that affects child delivery, paralysis, psychological trauma and even death due to severe bleeding.

I remember when I was younger, whenever a discussion on Female Genital Mutilation came up some of my colleagues pointed fingers at me and some were bold enough to ask me if I was circumcised. I got tired of explaining that I was from a culture where we circumcise only men. In my mind it was so shameful to mutilate female genitalia that I did not want to associate with it. But this was a culture practised by some people.

We all have cultural practices that we passionately love and will do anything to protect. So, for one to drop or change their culture the reasons must be very strong. Although we also observe that some cultural practices cannot survive in the modern world, we have automatically dropped them. We no longer go around naked because it is our culture neither do women still have sex with their fathers-in-law before they are allowed to get married to their sons, as some cultures demand.

However, we still have some dangerous cultural practises that have persisted. FGM is one such culture. The Pokot, Tepeth and Sabiny in Uganda and other communities in Africa and elsewhere in the world still practice FGM despite the glaring dangers. Female Genital Mutilation involves removing part or all female genetalia.

In Uganda, research suggests that one per cent of the population practises FGM although 95 per cent of women in the practising communities are affected. Some of the reasons advanced for this practice are not scientific. It is simply a practice performed on a girl to show that she is fully grown into a woman, and therefore, ready for marriage. A girl who has not been mutilated is not allowed to get grain from the granary and worse still she cannot get married.

The effects of this practice are adverse. The women that get involved in FGM are exposed to HIV/Aids and other infections, formation of scar tissue that affects child delivery, paralysis, psychological trauma and even death due to severe bleeding.

There have been efforts by the government and other national and international organisations to stamp out this practice among the affected communities but it is all still “a work in progress”. The government passed a law against FGM in 2009 and there is an FGM Act to guide the implementation of this law.

The Kapchorwa District Local Government Ordinance (2008) was also passed to abolish FGM, but more importantly, there are community awareness campaigns against FGM. International bodies like the UNFPA have carefully drafted messages against the dangers of genital mutilations that are aired on radio stations in these communities. Although the first attempts against this practice were almost futile as more girls chose to undergo mutilation after the campaigns, there is some registered improvement.

But between 1992 and 2012, there has been great improvement. In 2012, some local surgeons denounced the practice and surrendered their crude scalpels to the authorities. The affected communities are more aware of the dangers of the practice and that is a big step in the right direction.

Recently, Uganda joined the rest of the World to observe that Female Genital Mutilation does not continue in any part of this country. The theme was, “Translate the Resolution: Intensifying Global Efforts for the Elimination of FGM”.
Since the government has put legislations in place to address this issue, it is therefore, everyone’s responsibility to make sure all the culprits are brought to book.

The local leaders should be supported to continuously encourage their people to shun the practice because of its adverse effects especially on the girl child. If schools continue to talk to their students about the dangers of this practice, hopefully more girls will decline to participate and they will also be able to educate their parents about the dangers.

cmuyama@gmail.com