MARKING INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ZERO TOLERANCE FOR FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION.

I used to be curious about whether or not I was circumcised. I asked, nobody answered. At some point, I even asked for a physical examination to determine that. The examiner kuku did not give me a definitive response. Maybe em no wan indulge my curiosity. I had and still have little or no knowledge of human anatomy, else I would have observed “myself” myself.

I have always known about circumcision, male circumcision(though). The first time I got to know that there was a female version was the day I saw a scar on the high-end of my friends thigh(please don’t ask me how I saw it). I asked how the scar came about and she said it was a cut she sustained as a child when she was being circumcised.
Coincidentally, around that same time, I read an interview Bola Tinubu granted a Reporter. He was the serving Lagos State Governor then. He recalled in nostalgia how he lost his sister to female genital mutilation. The poor sister bled to death after she was circumcised.

I thought to myself, my friend was lucky, she was only left with a scar, she did not lose her life. But between bleeding to death and having a scar on the thigh, there are many more damages Female Genital Mutilation can cause- infections, pain during urination, sex or when menstruating. Statistics reports that over 200 million girls have been circumcised, and this practice still continues today, as it is been sustained by culture, ignorance. It is unclear how many females have died from this vain practice.

This culture or the ignorance must not continue. Today is marked as the International day of Zero Tolerance of Female Genital Mutilation.

Removing and damaging external female genitalia as part of culture, without medical reason is barbaric. And barbarism has no place in our modern world. 

Now I know, there is nothing uncertain about being circumcised. You know it, you see it, probably feel it too. FGM makes the female body "unwhole" and puts its victims on the path of life long pain with no gain.

Unfortunately, (our) Nigeria contributes 10% of the global burden of Female Genital Mutilation. The highest prevalence of all the countries of the world.

What would you like to know about Female Genital Mutilation?
What role can you play to end the practice of Female Genital Mutilation in your community and round the world at large?
Answer these questions and you would have contributed in making today a success.