Female Genital Mutilation, FGM, is one of a number of customary pervasive acts which several girls and women are exposed to. Advocates for an end to the practice are striving globally, especially with developing figures that reveal an estimated 200 million girls and women across 30 countries have undergone FGM. Suzan Ironsi writes.
In recent years, there has been a surge in campaigns against FGM which backers say endangers female sexual and mental health and deprives the women of their rights. It is the intentional altering or causing injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. This harmful antiquated practice involves the partial or total removal of the female genitalia; specifically the partial or total removal of the clitoridectomy, to the removal of the entire clitoris and the cutting of the labia minora to the most extreme form which involves the excision of all external genitalia and the stitching together of the two sides of the vulva. Research has shown that lifelong health consequences include chronic infection, severe pain during urination, menstruation, sexual intercourse, childbirth, psychological trauma and death. Recently, former Minister of Health and current Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, Dr Babatunde Osotimehin says, “Millions of women and girls can no longer suffer in silence, FGM scars girls for life – endangering their health, depriving them of their rights and the chance to reach their full potential.”
Predicated on cultural beliefs, the practice is condoned in communities across Nigeria, with lower reported cases in the North East, North Central, and North West regions whilst States in the South West, South East and the South South are considered to have higher prevalence rates. These figures have attracted international attention, and organisation like ’28 Too Many’, which is dedicated to profiling countries that practise FGM and proffering solutions are interested in how Nigeria will address the current statistics, “One of our concerns in putting together the country profile for Nigeria is whether and how the States will adopt and implement the recent VAPP Act,” says Research Coordinator Caroline Pinder. According to Gender Specialist with UNFPA Nigeria, Nkiru Igbokwe, people in high prevalence communities are wary of moves to eradicate a practise that has been in place for eons, and are apprehensive of being ostracized for differing from a norm that is believed to stand as a mark of ‘decency’ of a female, boost the fertility nature of girls, and serve as a rite of passage for girls, amongst others.
“They do not know the health impact, how infections or keloids could occur. What inhibits their drive to stop this is born out of a disbelief in the existence of an actual harm to those who this practice is carried out on. In some of these areas, because FGM has been ongoing for generations, some have come to believe that it is a religious requirement and are suspicious of motives to set aside the practice when they do not recognise the negative impacts it has on women,” Igbokwe says.
She further explains that “FGM is not only a social issue but a health issue. As a social norm, we started with a baseline assessment in Nigeria to understand the norms, the drivers of it, identifying those key individuals that influence the decisions for FGM. The resilience is backed by people believing it is a culture, a strong social norm that has transcended generations, and is not really bad. In areas like Imo, Ebonyi, Oyo, Ekiti, Osun where we have projects, it is not seen as mutilation and described as female circumcision and the ideology is that it has been existing and helps mitigate pre-marital sex and curb promiscuity among women.”
The United Nations has embraced February 6 as the international awareness day for Zero Tolerance of Female Genital Mutilation. In 2003, the former First Lady of Nigeria, late Mrs Stella Obasanjo had made the official declaration on ‘Zero Tolerance to FGM’ stating that the challenges of FGM in Nigeria was imperative not only because of its harmful impact on the reproductive and sexual health of girls and women but also because it violates their fundamental rights and undermines equitable social-economic development of the country.
In recent developments, the Violence Against Person Prohibition (VAPP) Act 2015, section six outlines the punishment against female circumcision or genital mutilation. The provision allows for an imprisonment term of up to 4years and the maximum fine of 200,000 thousand naira for persons performing, engaging, attempting to engage, aiding or counselling a person to execute circumcision or genital mutilation on girls or women.
However, Igbokwe expresses that the VAPP Act has been of little impact, citing jurisdiction constraints and a dependence on State domesticated laws on Sexual and Gender-based violence. “We organised a workshop last year on solutions on how to domestic the VAPP act. While Abia and Imo do not have legislation on sexual and gender-based violence, other states within the region have laws against harmful traditional practises, which provides for the prosecution of FGM.”
So far, efforts to abandon this practice have included Interventions based on targeting stakeholders at individual, interpersonal, community and national levels. Though the second year running, UNFPA is launching their program targeted at FGM this year, that will be focused on accelerating the abandonment of female genital mutilation. Using Lagos as a control state, it will cut across six states. “We work to support the social norms campaign at the community level, we’ve done community dialogue, with a wide range of community groups, like the youth, traditional leaders and even religious leaders. So in that vein, we have done training for health workers on how to manage FGM, especially when women are in labour and they present with FGM. In addition, we have the FGM champions, going house-to-house to carry out household discussions to enlighten people on the impact. All this is with an effort to catalyse behavioural change that is needed for FGM to diminish,” Igbokwe expresses.
Also, Doune Porter, the Chief of Communication of UNICEF sketched details on the Joint UNFPA/UNICEF Programme on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting, FGM/C abandonment in Nigeria which aims to contribute to the acceleration of the total abandonment of FGM/C in Nigeria within the next 20 years, in line with the United Nations General Assembly Resolution. Porter explains that the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: Accelerating Change has launched a second phase in 17 countries covering Africa and the Middle East that will run from January 2014 to December 2017, in line with the strategic plans of the agencies. In this second phase Nigeria was added to the joint programme due to its large population and has the highest absolute number of female genital mutilation (FGM) worldwide, accounting for about one-quarter of the estimated 130 million with FGM in the world. In Nigeria, FGM has the highest prevalence in the south-south (77 percent) (Among adult women), followed by the south east (68 percent) and south west (65 percent), but practiced on a smaller scale in the north. In addition, the attempts at the medicalization of FGM is another threat to eliminating the practice in Nigeria. Porter states that “To achieve this goal, the Government of Nigeria in collaboration with UNFPA, UNICEF and in partnership with Civil Society Organizations is implementing the common coordinated national response in 2016. To contribute towards achieving this, a situation assessment on the current knowledge, practices and social norms on FGM/C in 6 selected states (Ebonyi, Ekiti, Imo, Osun, Oyo and Lagos) has been conducted by UNICEF and partners in this year. The assessment provides in-depth information on community/cultural dynamics, social expectations, preferences, social networks, influential community stakeholders and their key roles around FGM/C from which a road map for designing an evidence-based implementation strategy and state specific communication plan on FGM/C abandonment that reflects state/community peculiarities can be derived.”
The partnership which is aimed at employing evidence-based advocacy will adopt a measure of sustained community-based intervention in the targeted communities. Doune explained that this should assure stakeholders at different levels and ensure mutual accountability of duty bearers to protecting the rights of women and girls with the focus on FGM/C abandonment. UNICEF will collaborate with the media and different social networks at community level to address identified social norms and promote social change for FGM/C abandonment. This is expected to also support Women/Girls empowerment as they become mentors and role models for their peers and hopefully participate in development processes in their homes, schools and the community.
Meanwhile, at the 9th International Congress of the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria, SOGON, held in November 2015, it was resolved that SOGON would also partner with the Government in its effort to achieve eradication of FGM in Nigeria. The Secretary General, Dr. Agboghoroma recently reiterated this, stating that “SOGON is very concerned about the current situation with respect to FGN in Nigeria and condemns the practice of FGM and attempts at medicalization of the practice. We call on the government to ensure its prevention and eradication of the practice, and will provide care and support to those who have suffered from FGM.”
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