Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a practice whose origin and significance are shrouded in secrecy, uncertainty, and confusion as well as controversy either as an initiation ceremony of young girls into womanhood or to ensure virginity, curb promiscuity or to protect female modesty and chastity.
FGM, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), refers to all procedures which involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia and/or injury to the female genital organs, whether for cultural or any other non-therapeutic reasons.
In Nigeria, subjection of girls and women to obscure traditional practices is legendary.
Though FGM is practiced in more than 28 countries in Africa and a few scattered communities worldwide, its burden is seen in Nigeria, Egypt, Mali, Eritrea, Sudan, Central African Republic, and northern parts of Ghana where it has been an old traditional and cultural practice of various ethnic groups.
FGM is widely practiced in Nigeria, and with its large population, Nigeria has the highest absolute number of cases of FGM in the world, accounting for about one-quarter of the estimated 115–130 million circumcised women worldwide.
FGM has the highest prevalence in South-South Nigeria with 77 per cent among adult women followed by the South-East with 68 per cent and South-West with 65 per cent but practiced on a smaller scale in the North, paradoxically tending to in a more extreme form. Nigeria has a population of 150 million people with the women population forming 52 per cent and the national prevalence rate of FGM is 41 per cent among adult women.
FGM process varies from country to country; in most parts of Nigeria, it is carried out at a very young age (minors) and there is no possibility of the individual’s consent. There is greater prevalence of Type I excision in the South, with extreme forms of FGM prevalent in the North. The practice of FGM has no relationship with religion.
Some sociocultural determinants have been identified as supporting this avoidable practice and it is still deeply entrenched in the Nigerian society because critical decision makers see nothing wrong with it. FGM was traditionally the specialty traditional birth attendants or members of the community were known for, but now, there is an attempt to make it gain acceptance by allowing modern health practitioners and community health workers into the trade. The WHO has, however, condemned the attempt and has advised that FGM must not be institutionalised or performed by any health professional in any setting.
Modupe Florence Akinbonde modupeakinbonde@gmail.com
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