Why communities continue female circumcision despite 2015 ban

Nigeria is one of the countries with a significant prevalence rate of female genital mutilation popularly called female circumcision.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines female genital mutilation as all procedures which involve partial or total removal of the external female genital organs whether for cultural or any other non-therapeutic reasons.

The practice has the highest prevalence in the South-South, South-East and South- West of the country, and practised on a lower scale in the northern states.

Medical experts said the consequences of female genital mutilation include severe pain, infertility, infections, scarring, many complications during childbirth including maternal and newborn deaths. It can also lead to psychological damage and of course the loss of sexual pleasure.

In 2015 before handing over to the current administration, ex- president, Goodluck Jonathan, passed the federal law banning female circumcision in the country after it was passed by the Senate.

The news of the ban was joyfully received by campaigners against it, who also believed that as a heavy weight and the most populous nation in Africa, Nigeria’s ban would also stimulate other countries in the continent to prohibit it.

Yet, some others are of the view that mere banning of the practice cannot halt its acceptance among the people who believe in it. They argued that it is crucial to scale up efforts to change the cultural views that underpin it.

Since the ban however, there is still considerable support for the practice in areas where it is deeply rooted. Many people in these communities cherish it and see it as a cultural practice that must be upheld; while others are still ignorant of the ban.

A resident of Eniofot community in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, (South-South) who only wants to be known by her first name, Blessing, said she was circumcised by her grandmother when she was a child.

She said the practice was still ongoing and that it is a good practice because it prevents women from promiscuity, adding that she was not even aware of the 2015 law banning it. She also disagreed with the government’s ban.

“The reason why they do circumcision for women is that it prevents them from having sex all the time. Some women do it immediately they deliver their (first) child or when the child becomes two years old or thereabout. As soon as a woman delivers, the mother will come and carry her for circumcision so that whatever food she is given to eat will enable her to quickly get strong.

“In my case, was circumcised by my grandmother when I was small, till date the tradition is still going on. How they do it is that they will use boiled egg to touch the female genital organ and then it will come out by itself. When it comes out, they will then use scissors or razor to cut it, and they know the normal size to cut. And until the woman dies, it won’t ever grow again and it will be normal and in normal position,” she said.

Blessing encouraged people to continue with the practice saying her husband likes it.

Another resident of Itam in Itu Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Idara said I she was circumcised by her mother -in-law when she was pregnant with her first child and that it was not painful.

“When I was pregnant with my first child, my mother-inlaw came and circumcised me. It’s not painful. She used razor and thread, and after cutting me she poured a local gin...finish! Some women even come to me and ask me how I did my own and I often tell them that it was my mother-in-law that did it for me and that it was not painful. They even ask me to do it for them and I said I can’t do it. They will then go to traditional birth attendants to do it.

“Now the government says people should not be doing it again. I don’t know of some women, whether they like it or not; but for me I like it and I want it to continue because it’s our tradition. Moreover, it is good for women to do it because it makes them to have self dignity and respect and anytime you have sex with your husband or boyfriend, you will be normal and stable,” she said.

A male resident of Urua Ekpa community in Uyo, Victor Bassey, said his wife was circumcised and that he had never seen any side effects as many often say.

He said female circumcision is a cultural thing that people engage in from time immemorial and are not even aware of the risks, if they were any, adding that even the negative effects of the practice are more imagined than the reality on ground.

On the 2015 ban of the practice, he said: “One sure thing is that banning female genital mutilation alone may never be enough to halt its progression since it is never carried out in public glare, but indoors and in the corners of people’s homes where it might never be discovered. I wouldn’t say the practice should continue or be halted, it’s about what the people want.

“But things are changing day by day and if there’s anything wrong with the practice or that it is not consistent with contemporary times any longer, then the people must be truly convinced and such conviction should not be by any forceful law enclosed in government documents or even disseminated in the media alone. It should be more than that.”

The matron in charge of the Family Life Center and Maternal Birth-Injury Hospital, Reverend Sister Sylvia Ndubuaku, said female circumcision was a harmful cultural practice and that it does not reduce flirting among women as believed.

“I will not support female circumcision because of the effect it has on women during delivery. Cultural or no cultural, there are some cultural practices that are harmful. And our duty is to educate people to desist from such practice. Female circumcision traumatises the girl. It creates a situation where a girl might have difficulties during labour because everything is removed...the clitoris is removed during female circumcision.

“When the wound from the circumcision is healed, the scar it creates there is what causes difficulty for women during delivery. And for me I don’t think it is necessary in this modern age to say that if a woman is not circumcised she would be flirting. I don’t believe in that. There are women that have been circumcised and yet they are flirting. The most important thing here is the moral, what you believe and the upbringing. So for me, female circumcision should be discouraged,” she said.

Barrister Clifford Thomas who champions the campaign against female circumcision is the Akwa Ibom State Chairman of Civil Liberties Organization and the state coordinator of Human Rights Community.

He said winning the battle against the practice would require an integrated engagement of custodians of people’s culture because people place more value on their culture than any state law.

“But again, it’s one thing to enact a law and it is another thing to cause that law to be obeyed. Do the people believe in the law the government has enacted or brought to bear? No, because the government lacks the will power to ensure that the law works with the culture of the people. And where people don’t believe in the law they won’t obey it because they allow culture to become stronger and better than the law.

”Policies works with the people, for the people and within the people. If the people don’t buy the policy, they don’t have ownership of the policy and even when it comes to law as it were, it really would not carry the same weight that culture carries,” he said.

Barrister Thomas called on the government at all levels, Non-Governmental Organizations, civil right groups and traditional institutions among others to formulate a workable action plan that would genuinely halt female circumcision in the country.