According to the World Health Organization (WHO); Female Genital Mutilation which is also known as FGM involves the partial or total removal of external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. It is done on girls from infancy till the age of 15.
FGM is still practiced today because of religious customs. Many think that this is a must in religions so they continue this practice. It is usually done to curb women’s sexual urges. However, it has never been mentioned in any religious texts. They think by practicing FGM, the rates of infidelity will be less. But, that is far from the truth.
The United Nations has declared FGM a human rights violation. There have been many petitions created to ban FGM. But, it’s still occurring today.
It is morally wrong. Who are we to continue this harmful practice? The practice is performed on babies who aren’t even one week old. It leads to many mental health problems in the future. The woman would be psychologically scarred for life.
It results in complications: many women have faced bleeding and infections after this practice. It physically harms the woman and she lives her life in pain, both physically and mentally.
Jaha Dukureh, a human rights activist and an FGM survivor interviewed Gambian women who had gone through this practice. When questioned why this process was still going on, the women replied by saying that women cannot give birth if they’re not circumcised. Which is incorrect. When asked why they did not question FGM, they replied by saying that they were not educated on this topic.
Many people who perform this practice are not equipped to do this. Some of them don’t know basic anatomy and it results in the cutting off of the wrong parts.
Some might say that people know how to do this and that it is not mandatory. But, it shouldn’t be justified. A woman deserves the right to choose what she wants to do with her body and not society.
FGM cannot be reversed and causes life-long pain for the woman. Although it’s easy to blame the women for this, we have to realize they’re the victims themselves. We need to stop this. FGM is a human rights violation and cannot continue.