When I hear the phrase, “Female Genital Mutilation” I have a shivering feeling. I can’t imagine being held down by a group of people to have my genitalia being removed or cut off for no medical reason.
I understand that one of the reasons this cruelty is being committed against women is to prevent women from promiscuous act. Others say, it prevents a woman from enjoying sex. If indeed, that was the reason that this barbaric act was put in place, I wonder why women should be denied the privilege to enjoy sex like men.
There are health benefits to having sex when a woman have organsm. For example, Web MD noted that, “Good sex is like a workout for your pelvic floor muscles. When you have an orgasm, it causes contractions in those muscles, which strengthens them.” More so, having sex helps to build the immune system. “Sexually active people take fewer sick days,” says Yvonne K. Fulbright, PhD a sexual health expert (Web MD).
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So it became a big step in a positive direction when the former president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan passed the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act, 2015 and the Immigration Act, 2015 in law just before he handed over office to the newly elected President Muhammadu Buhari. This law “criminalizes female genital mutilation or cutting, a practice that a staggering 19.9 million Nigerian women are thought to have undergone,” according to International Business Times report.
The International Business Times also noted that it is hoped that the law will have a “potential ripple effect on the 26 other African nations that have significant populations of women who undergo the practice.”
Fact about FGM according to the World Health Organization (WHO):
- Female genital mutilation (FGM) includes procedures that intentionally alter or cause injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.
- The procedure has no health benefits for girls and women.
- Procedures can cause severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later cysts, infections, infertility as well as complications in childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths.
- More than 125 million girls and women alive today have been cut in the 29 countries in Africa and Middle East where FGM is concentrated (1).
- FGM is mostly carried out on young girls sometime between infancy and age 15.
- FGM is a violation of the human rights of girls and women.
To learn more about these fact, check out the full detail published by the WHO.
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