Nipate
Forum => Kenya Discussion => Topic started by: Omollo on October 25, 2014, 03:56:36 PM
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This thing is now very sophisticated. It is done in hospitals and the shocking detail is that some women actually want it. I was shocked when I heard of girls in Uganda who escape from parents to undergo this operation in the villages. I fear we went too far in demonizing it and ended up making it sound exceptional.
It also makes little sense to focus on one form of female mutilation and ignore hundreds others in the Western World. The reasons cited by young girls to get facelifts, all manner of operations on their private parts, things and breasts are the very same one cited by FGM advocates and beneficiaries. It's time for a reset and rethink
The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon plans to travel to Nairobi next week to launch a global media campaign against female genital mutilation (FGM).
The UN chief is due to arrive in Kenya on October 29, 2014 for a two-day visit that will include talks with President Uhuru Kenyatta, the UN announced on Friday.
Mr Ban will be accompanied by World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, who will also meet top Kenyan officials.
A global drive to end female circumcision was initiated in February by the London-based Guardian newspaper.
Leading Kenyan media houses will be taking part in the launch in Nairobi of an African campaign against the practice, a UN spokesperson told Nation.co.ke.
PARTICIPATED IN RELATED CAMPAIGNS
Mr Ban has previously participated in a number of events related to campaigns against FGM.
“This is something he has taken to heart, and he will continue with those efforts,” said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for Mr Ban.
A resolution adopted in 2012 by the UN General Assembly denounced the cut as an irreparable, irreversible abuse that impacts negatively on the human rights of women and girls.
An estimated 125 million females have been cut in 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East where the practice is concentrated, the UN Population Fund reports.
The practice is illegal in Kenya but still occurs widely among some ethnic groups.
However, the UN says the prevalence of the cut among Kenyan women aged 15 to 49 dropped from 32 per cent in 2003 to 28 per cent in 2008.
http://www.nation.co.ke/counties/nairobi/Ban-Ki-moon-Kenya-anti-FGM-campaign/-/1954174/2499004/-/142e7u8/-/index.html
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In Kenya the problem persists among some communities especially in the North Eastern parts.
The practices are pure savagery. No point dignifying them comparing them to stuff people do in the West.
If the person is grown up and decides they need to mutilate themselves. That they should cut off an ear, a clitoris, maybe the entire genitalia, then that is something they should be free to do without causing a public disturbance.
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I am told it is enjoying a reawakening among Kiuks and Kales as well. NEP is a cesspool. I have no idea how it will be penetrated. It has slowed down among the Maa but not ended.
In Kenya the problem persists among some communities especially in the North Eastern parts.
The practices are pure savagery. No point dignifying them comparing them to stuff people do in the West.
If the person is grown up and decides they need to mutilate themselves. That they should cut off an ear, a clitoris, maybe the entire genitalia, then that is something they should be free to do without causing a public disturbance.
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Schools are notorious for hosting FGM practices. They have ritualised ceremonies prior to cutting. The cutters are done by select old women who use a rusted blade they've been using for eons. Girls can't pee so they undo the stitchings themselves which result in infections to permanent disabilities. They need to find the cutters in the community to deter this behaviour.
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I totally agree about the mutilations going on in the west that have somehow been made kosher. I heard a story about an 8 year old boy who was supposed to undergo gender reassignment surgery in some country in the West with full consent of his parents because he felt he was a girl inside a boy's body. :o How you supposed to know anything about that sort of thing before you've even hit 10? What if he wakes up as a grown up and decides he was a kid and had no idea what he was talking about and wants to sue his parents for foolishly ruining his life when he was just going through a phase? Some things should be banned completely. Let the kid reach 18 and decide for themselves yawa, no way I would allow any unnecessary surgery on my kid as a solution for what really are psychological issues. If it is more than that, let the kid decide something so drastic as an adult...for himself.
As for FGM, being from a community that does it, I can tell you that it truly is an uphill battle, especially among women. Talk about indoctrination! Men don't seem all that concerned. If the wife/mother doesn't want to do it, it will not matter to the men that their daughter is not cut. I have come to the conclusion that only something radical can be done to stop it. For example,
1) A proper cariculum compulsorily taught in school from std 1 especially in those communities with widespread practice. It must explain in appropriate language to the kids that this is a bad thing and if someone does it to them or their friends, they should report to the teachers or nurse or chief etc who must be informed that they must hand the information over to the children's officer.
2) Some way of routinely inspecting children. Apprehend the parents/guardians of any kid found with mutilated organs. The problem is that this so invasive and may feel like abuse in itself, so while effective, it will cause too much hullabaloo.
3) Churches and mosques must begin to publicly shame practitioners the same way they do those who visit waganga. Just as with going to mganga, the moment the practice is firmly associated with being pagan and unchristian in the public psyche of these communities, most people will not be caught dead doing it.
4) Have those hospitals that try to reverse it in the country and make the services free for young girls.
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The FGM campaign will suffer as long as society keeps condoning similar mutilation among males and calling it macho. All should condemn circumcision of boys in the same strong terms as FGM to achieve anything close to success.Why should Ban-ki Moon burn UN money on things we can do for ourselves?
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The FGM campaign will suffer as long as society keeps condoning similar mutilation among males and calling it macho. All should condemn circumcision of boys in the same strong terms as FGM to achieve anything close to success.Why should Ban-ki Moon burn UN money on things we can do for ourselves?
Daily Bread, comparing the two is grossly misleading. The equivalent of FGM for a man would be to slice off the head of his penis, not his foreskin. A woman's pleasure nerves are not located in the hood/"foreskin" of her clitoris but in the gland itself, the exterior part of which is partially or completely removed in the practice of FGM including other sensitive external parts of her reproductive organ; So the thing women undergo is something much more destructive than male circumcision and I think comparing the two undermines the urgency of the campaign against FGM.
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One practice is OLD, far more widespread with rumored medical benefits with next to ZERO side-effects. I have no idea what leap of logic would lead you to conclude that fighting male circumcision would end FGM. Do you have beef with male circumcision like some negroes i know? For Adventist sake in many areas it is done on infants so there is nothing macho there
The FGM campaign will suffer as long as society keeps condoning similar mutilation among males and calling it macho. All should condemn circumcision of boys in the same strong terms as FGM to achieve anything close to success.Why should Ban-ki Moon burn UN money on things we can do for ourselves?
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kadame,
I have no doubt that if male circumcision was deemed as dangerous and fought against, it would take two consecutive eternities to eradicate it. Human traditions are strong and Jesus readily pointed this out. So I really don't look down on those who do it, I try and understand the immense pressure they undergo to drop an age old rite
Talk about indoctrination!
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It only an issue in communities that do it very little girls like Gusii and Somalis. In many parts of Kalenjin it ended a natural death because girls of age 14-18yrs undergo it; those are mature girls who just need to be taken to schools and by the time they are in high school; they wouldn't want it.
Focus on educating,stigmatizing and informing people the dangers of FGM. Leaders should also be in the forefront..esp women leaders...condemning it.
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kadame,
I have no doubt that if male circumcision was deemed as dangerous and fought against, it would take two consecutive eternities to eradicate it. Human traditions are strong and Jesus readily pointed this out. So I really don't look down on those who do it, I try and understand the immense pressure they undergo to drop an age old rite
Talk about indoctrination!
vooke, I don't look down on them. :) These are my people. I know how they think. They don't think they are harming the little girls at all. If you ask them not to do it, they feel like you want them to deny their children something really special, or you are trying to make their children outcasts or freaks. They have no ill intentions whatsoever. Its just so deeply ingrained in the psyche of these women. Good news is that those who have lived outside the cocoon and mixed with others are beginning to know how this is seen in the rest of the world. There are also a few brave fathers bang in the middle of shags who blatantly refuse it for their daughters in the name of Christianity. They are few but they are there, problem is they are a needle in a haystack. Another thing, I think because type I FGM doesn't lead necessarily to extreme effects in child birth etc, these women don't really get that this is dangerous or awful. It really is an impossible task trying to dissuade one, you can talk for weeks and they pretend they get you once they realize you think it is horrific, but they will go ahead and do it secretly. I hope in the next generation it is ended, but I don't think that is possible without more radical interventions than merely appeals and educating adult women who have gone through the procedure and don't personally see what is so dangerous about it.