Why Women Must Safeguard Their Daughters From This Harmful Traditional Practice

The tradition of circumcising female children has left and is leaving many women who have been subjected to the harmful traditional practice in terrible physical, emotional, and psychological pain for life.

A ‘ritual’ that was meant to make women ‘remain focused in life’ and discourage sexual promiscuity has left many with pains and heartbreaks they will live to remember.

A non-governmental organisation, the Association of Women for Human Development has attributed many broken marriages to female genital mutilation.

The NGO’s state Coordinator, Mrs. Folake Esan, said this in Akure at an event marking this year’s International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, News Agency of Nigeria, NAN reports.

According to her, women must safeguard their daughters from practices that would jeopardise their marriages in future.

Esan enjoined women to be advocates for ending female genital mutilation in their communities.

The spokesperson for the Federation of Female Lawyers in the state, Bola Joel, said female genital mutilation was a punishable offence under the law, attracting a two-year jail term.

An expert, Mrs Dare Owolabi, in a lecture entitled “Eradication of Female Circumcision,” traced the history of circumcision to the Bible, stressing that only the male child should be circumcised.

Owolabi said circumcision would not prevent any woman from being promiscuous, adding that women whose genitals had been mutilated were often exposed to serious health conditions.

She enjoined the women to be agents of change wherever they find themselves, and that they must be ready to join the campaign against female genital mutilation.

The Executive Chairman of Inter-African Committee, Dr. Module Dairo, said the advocacy was to sensitise the public on zero tolerance for female genital mutilation in the state.