There are traditional initiatives that are beneficial and worth preserving in this era of modernism but one of them is not female genital mutilation.
Today earmarks the world day of zero tolerance for female genital mutilation. A barbaric act that appreciates the cutting of the female genitalia in different methods.
In her discretion to create awareness in order to enlighten female children and the society at large, the founder of Pabokede Initiative for Child Protection and Family and Education, Mrs. Patricia Pabokede has been on media and school tour to sensitize any one who cares to listen about the damages genital mutilation can cause.
In her words “The female genital mutilation also known as female circumcision, and it is the ritual of cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is majorly found in Africa, Asia and the Middle East”
She noted that the procedures are generally performed by traditional circumciser or exciseuse without anesthesia. “ when traditional cutters are involved, non sterile devices are likely to be used including knives, razors, scissors, glass, sharp rocks and fingernails”, she decried.
Mrs. Pabokede highlighted the four methods of genital mutilation, naming the first one as clitoridectomy; this is the partial or total removal of the clitoris and/or its prepuce, while the second method is called excision, this involves detachment of the clitoris and labia minora, whether partially or totally. The third method is the most severe form, it is also known as infibulation or pharaonic type. The procedure consist of narrowing the vaginal orifice with creation of a covering seal by cutting and apposition the labia minora and or labia majora with or without removal of the clitoris. While the fourth type consists of all other procedures to the genitalia of women, this processes include pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterization.
The Pabokede Initiative founder condemned mutilation in its totality as it causes damaged to the patient psychologically, adding that most women who have gone through this process are prone to difficulties in child birth. She continued by saying that, female genital mutilation serves as one major booster of promiscuity among women.
“Women who have gone through such pain, and having their sensitive sexual organs cut off, tend to seldom enjoy sex, which leads to trial of so many sexual partner in a bid to be satisfied sexually”
Mrs. Pabokede added that some marriages are foiled because of sexual controversies caused as a result of this crude act, noting that the effect of genital mutilation on Parenthood is enormous. “Parents who still engages in this abusive act are hated by their wards, and this hatred will even grow to destroy the family, because a girl of 15 or 16, who knows the effect of pain, and when mutilated, will never forget it. It will be more than worse, when she realizes that the act is barbaric and not necessary for any genuine course”
She however beseeched parents and guardians to discard this negative tradition, as it is not of any advantage or importance to our society, adding that, Africa is endowed with rich traditions, and attention should be diverted to the exploitation of these positive and rewarding traditions, rather than the act of mutilation of female genital.
