FGM a killer Ritual:

By Omar Ibrahim Hussein (PhD)

Congratulations to Puntland government and its people who have taken the courageous decision to ban the cruel ritual popularly known as “Female Genital Mutilation” from its territory. The same goes to the provisional constitution which bans and states, “Circumcision of girls is a cruel and degrading customary practice, and is tantamount to torture and therefore prohibited”. I hope with all my heart that Siilanyo Government will follow suit in the very near future. Risk of severe bleeding, infection and infertility are some of the side effects of the procedure, as are obstetric complications including postpartum hemorrhage and infant mortality. Research suggests that girls who have undergone FGM/C are more prone to mental disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

We have no time to wait. The clock is ticking. Our girls are in danger. Death and destruction of our girls in the hands of loving mothers is love lopsided. When will a mother say enough is enough, I don’t want my loving daughter to taste hell as I did. I will do to my daughter what my mother did to me sounds like vengeance not love. Fathers were always more considerate to their daughters on this regard

Subjecting young girls to pharoanic ritual is a heinous act perpetuated by mothers who want to protect their daughters from sexual encounter before marriage. The criminal ritual is not rooted in our Somali culture or to our Islamic Faith. The perverted logic is that the FGM protects girls from sexual intercourse before marriage. But we all know it has never protected a girl from being sexually active if she so desires. In fact circumcision and infibulations provide false protection… try it, I am closed; instead of making it a no go or trial area. It is also ludicrous to suggest that our girls are more promiscuous than girls— say from Saudi Arabia who never heard circumcision as a method of protecting girls’ chastity. It is equally ludicrous to suggest that our boys want to have mutilated and traumatized girls as life partners. The ritual is banned in almost all countries of the world including our next door neighbor Djibouti. We should not be less caring to our own girls than Puntand or Djibouti. Everybody knows the damage it perpetrates on our girls. But the cruel ritual survives as nobody wants to stop it for reasons I don’t understand. It looks like an accepted conspiracy against our own daughters. A program about the subject by Moha of Somaliland National Tv last year broke my heart. I could not watch the horror for the whole duration of the program. The cruel ritual affects 98% of our girls. And to add insult to injury, girls from Europe and North America are brought to be mutilated and sealed… a process known as ‘reconditioning’. I want this weapon of mass genital destruction to be laid to rest…it puts more than 50% of our people at risk. Risk of severe bleeding, infection and infertility are some of the side effects of the procedure, as are obstetric complications including postpartum hemorrhage and infant mortality. Research suggests that girls who have undergone FGM/C are more prone to mental disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The best way to avoid sex before marriage is to teach our girls like the rest of girls in the Islamic world to say just no; put the responsibility at their door steps. That is a more effective way of protecting the chastity of our girls before marriage.

Hablaha Tii Hanweyne Hal adagba Haleyn Habadeede: Haye fudud, Haye, Habeenka lahaabay Hubsiimadu Habooneyd.

Girls’ protection is not about building false walls or destroying genuine body parts of our innocent baby girls; it is about responsibility…Haye fudud; easy yes to sexual predators, as the song says, is the real problem. Teach them to say just no. Mutilation of the genitals is destruction not protection. Mutilation is incompatible with the preservation of the integrity of women. It is a violation of human rights. A mother, who mutilates the genitals of her daughter because she loves her, sounds like the man who said; “I killed my wife because I loved her”  What kind of love is that?

photo source: the Guardian