A sideways look at FGM
What if certain forms of childhood female genital alterations/mutilations were legalised? Would this be enough to bring the really horrid forms of FGM down? Two gynaecologists think so …..what do you think?
What if certain forms of childhood female genital alterations/mutilations were legalised? Would this be enough to bring the really horrid forms of FGM down? Two gynaecologists think so …..what do you think?
I have obsessed about the Christmas/circumcision season 2014 – finding all the little stories from across the country. Thousands of girls have undergone the ‘cut’ this year – we have to change tact to demolish FGM.
‘Irῖgũ’ is a very derogative term that refers to uncircumcised girls among the Kikuyu. So when my friend and her sisters were being referred to as ‘irῖgũ cia Njambi – the uncircumcised girls of Njambi (her mother) – it must have pained their mother.
The female circumcision debate has heated up in the media and in parliament . I have followed the discussion in The Daily Nation and there are some rather interesting tit bits. Take this letter to the editor by a regular contributor. She was of the opinion that slapping a ban on FGM is not enough and explains that if these women are given something else to dream about, the practise will die.
I was caught – as I always am – by the small little articles that are squashed into the briefs in ‘The Daily Nation’. I saw this little one about a campaign aimed at tackling female circumcision in Kenya, Somali and Nigeria.