THE FALLACY OF THE ANTI-FEMALE CIRCUMCISION
MOVEMENT

By

Osilama Osime (MBBS, MPH)

The Bill on "Female Genital Mutilation" (FGM) HB 22 sponsored by Hon. Janet Adeyemi in the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is one legislative process one cannot, in good consciousness, support. The bill desires to criminalize a widely practiced and accepted tradition of a people.

First, none of the nation states or nationalities that constitute Nigeria practices "female genital mutilation" - a term that implies that some barbaric natives deliberately set out to do harm to their female offsprings. It is the tradition in some parts of the country to circumcise children - male and female. In either sex, when surgery is performed, varying amount of the genitalia is excised. In the female, varying amount of the clitoris and or the labia are cut. In some communities, female circumcision is ceremonial and does not involve any surgery, at all. Most of the adverse effects of female circumcision are associated with the resultant scarification when surgery is performed.

This practice which has become associated with our people’s way of life and has sustained from time immemorial should not be demonized, cast in criminal terms and legislated against. It is not the vogue among Nigerian woman to smoke cigarette. It is not popular and the society does not accept it as desirable norm. However, in some "civilized" societies, cigarette smoking by women (even during pregnancy) is accepted as "cool" and fashionable. This is in spite of the well-established cause-effect relationship between cigarette smoking and some deadly ailments. Basking in the sun for skin tanning exposes the non-black skin to a high risk of skin cancer with a high fatality rate. Where these issues are concerns there are no bills designed to legislate against them. They are considered public health issues and addressed as such through public health programs  designed to enlighten and educate people of the risks of their choices.

The Sunday Boston Globe of March 18, 2001 in its "The Boston Globe Magazine" published a write up "Body Work" by Judith Gains. Part of this article reads:

"At the fringes of this phenomenon, some people are turning attention to body parts not previously considered in the aesthetic domain. Some doctors report a minor vogue in cosmetic removal of one or two bottom ribs to make a waistline look smaller. Others have been alarmed by a growing demand for genital surgery among women, who think the inner labia are too large or elongated."

The western culture of surgically remodeling any part of the body including tongue piercing, eyelid piercing, nose piercing and skin scarification are never considered as self abuse or body mutilation. At least not by those who practice it for whom it is "body modification" - fixing that part of the body you do not like.

It is unfortunate that our legislators would describe our values, culture and traditions in derogatory terms to enable them make such practices illegal. "Mutilation" is not it. For the people who practice it, "circumcision" is what it is and "circumcision" it should be called. The term "mutilation" has this negative bestial connotation that suggests willful and malicious infliction of injury. I am yet to know that Nigerian parent whose culture permits of deliberately harming his/her child (male or female). I mean "Nigerian parent" not ‘African parent’. The term "mutilation" is unacceptable. Those opposed to female circumcision should tone down on their rhetoric and exaggeration aimed at winning the sympathy and approval of some western overlords. A very thin line separates insult from fancifully overstating a point. Why has it become such a shameful thing to be identified with the tradition and culture of our ancestors? Wait a minute! Our anti-female circumcision group will not want to be caught eating pounded yam cum ogbono or egusi
soup with their fingers. It is unfortunate that a cultureless people, because of economic and political advantages are the ones who would now set the standards and way of living for another people whose background is rooted in culture and tradition.

Nigerian children do not grow up alone, left to Prozac and other mood stabilizers. They have loving parents and family (extended of course) and each is registered as a family member before birth. They represent the ultimate and true blessing any family can receive. Our children are cute and truly adorable hence there is always an adult family member readily available to attend to their needs. Their being circumcised is part of the manifestation of the joy that comes with their arrival. In fact, some communities celebrate female circumcision with fanfare. It is a milestone in the child’s growing up that the parents are delightfully and eagerly desiring to attain. It is a decision the parents have to make because our culture is inclusive, communal and collective. Grown up children, more often than not, have family members contributing to and or influencing some of their decisions if not outrightly making such decisions for them. That is who we are. By the reference above, what we find desirous to do for our children, some other culture learn to do in later life with so much excuses.

If we send our daughters to the "fattening room" for pre-nuptial grooming we are ridiculed. There are no statistics to support the insinuations that our fattening room culture exposes us to an obesity epidemic. When our damsels parade their beautiful ebony skins, it is primitive nakedness. But not such degrading and derogatory words for cultures that exploit their bikini-wearing women’s bodies. In one culture nakedness is primitive, in the other it is fashionable and a show of wealth and well being. There is no female sport in the western culture that is not designed to expose and exhibit nudity as if the participating sportswomen’s nakedness is part of the game. Polygamy where a man is held responsible and committed to his family is scorned at. Flip the coin and you have the "ideal" culture of flirtatious and irresponsible multiple marriages. Poly-marriage never gets derided as long as the previous and immediately preceding marriage ends in divorce and payment of alimony and child support including Prozac prescriptions.

Now it is time to make Nigerians feel self-pity for circumcising their daughters. Female circumcision (or male circumcision) is not an act of willful, malicious, dehumanizing brutalization of our children’s genitals. It is perceived as a preparatory act towards initiation into later adulthood. No mother (or father at that) who has had seven (or more) boys will subject the eight and female child to any barbaric downgrading mutilation of any part of the body. That "Odegua" of a child is the precious female and circumcising her only increases the joy of having her.

There is no rule of thumb that stipulates that a tradition must be concern free. There is always going to be some fault with a people’s way of life if an effort is made to take it apart. When a people’s way of life, beliefs or tradition has unintended adverse effect, what to do? What not to do is not to legislate against the particular way of life, belief or tradition. A legislation against a socially accepted norm drives the behavior underground. Mary Slessor didn’t arrive Calabar with a piece of legislation against the killing of twins. She lived among the people, campaigned, enlightened the people and so dispelled the beliefs that placed the lives of twins in jeopardy. The people became informed and their customs evolved. Attempts at changing a people’s culture must first acquire a good understanding of the people’s perspective of that culture with appropriate and due respect for the circumstances that produced and maintains the behavior.

The health hazards associated with female circumcision are no worse than those of bilateral episiotomy or symphisiotomy. But the dysfunction and crippling damage associated with the later are readily and conveniently rationalized. Female circumcision lives a scar like every surgery. The undesired effects of this are better addressed through public health campaign programs and not legislation. The cumulative benefits of a population-wide behavior change program are more effective and enduring than the process of criminalizing an acceptable behavior and legislating against it. Presently, in some parts of Nigeria, public health campaign programs are effectively counseling against marriages between couples that both have sickle cell trait (AS genotype). This is reducing the incidences of double sickle cell gene (SS genotype) births. Talk of eliminating abikus. Nigerians are capable of making positive choices for themselves and do not need to be led by the nose which is legislating against a tradition does.

When the people are fully informed in regards of the choices they have to make then the chosen behavior may be modified and adapted to meet any peculiar circumstances. For those who choose to continue smoking cigarette inspite of the associated health hazards, the cigarette industry offers low tar cigarettes with filters and the Surgeon General’s warning on cigarette packets. For those who must stay under the sun, ignoring the risk of skin cancer, there are body creams and sunshade glasses. Similarly, for those who would not give up their ancestral heritage, the process of female circumcision should be standardized to be conducted under sterile conditions and environment. Unsterile procedure and environment makes even the innocuous male circumcision an unsafe surgery. Neonatal tetanus is a painful consequence of male circumcision that immediately takes it toll not because of the surgery per se but because of unclean environment and procedure.

The Nigerian woman having control over her body is not relevant to the subject of female circumcision. Nigerian women are not oppressed and unempowered as some negative press would want us to believe. Some Nigerian communities simultaneously have female traditional rulers (Omu) with significant authority and almost co-equal influence with the male rulers (Obi). Long before 1920, the area now defined as Nigeria had produced Queen Amina and Queen Idia among others. The Nigerian woman started voting along side their male counterparts from day one of introducing universal suffrage to us. The first Nigerian parliament had a female senator and a female cabinet minister long before some older democracies will allow their women run for such offices. Nigeria has her Alele-Williams and the Ransome-Kutis. Name the sphere of life and the Nigerian woman is significantly represented and competing on equal ground with their male counterparts for equal pay.

The Nigerian culture does not however make provision for a woman to have absolute control over her reproductive endowment. The reasons for this are not far fetched. Our concept of marriage and family differ widely from others where women are alleged to have absolute control over their bodies. It is not a matter of which is preferable or superior. But that is what the situation is. Our marriages are not just for companionship with pre-or/and post- nuptial agreements specifying who makes breakfast on what day of the week and how many times the couple must sleep in the same room before divorce. Across Nigeria, marriage is celebrated as the union of two families whose children have the commission to go and multiply. Hence , every unborn Nigerian child is not stuck with just a biological mother who has power of life and death over it but has a league of uncles, aunts, cousins and grand parents.

"Having control over their bodies" is a euphemism to disguise the right for women to singularly terminate the lives of their unborn babies. The unborn Nigerian child has a family that cares about it as well as care for the mother too. Neither is expected to put the life of the other in jeopardy as an indication of empowerment or being in control.

Genuine concern for the reproductive health of our women as it is impacted by female circumcision is best addressed through public health campaign and education programs. Female circumcision is not the result of a battle of the sexes with the victorious party electing to "mutilate" the vanquished. It is a people’s way of life. It is these people who need to be fully informed of the consequences of their beliefs and practices and thereby empowered to make alternative choices, voluntarily.

It is unfortunate that our lawmakers have been stampeded into wasting legislative time and energy trying to curb a practice deeply rooted into our tradition and social ethos. A census of the legislative ills confronting Nigeria today will show that female circumcision does not feature among the first thousand. There are many more issues in Nigeria today that can be achieved by legislative fiat. Cultures evolve.

God bless Nigeria.