[Music] at least 200 million girls and women alive today living in 31 countries have undergone female genital mutilation and this the world over they've been active activities to end the female genital mutilation and we join the world to add our voice to the issue that's why we're here to talk about stopping female genital mutilation and in the studio this morning i have um some young ladies to really help us talk about this barista lilian ogucci or sakuya who is the state chairman nigeria counc
il of nurse sorry state attorney anambra state good to have you in the studios thank you very much i also have edith umka state chairman nigeria council of nurses and midwifery anambra state welcome edit thank you all right uh let's look at this issue by beginning with asking what actually is female genital mutilation otherwise called fgm mutilation or cotton is partial or complete removal of female external genitalia for any reason apart from medical reasons for any non-therapeutic reason that
is to say the procedure actually has no medical relevance so it is done as a result of belief culture or tradition which we are still going to look into those things that you know made them to feel or made them to believe that female genital cotton is what's a young girl or what a female should undergo in our society now i would want you to really talk more on this before we we ask whether there is law against it or not you know you said for no just reason and while i was preparing that was that
kind of why should people get involved with gender female genital mutilation and of course uh if there are health benefits or help in health implications of you know getting involved in female genital mutilation okay thank you just like i said it has no medical reason but the origin or the genesis of human genital mutilation often now is still shredded in the secrecy confusion and uncertainty we cannot say that this is the actual medical reason why we are doing that but before we proceed let us
see how this thing how this fgm how it is done we have a threat of four types one is a cleridectomy this chloride atom is removing the purpose of the equilibrius as we know clearly this clitoris is the erogenous zone of the female genital system so when it is removed they believe that once it is removed the woman will not have that urge again and then you live a life that you see that they believe is good for them then another one is type two in this case now there is a fold of muscle that cove
rs the vagina the smaller one and bigger one in this case the both the clitoris is called that labial minority and majora are also scripts and the third one is what we call infibulation in this case you remove the equilibrius the labia majora minora and also stitch in this case now they just stitch it and leaving just a small hole for menswear in the formances and then for urination then the last one is unclassified methods that we cannot say this is how they do it he did not they call it just t
hey can pose some corrosive substances to numb you know to mutilate let's go back to what the meaning of mutilation mutilation means you continue to you know you know to handle a particular portion so that's at some extent it will lose blood supply and become numb because as they are doing all those things mutilating it the blood supply to those areas are caught so that the person cannot you know field if you touch the person you cannot feel it again so that is the best we have been asking why a
ll these methods why are they doing it well from books we read from what we have interviewed people what they say is that the female genital mutilation is good for a growing a a a young girl to prevent him from promiscuity to make him you know it's an initiation to enter into womanhood and then also to to maintain the dignity of a hindu girls which as a medical person of those things is business because somebody that wants to be promiscuous whether you circumcise a person or you don't we still l
and it lies more on parental training how the person was actually brought up then the issue of a you know chastity or making the person to be pure is untrue because during this process it will land the person to what we call certain complications okay we'll still get to that to see the health implications because of female genital mutilation and now barrister there's been this call world over to to stop a female genital mutilation you know all over the world why do you think uh they are calling
on us and putting an end to this well um like um my colleague the nurse has already stated actually the reason for the call for this is because it's actually a serious a fundamental error abuse of the rights of women and young girls there are no health benefits to female genitalia worldwide it is agreed that it has no medical benefits the only thing you do it's for your own selfish desires it is just because of the kind of culture you know our clients because if you find out it's actually preval
ent in african countries even though they also practice it in some parts of asia and latin america but the truth is the concentration is in africa because that is where it is widely practiced now um internationally globally even the united nations through its um true unicef and then unfp have really strived in sure they have already been pointed they said 2030 they will end female genital mutilation alteration of any because you know female genital metabolic she rightly defined it it has to do w
ith alteration of that external female um genitalia of any form what about piercing like you you had when she was mentioning the four types of fmc as recognized by world health organization so all the international conventions you know that are trying to eliminate any form of discrimination against women they all disagree remember that the constitution itself our 1999 constitution says you should not discriminate against anybody because of his gender that's section 42. now if you go further our
the most recent laws we have trying to key into that convention because we have been a member you understand we agreed we signed that treaty african chateau on human people's rights everything everybody condemns this religion against women in whatever form including this fgm that's a female genital mutation or cutting you know so now flowing from cedar um the agitations actually finally bought fruits when the federal government decided that it is time to actually promote an act that will key int
o all the recommendations of that convention that said uh we said if you are a member country you must make sure that you replicate the conventions and um stipulations in your own investigates in your own law so we did that in 2015 that's federal through the violence against persons prohibition acts 2015. now however the problem was the verb is only applicable to the federal capital territory so the states now decided to also key in you know through the vap law that's why we have in a number of
states of course we also we always blaze the trill just after lagos we have we have we have the violence against persons prohibition law 2017. okay now by this law section 8 specifically states it that no form of female genitalia is allowed that is actually an offense it prohibits and criminalizes it and if you as much as conspire or be actually principal person that commits our offense you know our women now trying to push you into making sure that you do it everybody if you're convicted you're
liable to turn off not exceeding four years imprisonment there's a maximum of four years imprisonment or two hundred thousand naira fine or both depending on the severity and depending on how the mind of the court is working thank you all right uh we we know they like we said earlier this is what i don't know this is what our forefathers you know seem to have introduced and uh some people are still doing it today in anambra state now i would want you to you know enlighten us on the health impli
cations because i think it may go a long way to help them understand that what they are doing ignorantly that this is what it can lead to also what are the health implications of female genital mutilation okay thank you in charter i liked this program because the council shows that she's prepared for this and they i'm very very happy that at least some prosecution have been made as a regards this fgm but uh before i proceed let me just give a brief statistics in nigeria actually the the prevalen
ce is on decrease now it has shifted from 15 to 49 years and then to zero to 14 years which currently is 19.2 percent in nigeria then coming down to your political analysis you find out that southeast have the highest prevalence of 35 percent and in the south east the state that practices this fgm is ebony edema even though we have it in anambra but it's small compared to this stage and actually i have run a program in a bunny stadium this fgm and you find out that often now upon all these laws
and i don't know whether a bunny presently have something like this evaporate to protect young girls then the southwest is 30 percent and northeast is 5 percent fulanis don't practice it at all zero percent there they don't practice it at all for any reason then coming to implications we have to look you know look at it at both sides both the the physical consequences and obstetric consequences let's start with physical consequences uh thank god a lawyer is here one it violates the human rights
as he regards dignity because i'm supposed to be that's who human being that god created me and if there is anything you tamper with is she will tell us better so in that way when you are mutilating physical organ of a person the person is liable to get infected because because it is not a a procedure that is acceptable they do it under you know on sterile environments without sterile equipment the person may bleed because they may cause we have a human vagina is highly vascularized meaning that
there is a lot of blood vessels arteries so in the process of doing that they may damage the vessels and the person will bleed to death they may not have that skill to do to control the bleeding it may land the person to to you know to fibrosis and that's the one we normally see in the labour world because when they cut that in it will heal and form fibrous in the fibrosis and in the normal sense if a child wants to come out the vagina wall expands to allow the head of the baby to cramp so in t
his case now because there is a fibrotic formation there it will not expand again what we see is what we call multiple tears just like if i have wound and it heals if i spread that place it will not be as elastic as my normal skin so when it is subdued under pressure you see it's tearing so coming proper to obstructing a complication a lot of them if we are to you know to narrate all of them today it will consume all our time let's start with a a rescue vagina because the the the opening has bee
n narrowed it may affect the bladder and even direction at the end of the day you see the the the woman you know urinating through the the blood leaking through the distance the division or even the yes uncontrollably because it has been damaged and the most states where they practice this use also find out that they practice early marriage somebody that is circumcised being pregnant at the age of 14 is a good candidate to have some of this complication then another one is what we call public in
flammatory disease it may land the person especially the one they do at adulthood it will land the person to infection because what they used to do it is very very unsterile the person will get infection from there is relieving you know it will prevent the person from getting pregnant in pregnant near future then another one is shock as a result of bleeding the person may bleed to death then another one is what we call multiple tears tears during childbirth because like i said before the elastic
ity has been lost and the woman will be shot is it's a nicer if you have been in the labor world and see a woman that is circumcised you will you repeat the person because it's this it will be like a into a masquerade head scars everywhere to the extent that if the the woman is you know putting to bed a normal works baby like say 2.5 2.6 must have tear because once the baby crowns the the the surrounding muscles there will tear and the person may land in in the a a a shock as a result of hemorrh
age and so on and so forth then another one is infertility yes because of all these things are linked to the unsterile condition and equipment during the procedure so all this thing can damage the woman's reproductive organ and render the woman useless and that's why i say that all these things have no medical reason all right no medical backup at all rather it has a consequence that is well known all right uh the program is still good morning anambra stopping female genital mutilation here in t
he studio i have a medical practitioner a nurse and of course a barrister at law we are going to take a short break here when we return the barrister will be letting us know how effective is this law and actually how people can access the law we'll be right back [Music] [Applause] [Music] whoever i don't support um female genital mutilation it disbases womanhood until there are so many disadvantages in this the the girl as a woman when she gets married she will enjoy lovemaking with her husband
because they removed that part of it during that circumcision even during childbirth there is a medical condition associated with it a lot of people experts psychologists and social socialists have been discussing female genital mutilation and for me i don't think there's an advantage if you major in a time resolution the way i understand it and there's a lot of disadvantages especially in this modern society the girl child that is mutilated or passes through search and practices suffers a lot o
f uh surface there are no self-esteem to start with than even injuries because muslims these things are done in a very crude way so most of them again that when you come to a rare act that is the real act of having intercourse or enjoying intercourse they lose that they lose that excitement while having intercourse some of them even suffer trauma in their marriages because they don't have that excitement they don't have that for few months the main parts and the people that i know about concern
is the about male circumcision concern the female i don't buy the idea personally i just don't like it i think it's too painful for female because i was having a male while circumcising them what they'll they pass through even with more that can't withstand it what they are doing it is too painful for men to talk more of female if people listen i think they put a stop to it [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] right we've had it from the people out there talking about stopping female
genital mutilation and i think i like this voxpro because it speaks in favor and against it so let's actually hear from you ness edith you know what do you think concerning the speakers some people supported it some against it what's your take on that okay thank you and let me start with the first person that was trying to convince us the reason why this fgm cutting female genital cutting should continue let me say that the whole team boils down to sensitization because to her a female genital m
utilation is very good in order to prevent our guests from being promiscuous but scientifically it has no basis everything depends on what good parental training so i disagree with the first person that female genital mutilation causes more harm than blessing and we should try to discourage it it shows zero tolerance to female genital coating because from everything we have said today it is not good for our girls the other man that spokes says it leads to low esteem yes i've seen somebody that's
and that time let me see that the the the men they use that fgm to you know they use it to punish those people that you know have decided to do it because from yesterday that a clitoris has been cut off the woman doesn't have that orgy again and it will be a very good reason for the man to be moving outside since what he has in the house is logwood nothing just sleeping with the fellow men because nothing again so a i'm joining those that condemn it to also condemn it from the medical perspecti
ve it has no benefit and we should try to discourage it at all level in short let the government institutes a focal into a focal person for this fgm in an umbra state because currently we don't have any statistics yet in some parts of anambra state it's been practiced a we still have traces of people the the tbs practicing this fgm it's not done in the hospital because it has no medical reason no doctor can come out and tell you that you want to do a fgm all right quickly our time is first paint
ed now barrista i would like you to let us know how accessible this law is how effective it is and how one can assess it in an umbra state okay thank you very much um the vat law is actually very much accessible you can access it you can if you go to the ministry of women affairs you can easily access it yes we have copies there that um some do not agencies that is relaxed to be specific in conjunction with the number of state governments um have there for you for everybody to assess and um i re
ally want to say that um as for the laws application in respect of female genital mutilation i will tell you that it's almost as um it's so bad that um first of all there is no public enlightenment in this area people don't even know about the law and people don't even know a lot of people that are indulging it don't even know there is an offence and apart from that they are so ashamed to even come out for the law to be enforced so we don't really have so much statistics in the area of prosecuti
on of offenders in this regard however i want to really condemn it entirely completely it's a great grave injustice against the woman yes because like the first speaker said arness let me tell you there is why it is called female genitalia is because it is not done for your own health benefits it's just done for the personal advantage of the people that are actually propagating these cultural practices so because of that if it is not of any health benefit to you why would you be made subjected t
o such a dehumanizing position of having to you know feel ashamed when you're having any kind of intercourse with your husband in sure what it does is an injustice um to the women and it now um encourages promiscuity on the path of the men because they will go out and go and look for people that have not mutilated yes so it's a grave injustice and should be condemned completely and women should stop nobody can tell me there is no way it cannot be proved all these women that are indulged in this
practice they tell you that um it prevents a woman from being promised because it has no basis there's no basis it's just you know what they feel you know or what they've been told some people don't even know the genesis how it started all they know is that this is the norm let's continue with it i don't want my child to be promised because who said all right uh nurse please finally you know what's your message to our people before we go we are wrapping up okay and if there is any corrective sur
gery to people that have already undergone female genital mutilation my message is more on recommendation but before i go into recommendation let me also inform the public that there is this current fgm that is being practiced by our mothers if they come to among us or even some others though they don't know the reason but because they see others doing it putting powder in between the babies and labs and then trying to rub it so if the container that is proper mutilation if they continue for som
e time that clitoris will fall off it's another form of lgm that is being practiced at times you could hardly see see them currently maybe to the tba to perform that procedure they do it right there and we have to discourage it it is very very is that they use a cream like vaseline or they use dusting powder you see i've seen this one kurokuru robbie mama what are you doing i'm trying to you know to make sure that i trim the clitoris so that the baby will be so please it is very very bad what i
want to recommend actually is for ministry of health a reproductive health unit to actually work on this fgm and get us the statistics there is no gain saying that we don't have it in anambra when actually it is in existence but because we don't have the statistics we cannot say this is where we are we need to know where we are as a regard this ugly incident that is going on another thing is for governments you know and health workers shadow with the responsibility of educating and sensitizing t
he public to gear up on this issue make sure that they carry the sensitization to the doorstep of the rural dwellers go on and on but our time is fast paint thank you so much barista lilian ogucci or software state at tony anambra state thanks for your time much thank you all right thank you so much it is and and that's just about it on good morning anambra today on stopping female genital mutilation let's all hence be on deck until tomorrow my name is monyan wakui bye for now [Music] you
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