Female Genital Mutilation - Manchester court obtained the highest number of FGM Protection Orders in the country

As girl living in Africa, I have heard so much about this practice. I never actually knew about this practice until in my late teens when there was a lot of publicity about it in the media and many NGOs going around schools discussing about the effects of the practice.

One day, I was talking to a friend of mine and we were discussing about this issue and I couldn't understand why anyone would want to do this to their daughter and how the practice is so alien to me that I found the whole thing difficult to understand.

My friend told me her story. She was circumcised and so was all her five sisters.

My friend told me that it was the custom in her place of origin - south of Nigeria. She and her siblings were all circumcised when they were very young. We discussed about the effects of it on her as an adult. I was so sad after that conversation. It became real that someone so close to me had gone through this.

Another girl I know told us of how young girls are dragged to the village to have this done to them. The trauma this act causes to a young girl cannot be fully told. It starts from the whole secrecy in hiding this from the young girl to taking her to an unsanitary dingy hut with strangers holding her down and using unsterilized blades to cut off her parts. Many times, the act is done without anesthetic!

One of the worst things any young girl could go through.

Where do these practices stem from and why is it perpetuated by women. It is usually mothers who take their own daughters to have this done. It is usually older women that cut the girls.

The practice I was told stems from trying to make girls less promiscuous.

Why would any mother want to take off a part of her daughter's body that brings pleasure just to stop her from being promiscuous? Is there anything wrong in a girl enjoying pleasure? who defines what is promiscuous and under whose moral code or standard are we defining promiscuity? Why is it wrong for a girl to be promiscuous but not so for the men?

The idea that if a girl does not experience pleasure then she will not be promiscuous is unfounded.

I just read that a Manchester court obtained the highest number of FGM Protection Orders compared to any other court in the country.

It is alarming that with all the exposure, information and the devastating effects of this on young girls, that this culture of FGM is going on here in the UK.

It is worth understanding how culture and customs have a strong hold on people and why people are unwilling to unlearn things ingrained in them from childhood.