Female Cutting: Why nothing can justify it

Imagine waking up one day. You look out the window and the sun is shining. You think it is a great day to pick fruits from the neighbor’s farm. The mangoes looked ripe yesterday and today they would be just perfect. You can make a quick run from the farm if your neighbor catches you. She’ll yell and complain to your mother later, but who cares. You would have already eaten the mangoes by then.

Imagine on that very day your mother and aunts come in and tell you that today, you’ll be cut. You are terrified. It sounds awful and all you wanted to do is go outside, play and take the mangoes from your neighbor’s farm. You are almost dragged out of your home by people you love and trust. Nobody listens to your cries and tears keep rolling down your cheeks. You cannot understand why this is happening to you and why those close to you would want to hurt you.

And then, with some crude tool, a part of you is cut. A pain so unbearable that you can’t move. You don’t know what happened. You stop crying in shock. The pain is too painful to cry.

THIS IS A REAL STORY

Now imagine that three million girls undergo some form of this procedure every year in Africa alone. It is practised legally in 28 countries in Africa and is a violation of human rights. While the remaining African countries have criminalized it, female cutting does take place in informal and illegal settings. Cutting of healthy female reproductive organs is a terrible disregard to the dignity of a girl and is performed purely on a non-scientific basis. It violates a girl’s right to health and to her bodily integrity.

FEMALE CUTTING HAS DISASTROUS PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES FOR A GIRL CHILD

Female cutting has very severe effect on the life of a girl. It is usually performed in early childhood or when the girl approaches puberty. The pain of the trauma is unimaginable and remains with the girl throughout her life. It often leads to a variety of physical effects. These range from excess pain, bleeding, infections and sometimes even death. Female cutting makes child birth difficult and gives rise to complications that risk the life of the baby and the mother. It has also been proven that female cutting results in a lot of psychological effects like anxiety, depression and low self-esteem.

THERE IS NO JUSTIFICATION FOR FEMALE CUTTING

People have given a number of justifications for female cutting. Some say that it is an initiation to adulthood while others say it is to preserve family honor. Additionally, it is believed that female cutting makes the girl pure. This means that it ensures that a girl’s sexual intimacy is completely dependent on her husband’s will.

There are absolutely no benefits of female cutting and no reasoning is enough to justify the act. Some people suggest that female cutting is a part of culture. But culture is not static. It evolves with society. Culture must move with the changes in society and time and culture cannot be used as a means to spread violence and pain.

It is time that we start caring about our girls. It is about time that we gift them with pens and not razors. Education is the best means for people to realize that absolute brutality of female cutting. By education parents and relatives of children, more people will come to understand that the act of female cutting is a tradition we must leave behind.

SHIVANI MISRA

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