FGM does not prevent promiscuity — Sex workers, others speak

The most bandied explanation for the prevalence of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) or what is erroneously known as female circumcision in Nigeria is that it curtails promiscuity and protects female chastity. But I decided to take the conversation to sex workers and among others in Lagos. Read to find out how “female circumcision” contributes to more promiscuity among survivors.

By Newton-Ray Ukwuoma

(THIS REPORT WAS NOMINATED FOR THE 2019 9MOBILE MOST INNOVATIVE REPORTER OF THE YEAR AWARD, NIGERIA MEDIA MERIT AWARDS (NMMA))

When a United States activist and political commentator, Dana Loesch, reprimanded Nigeria’s internationally acclaimed novelist and feminist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, for deriding chivalry, suggesting in its stead Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as a severer topic, some Nigerians went online to remind Loesch of gun violence in the United States.

“Genital mutilation is no more prevalent in the country, Dana, check your facts,” some said.

And almost everyone ruled out Lagos State as a potential spot of the practice, apparently because of the supposed enlightenment and awareness in Nigeria’s economic capital.

But the sad reality is that female circumcision, as it is erroneously called, continues to thrive in Lagos under the nose of civilisation and in a much subtle manner.

Ikorodu, Alimosho, Ifako-Ijaye, Surulere are home to mutilation –International agencies

Statistics indicate that about 44.8 per cent of women in Lagos have had one or more of their genital organs mutilated. This means that at least four in every 10 women in the state today are survivors of FGM.

And most of these women are found in communities around Somolu, Ifako Ijaiye, Surulere, Ikorodu, 

Alimosho, Ojo and Lagos Island, according to a recent survey released by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), in conjunction with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on FGM.

On the national scale, it is estimated that 22 million women in Nigeria are currently living with the consequences of the loss of one or several parts of their genital organs on the slabs of tradition and the belief in the fertility, womanhood and chastity it portends.

In fact, according to the 2017 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, 44 per cent of the women currently living with FGM are young girls between 0 and 14 years, with over three million newborn girls at risk of being cut every year.

What is further worrisome about the recent statistics regarding FGM is that the practice seems to be increasing at an alarming rate. The percentage of young girls living with FGM rose from 19.2 per cent in 2011 to 25.3 per cent in 2017.

However, unlike states with the high prevalence rate of FGM in Nigeria (such as Osun (76.3 per cent, i.e., where seven in 10 women are survivors), Ekiti (71.2 percent, i.e., seven in 10 women), Oyo (69.7per cent, i.e., seven in 10 women), Ebonyi (55.6 per cent, i.e., five in 10 women) and Imo (48.8 per cent, i.e., four in 10 women)), Lagos State is not on the list of emergency hotspots for the 

UNICEF-UNFPA Joint Programme on eliminating FGM.

But when I investigated the prevalence of FGM in Nigeria’s most cosmopolitan city, I found that Lagos will play a vital role if the world wants an end to the scourge of genital mutilation in Nigeria for the simple reason that Lagos is not only regarded as a mini-Nigeria but is also, or will be, a destination to two developmental arms of FGM.

The first developmental arm of FGM in Lagos is the large population of angry and psychologically-affected survivors of FGM migrating to the state on a daily basis from hotspot states.

The second is the adamant practitioners of FGM who see Lagos as a secret hub for the extension of the practice of FGM.

In a nutshell, Lagos is, or will be, the refuge of more survivors of and a hub for secret believers in FGM if the state is left off intervention programmes.

‘Something died in us’

On the rough side of FGM is Mrs Ego (surname withheld), 32, a foodstuff seller at Haruna, College Road, Ifako Ijaiye Local Government Area of Lagos State, and a survivor, who relocated to Lagos from Mbano, Imo State, one of UNICEF’s hotspots.

“I don’t have a clitoris. My grandmother used a blade to cut it off. Remembering it pains me a lot,” the 32-year-old told me.

When she spoke, Ego, whose marriage of five years, has not been blessed with a child, smeared her words with hot liquid ire.

She only accepted to narrate her story in detail after she was convinced that her experience would help people better understand female genital mutilation. But as she spoke, her tone began to feed off her anger so much that her voice began to rise and to swell.

“I was born in the compound were circumcision for both male and female children was done. Hearing the babies cry all the time prompted me to ask my grandmother why children were cut.

“She told me those male children were cut so that their penises would have good shapes, but female children were cut so that they would not be promiscuous when they grew up.

“She told me that I was cut and that I would be a good woman, but being circumcised is ruining my life and marriage and I know all those girls that were cut would never be happy if they realised what had been done to them.

“I am married but my husband does not know. His mind does not go there. I don’t know if I should tell him. We do not have any kids of our own and this bothers me so much. When he asks for s3x I give him but my mind is not always there. You have to work hard before I can feel any pleasure.

Most of the time, I am thinking of what they did to me, to those girls. I don’t know if this is the reason I do not have a child,” she said.

Like Mrs Ego, Miss Adenike (surname withheld), 20, a 200 Level student of Sociology at the University of Lagos, is battling with psychological consequences of living with a mutilated genital organ.

“I have, like, half of my clitoris cut off. It was not totally cut off because my father walked in on the cutter and my grandmother. That was how he rescued me. They were, like, in the middle of it when he entered. I still bear an everlasting grudge against my mother and grandmother for putting me through that horrible act.

“I don’t understand. Why would a mother agree to do such a thing to her own child,” queried Adenike, who was born in Ekiti State but lives with her parents in Ikorodu, Lagos State.

‘Express mutilation service is N4,000’

Mrs Ugboaja, 40, a trader also at Haruna, College Road, is a mother of two daughters aged 10 and 14. She is also a survivor but represents the other side of the coin: the secret believers in the practice.

She told me why she agreed with her mother-in-law to deaden the genital organs of her two daughters at birth with hot water.

“We have stopped cutting where I come from but you know that children of nowadays, they don’t listen to parents. Once they become teens, their bodies will start to shake and they will be looking for a man here and there. I have heard so many stories. I didn’t want any of my children to be pregnant before marriage.

“So, while bathing each of my children at birth, my mother-in-law used to apply hot water to that part so that they will not have s3xual urge and be running after men when they grow up.

“Hot water also makes that place neat and free of odour,” she said.

Ma Apolonia (surname withheld) is a 65-year-old local mid-wife and circumciser on Snake Island, Lagos Island. She said she still gets offers from different parts of the state despite the government ban in all states of the federation. Possibly sensing the disclosure could cause problems for her business, she claimed she usually turned down such requests.

When I visited her at her home and base on Snake Island, she brought out some of the tools and did a demo cutting with a small girl to prove she still had it going in spite of her age.

“It was handed down to me by my mother who equally inherited it from her own mother. We didn’t see any wrong in it because it was part of our culture and tradition. But since the government said we should stop it, I have stopped, though I still get offers,” she said.

After 25 years of circumcising boys and cutting girls, Ma Apo, as she is often called, said she only worked on urgent cases with a fixed charge of N4000. She also demanded the same sum for the demo cutting exercise.

Also speaking in support of female cutting, Francis Ayo, a construction worker at Agege, an Urhobo from Delta State married to a woman from Orlu in Imo State, admitted that “female circumcision is practiced where I come from.

“I would have done it for our three daughters had I not been in Lagos. It is part of the culture of my people. When a woman is circumcised, it will restrict her from men.

“We regard women who are not circumcised as impure. It was our belief until it was stopped.

“Back in the days, a woman would be circumcised when she was about to marry. It used to be very painful, women would lose blood and some died. Later, they started circumcising children and later it was stopped.

“We lost so many women to the practice. Many of them bled to death, others caught different infections. It was usually a mass circumcision.

“So, the cutters didn’t even use good cutting instruments. They forced these women into a room and used the same blade to cut everyone.

“The deaths made our community leaders stop the practice of circumcising adult women and instead introduced cutting babies after eight days of birth.

 S3x workers and FGM

Since it was obvious that the strongest justification given for the practice in almost all the communities where it is a tradition is that it will curtail promiscuity and preserve female chastity, I decided to launch a fact-checking exercise to ascertain whether all sex workers in Lagos were free of FGM. I chose two major spots for commercial sex workers in the state: Allen Roundabout and Fela Shrine.

The goal was to find out the ratio of cut and non-cut girls who are currently involved in commercial sex work in Lagos State and if indeed mutilating a woman quenches her thirst for the unusual s3xual urge.

It was gathered that s3x workers normally lower their prices substantially and are more willing to verbally engage and persevere with their clients as dawn approaches. Posing as a s3x addict with a special proclivity for women who were cut, I engaged an Uber driver at 2.30 am on trips to Allen Avenue and Fela Shrine.

A total of 11 s3x workers were spoken to during the two-day trip. The ladies whose ages range between 20 and 32 years and hail from states like Osun (one), Delta (four), Imo (one), Anambra (one), Rivers (one), Ogun (one), Akwa Ibom (two) were asked the following questions in-between haggling stages: have you heard of female circumcision? Do you know if you are cut? How can you prove that you were cut? Do you enjoy s3x? Which state are you from? Why do you normally come here?

Each of them received the sum of N1,000 as motivation for talking. At the end of the exercise, it was discovered that most of the s3x workers were mainly driven into the profession because of financial gain, but also partly because of anger and low self-esteem resulting from the poor condition of their genital organs as eight out of the 11 prostitutes said they were cut after birth. Some gave detailed illustrations as well as their psychological state after learning of the experience.

‘How they ‘killed’ us’

“Na immediately they born me after seven days they cut am. I don’t know why dem cut me; na our culture. It is out of anger that I dey do this ashawo work. Even as I dey talk to you know about it, I dey angry in my mind,” said the first s3x worker from Delta State.

“It is part of our culture. It is normal. I was cut when I was a small baby. It doesn’t sweet me very much but the person has to know how to use his stick,” Jennifer from Delta State said.

“The difference between a woman they cut and the one they no cut be say for woman wey them cut, her cum (orgasm) dey plenty like my own, but the woman wey dem no cut, her orgasm dey quick. I enjoy s3x, but with a lot of pain. I dey like guys with small dicks,” Rose from Imo State.

“I have a small clitoris. They cut am half,” said Vivian from Ekiti State.

“I was pressed and I still enjoy s3x,” said Becky from Ijebu in Ogun State.

Toying with four years in jail

In 2015, the Federal Government passed the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act (VAPP) into law. The law, which was appended to by former President Goodluck Jonathan banned FGM in Nigeria, attracts a penalty of four years imprisonment for defaulters and/or a fine of N200,000 or both. Over 23 states, including Ekiti, Osun, Oyo, Ebonyi, Imo State, Lagos State have domesticated the law into Child Rights Laws (CRL).

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Funds (UNICEF), which have consistently discouraged the use of the term “female circumcision,” which erroneously draws a parallel with male circumcision, defines female genital mutilation or cutting as “all procedures that involve the partial or total removal of external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.”

These procedures include the partial or total removal of the clitoris (clitoridectomy), the partial or total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora (excision), the narrowing of the vaginal opening through the creation of a covering seal (infibulation) or all other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical purposes including massaging the clitoris with warm water to deaden the nerves, pricking or pulling, incising, scraping or cauterisation.

Addressing the issue, UNICEF FGM Consultant, Mrs Olutayo Aderonke, said, “FGM of any type is a violation of the human rights of girls and women. FGM is known to be harmful to girls and women in many ways.

“FGM has no benefits. The removal of/or damage to healthy, normal genital tissues interferes with the natural functioning of the body and causes several immediate and long-term physical, psychological and s3xual consequences. The immediate consequences of FGM include severe pain and bleeding, shock, difficulty in passing urine, infections, injury to nearby genital tissues and sometimes death. The procedure can result in death through severe bleeding leading to haemorrhagic shock, neurogenic shock as a result of pain and trauma and overwhelming infection,” she stated.

Instead of mutilation, Olutayo urged parents to give their daughters s3x education. “This will empower them to improve their s3xual health and to effectively deal with related problems, such as infertility, s3xually-transmitted infections and high risk of s3xual behaviour, FGM can’t do these,” she said.

Circumciser on the run

Information coming from the state government suggested the circumcisers still in business are being watched. The coordinator of the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team, Titilayo Vivour-Adeniyi, disclosed to me that a circumciser was being sought for arrest and prosecution. According to her, her office was tipped on a mutilation case last week but the circumciser has been on the run.

“We learnt of a matter last week and we swung into action. The child welfare department has taken over the case. The case has not been prosecuted because we have not been able to apprehend the circumciser,” she said.

Survivors should see psychiatrists –Experts

While defining the psychological impact of genital mutilation on women, a consultant psychiatrist at the University of Lagos, Dr Oluseun Peters JP, said “it is important to know that female genital mutilation is a barbaric practice that is highly spoken against.

“This practice it is an attempt by parents to curtail the s3xual activity of women because the clitoris is an essential part of the body and parents believe that once it is taken off, women’s s3xual activity is inactive.

“But when you imagine a woman who gets into the reproductive age and realises that she cannot achieve s3xual climax because an important erogenous zone has been mutilated, this will have an untoward psychological effect on her. Some feel they are not adequate, some feel they are not complete, especially when their peers talk to them about the climax, about orgasm and how they enjoy s3x. This diminishes their self-esteem. There is a tendency for them to become depressed, hopeless.

“They have post-traumatic stress disorder. They also have pessimistic views about the future and in the state of despondency, they may eventually commit suicide.

“This is very important for us to know. A recent study shows that 17.5 per cent of women who have had FGM in Africa like in Somalia, Eritrea and Sierra Leone have post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Some women try as much as possible to avoid s3xual relationships as a way of coping. I suggest that this should be abolished totally and offenders should be criminalised,” said Dr Peters.

Remedy

“It is important for the lady herself to know the impact it has on her and for her to seek help. I encourage ladies to see a psychiatrist so they can begin a behavioral therapy or counseling.

“They should not think that the psychiatrist is only for mad people. After analysing the case, they can be referred either to a behavioral scientist or a psychologist. These professionals will help her with social integration and handling her s3xual life” Peters offered.

Stating further complications of FGM to the reproductive behaviours of survivors, a family health physician, Dr Kingsley Odom, advised survivors to seek out and belong to support groups, visit tertiary hospitals during pregnancy to avoid complications and to involve their male partners who will help explore other areas of orgasmic experience.

“They need a support group where they can discuss their experiences and their s3xual lives. They need to have a group so that they can speak as a group that will empower them.

“ They also need the support of the men in their lives, especially their husbands or partners, people who understand what they are going through and that it is no fault of theirs that they are cut.

“Their partners can also look at other forms of orgasms because it is not only clitoral orgasm that a woman experiences. Most importantly, they need to understand their bodies.

“In terms of their reproductive lives, they need to be mindful of their bodies, especially when they are pregnant. They need to be admitted to a tertiary hospital so that the cases of obstructed labour or prolonged labour can be dealt with early enough,” Dr Odom said.