FGM is known to have no health benefits and has serious, immediate and long-term physical and psychological health consequences, which can be severe, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety and reduced desire or sexual satisfaction. Babies born to women who have experienced FGM suffer higher rates of neonatal death, and mothers can experience obstetric complications and fistula.
Globally, reasons for FGM are highly varied between ethnic groups and communities; it is a deeply embedded social practice associated with adulthood, marriageability, purity and sexual control. This is true too in Sierra Leone, where it is also linked to the ordering of community power structures, through membership of secret societies where FGM is the badge of belonging, but is also linked to early child marriage and girls dropping out of compulsory education. At the end of the civil war Bondo initiation was used as a way of normalising social relations lost in the destruction. It also presented itself in a war torn economy as an economic opportunity for younger women, a rarity in Sierra Leone. Traditionally FGM is carried out by older community women, in unhygienic conditions in isolated bushes.
Between 100 and 150 million girls and women worldwide have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) or cutting, and over 3 million girls under the age of 18 across the African continent are at risk of being cut. While FGM is commonly performed on girls between 4 and 12 years, in some cultures the practice occurs as early as a few days after birth or just before marriage. FGM is commonly practiced in at least 28 African countries including Sierra Leone and a few others in Asia and the Middle East (as well as by immigrant populations around the globe). The practice occurs among all educational levels, social classes and many religious groups, although no religion mandates it.
The UN CRC Article 24:3 calls upon, “states parties to take all effective and appropriate measures with a view to abolishing traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children.” FGM is a traditional practice which is detrimental to girls’ health but it can additionally be the source of the denial of many other rights prescribed in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, including the right to protection (Article 19), the right to education (Articles 28 and 29) and freedom from sexual abuse (Art. 34; FGM is linked with early marriage which can be a sanctioned form of child sexual abuse).
Desert Flower Foundation-SL believes that a girl child’s right to reproductive and overall physical health and protection should not be compromised in the face of ongoing harmful traditional practices. Access to a safe physical and learning environment is critical to their well-being as well as that of future generations. DFF-SL believe that the right for girl children to develop in a community of positive health and wellness is critical, and that the fulfilment of anti-FGM legislation, programming offering alternatives to FGM practices, as well as safe and quality educational opportunities for girls at risk must be ensured.