How to Stop Female Circumcision.

last updated 8 January 2015

Nigeria

Editorial

It’s no wonder activists have failed to eradicate female circumcision in Africa, said the Lagos newspaper This Day in an editorial. They’ve gone about it the wrong way, using a condescending tone of moral superiority. Women in Nigeria understandably resent being told by outsiders that their traditional rite of passage, in which a girl’s labia and clitoris are cut off so that intercourse will be difficult and painful, is a form of “genital mutilation” and a barbaric violation of human rights. For those who practice it, the procedure is part of the joyous “premarital rituals” and is accompanied by celebrations and festivity. Banning the practice, as some state governments have done, is seen as an assault on tribes’ cultural freedom, and merely succeeds in “pushing it underground.” Instead, campaigners need to educate women about the very real health risks that circumcision brings. Women who have been cut have much higher rates of childbirth complications, and their newborn babies are more likely to die. Faced with these chilling facts, “more educated and better enlightened families have stopped female circumcision.” If we “speed up public enlightenment of the dangers,” Nigerian women will surely end the practice “on their own.”