Why should it be stopped?

FGM leads to lifelong pain and problems with sexual health and childbirth. Depending on the environment and type of the procedure, FGM can lead to serious health issues such as infection, illness and death. As a result, bleeding is severe, and infection can affect all or part of the genitals or reproductive organs. Due to infection, some women will find movement, sitting, urination and childbirth to be excruciatingly painful. Some women acquire dysmenorrhoea, which means they are no longer able to have periods. Fistula is another result of FGM, and is described as the continuous leakage of feces and urine, which can cause the woman to be outcast from her community.

Some women who have FGM performed on their daughters (or themselves) feel that they will be ostracized if they do not have the procedure done. Some women who have not undergone FGM feel pressured that they may not be able to find a husband. Men in communities that practice FGM add to the situation by asserting that a woman who is not cut is not fit to marry. Some men believe that FGM is the only way to prove a woman’s virginity. These men think that if a woman is still sown together then she is a virgin. In addition, the act of opening her wounds for the act of sexual intercourse can be just as painful for the woman as the original procedure. The pressure to be accepted by their communities is the main reason women undergo FGM. While FGM is usually looked at as a cultural tradition, it is not required in any religion. It crosses ethnic, religious and cultural lines.

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