A women group, Nigerian Feminist Forum, has called for the end of Female Genital Mutilation and other forms of gender inequality in the country.
The group made this call in a statement titled ‘FGM: NFF calls for abolition to end deaths, gender inequality.”
The statement, which was signed by the NFF Communications Officer, Angela Nkwo, was released to commemorate February 6th, 2022 day of zero tolerance for FGM in the country.
The statement partly read, “The NFF called for urgent measures to address gender inequality, and discriminatory norms in Nigeria, legislation to criminalize early child marriage and offenders brought to book, measures to address the alarming gender-based discrimination in governance, politics, and public offices and the inclusion of women, an end of FGM to stop systemic poverty and out-of-school girls’ syndrome, and support services from state governments to victims of FGM at risk of physical and psychological complications.
“The Feminist group regretted that the practice also known as female circumcision, excision, or genital cutting, comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injuries to the genital organs for non-medical reasons, mostly carried out between infancy and age 15.
“According to them, FGM must be abolished because it fosters gender-based violence, poverty, forces girls out of school, steals the future of girls, leads to child marriage and teen pregnancy, horrendous life-lasting physical and psychological trauma, difficulty in passing urine, injury to genital tissue, chronic pelvic infections, development of cysts, excessive scar tissue formation, infection of the reproductive system, decreased sexual pleasure and psychological consequences, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, and deaths.
“While they mourned the deaths of hundreds of girls killed due to FGM complications, the Nigerian Feminist Forum called for the total abolition of FGM in every community in the country and urgent measures to address the trend.”
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