Female genital mutilation in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone is one of 28 countries in Africa where female genital mutilation (FGM) is known to be practiced[1] and one of few that has not banned it.
Secret societies are ancient cultural institutions that play a major role in West Africa and have existed for hundreds of years.
[7] Soweis, the leaders of the Bondo, tend to raise the price of the initiation into the society if the woman is not a virgin.
Bondo elders claim that excision improves sexual satisfaction as it removes focus from the clitoris onto the hidden g-spot inside the vaginal canal which they believe has more satisfying and intense orgasms.
[8] In Sierra Leone, FGM usually consists of removing the clitoris as a major part in preparing the young women for marriage and motherhood through this initiation ceremony.
Type III, the most extreme case, involves removing all or part of the external genitalia and stitching the vaginal opening closed.
In the MICS conducted by UNICEF, the prevalence of FGM in Sierra Leone, Gambia, Burkina Faso and Mauritania was 94%, 79%, 74%, and 72% respectively.
Sierra Leone is one of 28 countries in Africa where female genital mutilation (FGM) is known to be practiced[1] and one of few that has not banned it.
Long-term effects include scarring, genital ulcers, dermoid inclusion cysts, lower abdominal pain, and infertility.
But the worst effect is death at delivery, the rate of which is excessively high in Sierra Leone[5] There are four classifications of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
[20] Other long-term complications involve painful and blocked menses (menstrual dysfunction) that can result in In addition, sexual problems are more prevalent among women with FGM.
[21] Chronic urinary tract infections, incontinentia urine (inability to control urination), infertility, abscesses, dermoid cysts, keloid scars (hardening of the scars) and increase risks to HIV infection are also associated with long-term health complications of FGM.
Studies demonstrate that women with FGM are more likely to encounter psychological disturbances such as low self-esteem, somatization, and phobia.
FGM supporters in Sierra Leone believe that females who do not receive the circumcision will have trouble conceiving, suffer psychological trauma, have bad luck, or be considered unworthy of marriage.
[8] They also state that the supposed consequences of excision (which include menstrual problems, painful sex, infections, et cetera) were not specific to women who underwent FGM.
[7] People against FGM widely refer to it as mutilation which is a controversial term that is rejected by members of communities who practice it.
[5] The World Health Organization has adopted this term and it is widely used to describe the injury made to the women's genitalia even though the intent was not to mutilate.
The World Health Organization has consistently condemned this traditional practice as "willful damage to healthy organs for non-therapeutic reasons" and they have stated that the practice of female genital mutilation can result in infertility, pregnancy and childbirth complications, and psychological problems through inability to experience sexual pleasure.
