Female genital cutting in Sierra Leone

Female genital cutting (also known as female genital mutilation, hereinafter FGC) is the common practice of removing all or part of the female’s genitalia for cultural and religious initiation purposes or as a custom to prepare them for marriage. An estimated 100–140 million women around the world have undergone FGC. Sierra Leone is one of 28 countries in Africa where FGC is practiced.^[1]

Cultural reasons for FGC

While most countries in Africa do not normally participate in FGC, FGC is regularly performed in Sierra Leone.^[2] The reason that FGC is common in Sierra Leone is because FGC is practiced in a ‘secret society’ called the bondo secret society. The bondo society is an all-female society (also known as the sande) in West Africa. Secret societies are ancient cultural institutions that play a major role in West Africa and have existed for hundreds of years.^[3] The purpose of this secret society is to help young women earn the rites of passage into adulthood. In order, to receive these rites of passage, a girl must undergo their cultural rituals including FGC.^[2] The initiation into the society occurs in the bondo bush which is a private enclosure constructed near their village. Time spent in the bondo bush for initiation into womanhood used to take about a month, but as the generations have gone by, the time has significantly reduced.^[3] Once a woman becomes a member of the bondo, she is able to go to the bondo without her husband’s permission. The bondo becomes the only place women are allowed to go to without permission from their husband. Thus, women who are a part of the bondo have an increased freedom of movement. In regard to society, members of the bondo are regarded as having a higher standing than other women. The cost of FGC and initiation into the bondo society is quite expensive, and so parents are proud when they’re daughters are initiated because it shows they are financially stable and able to afford this. Initiation can cost anywhere from 200,000 to 600,00 Leones, which converts to 62–185 dollars.^[2] Soweis, the leader of the bondo, tend to raise the price of the initiation into the society if the woman is not a virgin. FGC is so expected in society that when a husband discovers upon marriage that has wife has not undergone FGC, it is common for him to pay for her to undergo the initiation.^[3]

Woman’s initiation is synonymous with women’s power in Sierra Leone, and the act of excision is a reminder that women are from which all human creation is derived. Bondo elders believed 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. It is also thought to enhance the appearance of a women’s genitalia and make it easier to penetrate.^[4] In Sierra Leone, FGC usually consists of removing the clitoris as a major part in preparing the young women for marriage and motherhood through this initiation ceremony. The procedure is usually performed by an elderly woman of the village who has been especially designated for this task, by a village barber or by a traditional birth attendant. FGC can be broken down into three different forms of female genital cutting. Type I removes the tissue protecting the head of the clitoris. Type II removes the tissue protecting the head of the clitoris, the clitoris itself, and part of or all of the labia minora. Type III, the most extreme case, involves removing all or part of the external genitalia and stitching the vaginal opening closed.^[2]

Prevalence of FGC throughout western Africa in comparison to Sierra Leone

FGC is mainly performed in Africa as well as a few countries in Asia and the Middle East. The worldwide estimation of how many women have undergone FGC is anywhere from 130 to 140 million.^[3] In the MICS conducted by UNICEF, the prevalence of FGC in Sierra Leone, Gambia, Burkina Faso and Mauritania was 94%, 79%, 74%, and 72% respectively. While in other countries in western Africa such as Ghana, Niger and Togo, the prevalence of FGC was less than 6%.^[5] Roughly 3 million girls in Africa undergo FGC every single year and Sierra Leone is one of the only countries in western Africa where the rate of prevalence is over 90%. Sierra Leone is the only country in southern western Africa with such a high rate of FGC. There is a decline in prevalence of FGC in Sierra Leone in younger age groups.^[3]

Medical Risks associated with FGC

There aren’t any health benefits associated with FGC. The severity of the medical risks vary according to the extent of the cutting. Type III is very common in Sierra Leone and has the most health consequences associated with it. Short-term effects of FGC include excessive bleeding, local infections, and incomplete healing. Long-term effects include scarring, genital ulcers, dermoid inclusion cysts, lower abdominal pain, and infertility.^[3]

Communal Response to FGC

People in Sierra Leone believe that abandoning FGC would be an abandonment of cultural tradition. They believe that FGC is similar to male circumcision which is widely acceptable across the globe. FGC 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. Women who are pro-FGC state that it does not oppress female sexuality and instead it celebrates it through these ritual practices. 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 FGC. The rate for infertility is ten percent for both groups. They also argue that the reason for increase of still births in circumcised women is not because of the FGC they underwent but because they delay receiving prenatal care and visiting hospitals because they fear being stigmatized by the medical staff because of their circumcision.^[4] FGC supporters believe that FGC prevents prostitution by decreasing a woman’s sexual desire, and is more hygienic.^[2] According to a five year research done by Hanny Lightfoot-Klein, an anti-FGC activist, 94% of circumcised women reported being satisfied by their sex lives and had sex between three to four times a week.^[4]

In opposition of the arguments of supporters of FGC, anti-FGC advocates highlight the negative side of FGC, stating that more than 80% of women reported suffering a minimum of one health complication after being circumcised.^[2] People against FGC widely refer to it as mutilation which is a controversial term that is rejected by members of communities who practice it.^[3] 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 Amazonian Initiative Movement is one of several nongovernmental organizations in West Africa against FGC. The aim of the group is to educate women who perform FGC and set them up with another job besides performing this procedure. 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.^[1] Supporters against the eradication of FGC believe that FGC violates the human right to bodily integrity. However, Sierra Leone does not have an explicit law against the practice of FGC.^[2]

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