Culture is used to justify Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) by evoking traditional beliefs and practices about how women and girls should be treated. Some of these cultural behaviours and beliefs include early marriage, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), honour killing and maiming, among others.
Today's New Vision Newspaper (29th July, 2020) captured a story involving six girls (aged 9-13) from Amudat District in Uganda who entered Kenya in search of being initiated into adulthood. It is alleged that each one of them was found with a packet of new razor blades, and they were making preparations to undergo FGM/C in North Pokot - Kenya. See https://bit.ly/3faly7B
FGM/C in some communities, is widely practiced as a ritual to initiate girls into womanhood. this, together with sanctions, peer pressure, false beliefs and exclusion may produce fear in the minds of uncut women/girls and force them to undertake the ritual.
The current legal framework on FGM can be traced in Constitutional provisions, and the FGM Act of 2010, which criminalizes the practice. The justification for this is that FGM is a form of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment contrary to the Constitution. It can also possibly result in severe health risks including complications during childbirth, anaemia, formation of cysts, increased risk of HIV, among others. see:https://bit.ly/30Qz5Mo
In a nutshell, the practice of FGM should be stopped as it is a form of violence that undermines women; their rights, dignity and welfare.
Culture is used to justify Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) by evoking traditional beliefs and practices about how women and girls should be treated. Some of these cultural behaviours and beliefs include early marriage, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), honour killing and maiming, among others.
Today's New Vision Newspaper (29th July, 2020) captured a story involving six girls (aged 9-13) from Amudat District in Uganda who entered Kenya in search of being initiated into adulthood. It is alleged that each one of them was found with a packet of new razor blades, and they were making preparations to undergo FGM/C in North Pokot - Kenya. See https://bit.ly/3faly7B
FGM/C in some communities, is widely practiced as a ritual to initiate girls into womanhood. this, together with sanctions, peer pressure, false beliefs and exclusion may produce fear in the minds of uncut women/girls and force them to undertake the ritual.
The current legal framework on FGM can be traced in Constitutional provisions, and the FGM Act of 2010, which criminalizes the practice. The justification for this is that FGM is a form of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment contrary to the Constitution. It can also possibly result in severe health risks including complications during childbirth, anaemia, formation of cysts, increased risk of HIV, among others. see:https://bit.ly/30Qz5Mo
In a nutshell, the practice of FGM should be stopped as it is a form of violence that undermines women; their rights, dignity and welfare.
edited Jul 29 '20 at 12:50 pm
