What does pain look like in your context?

Well, pain for me especially on this International Day of Zero Tolerance against FGM would mean a girl tied and having her genitals cut off all in the name of ‘culture’, the practice called Female Genital Mutilation which entails cutting off part or all of the female genitalia.

These are practices we’ve held on to for so long but have caused harm to our girls and women.

In my little years of experience as an End FGM advocate, I have interacted with quite many people during our outreaches and I have discovered that many have held on to this harmful practice due to ignorance, culture, religion, etc.

You will hear them say, “FGM was done for me, my grandmother, and my great-grandmother, so I have to do it for my daughter”.

Others have even attacked me and said, “do you want to be wiser than our forefathers?”

And then I ask, why do you evolve especially with the invention of technology but have chosen to still hold on to this barbaric act that causes nothing but pain now and in the future?

Why do you want your daughters to go through that much pain; a feeling that will deny them of their womanhood now and in the future?

We cannot say too much, and we cannot advocate too much, until we see the end of the practice of Female Genital Mutilation, we will keep talking and speaking up. We also call on all men to join us to put an end to the practice of FGM, as men are major stakeholders when it comes to ending the practice of FGM.

Your silence can cost you!

Your ignorance can cost you!

And even your stubbornness will cost you more!

You girls are not animals and should not be treated as one.

If you don’t want them to be promiscuous, then train them properly.

Stop the cut!

Damilola Oluwadahun