By: Arret Jatta
Professor Abdoulie Saine of the Nyang-Sanneh Institute has told the National Assembly’s Joint Committee on Gender and Health that the sole purpose of practicing FGM is to control women’s capacity for sexual feelings.
In a meeting with the committee on Monday about the consequences of FGM, Prof. Saine explained that the practice is neither rooted in religion nor culture.
“It can be boiled down to the control by men of female sexuality and men patriarchy in general terms is used and if possible, violence can be used to maintain dominance of men,” he stated.
“The mere fact that this is being talked about in this day and age in itself is violence against women because I believe that there could be other things we could be talking about rather than this subject,” added the erudite professor.
The founder of the anti-FGM Wassu Gambia Kafo Dr. Adriana Kaplan used the same platform to do a presentation on the harmful effects of FGM based on research, interaction with women and children as well as a survey.
In her presentation, Dr. Kaplan pointed out that FGM is concomitant with pain, hemorrhage, shock, injury to tissue, acute urine retention, fracture or dislocation, infection, abscess, ascending urinary tract infection, and risk of contagion of tetanus, infertility, problems in childhood such as prolonged and obstructed labor, which can lead to tearing of the perineum and excessive bleeding before and after delivery.
In his reaction to Dr. Kaplan’s presentation, the NAM for Tallinding, Musa Badjie, hinted that the survey was misleading as, according to him, some women went through FGM yet they gave birth to up to eight children without the complications highlighted in the survey.
He stated that women, who have gone through the practice, have been recommending it for their kids.
“You want to tell me they experience complications?” asked the Tallinding NAM.
Prof. Saine waded into the discussions at this juncture, saying: “Women, in the process of growing up, are socialized into accepting these norms of beauty that are imposed on them by patriarchy. In other words, sometimes women are their worst enemies. So, a woman, who wants to take her child [to circumcision], is in many ways responding to social and societal pressures.”
Gynaecologist Dr. Jose Green Harris of Family Planning also chipped in the discussions. He told Badjie that it was not about the delivery of about eight babies but how they were delivered.
“A woman can undergo complication and that complication is taken care of by the healthcare personnel. Yes, it is not every woman, who has undergone FGM, will experience complications. That’s a fact but most of them do,” he underlined.