Uganda FGM ban: 'Why I broke the law to be circumcised aged 26'

[Disir]

Sylvia Yeko decided to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) three weeks ago at the age of 26 - even though the practice, which used to be performed on teenage girls, was outlawed in Uganda in 2010.

Her circumcision ceremony took place in public - she showed us a video taken on the day. It shows an excited, cheering crowd surrounding Ms Yeko and another woman, whose faces are smeared with a whitish-brown flour.

They lie on bare grass with their legs open as an older woman approaches each in turn and swiftly cuts off their clitoris.

Neither of them screams because to do so would be a sign of weakness and would nullify what this community in eastern Uganda regard as a rite of passage before a woman can get married.

"During this day I felt so proud, I just felt so excited," Ms Yeko tells the BBC as she watches the footage.

"Before I was circumcised I was taken as any other child, but now I'm someone respected."

FGM convictions
She knows she could face up to five years in prison for being circumcised, but she insists that she wants to be identified.

Those who cut her genitals could be imprisoned for 10 years.
'Why I broke the law to undergo FGM aged 26'

I just think there are other ways to protest.

 

[MisterBeale]

Wow, this article took WAY too long to get to the point as to why they would feel pressure to do it in the first place.

So I get the economic reason now.

But what is not made clear in the piece, is how these folks will know, or not know who has had it done.

What is to prevent a woman that wants to have the economic benefits of having it done, yet doesn't want to have it done, from saying, yeah, she had it done. . .

". . . . A university graduate and now the mother of a four-year-old boy, her decision to get circumcised was to make the point that she feels let down by Uganda's leaders. She even wrote a letter to the police before her cutting ceremony to make sure the authorities knew about it.

'We are treated like children'
For another woman, who spoke to the BBC about her recent circumcision, the motive was more personal.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, she said she felt ostracised because as a married woman within the ethnic Sabiny community she was prevented from doing certain things because she had not been cut.

"In Sebei, a woman who has not been cut cannot go to the [communal] granary or pick cow dung from the kraal."

Cow dung is often used to plaster houses, a task often left to women.

"A husband can marry another wife. She might be circumcised and then starts insulting the uncircumcised woman. You are just equated to your children," she explained.

Yet the mother of three daughters does not intend to circumcise any of them as her hope is that they will be educated and less easily intimidated by the community. . . . . "

So, if she just SAYS she had it done, will they not be treated like children and be allowed to pick up cow shit? Or do they have to lift their skirts and prove it?


I really don't get it . . .



. . . . . And then there is the issue of, WHY is the BBC covering this as a world topic? How many women and girls in this Uganda are affected? WE have this situation in the mid-west of the U.S. as well, but it only affects a few hundred women.

". . The ban has seen the cases of circumcision fall in Uganda. In 2011 1.4% of women were circumcised and by 2016 that had fallen to 0.3%.. . "

Is it really THAT big of a problem to concern the western readers?





. . . or is this just another, YOU MUST HATE MUSLIMS AND THE WEST MUST INTERVENE propaganda pieces?

 

[Disir]

First off, it's tribal rather than Muslim---as it is in many places in the Middle East. Uganda has had laws in place that will put parents in prison for 10 years and for life if there is an infection, disability or the girl winds up with HIV. So, FGM dropped significantly but they still have hot spots. The Sebiny Tribe practices FGM. The women or girls would be checked by someone in the tribe. The big thing was about education and a better way of life but that didn't follow through. So, not only are those women without the gifts that they have been given historically for having it done, they are unable to obtain what they need for not having it done. It's normally not men that are taking girls to have it done. It is the mothers and grandmothers that are taking the girls to get it done.

Kenya just tried to put in a policy where all school girls went to a clinic to be checked. The schools went.....oh hell naw. They have protests with FGM happening.