Female Genital Mutilation Doesn’t Stop Promiscuity

Despite a few responses we got in Ogbomoso, Oyo State. that FGM has been quelled, statistics show that its prevalence rate is 75% in the town. Our first stop was at New Waso market, where we explained the negative effects of FGM to over 500 people, including a woman who just mutilated her child two days earlier.

Some, who also believe it cures promiscuity. are of the opinion that the side effects are only because it is not done professionally. We made it clear that promiscuity and FGM are not connected. Rather, the good parental upbringing of the girl child is what matters.

At Odo Oba market, another market we visited in Ogbomoso, Nigeria, we promptly corrected a woman who contended that FGM does not affect the sexual drive in women but cures promiscuity. In the same vein, a rice seller argued strongly that Female Genital Cutting stops promiscuity, that the “girls of nowadays get sexually aroused easily unlike during their days when that was not the case”.

Many of those who listened had a change of mind and decided not to circumcise their female children, having realized that it has no connection with promiscuity. Our reach was more than 560 people at Odo Oba market, Oyo State, Nigeria.