Bilbao (EFE)
“Women, and also men, need to know that it is about sexual health,” Djenatu Intchasso, a native of Guinea Bissau, said in an interview with EFE about female genital mutilation, which is considered a violation of fundamental human rights. and gender violence by Unicef, and that affects more than 200 million women and girls in the world.
On February 6, the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation will be celebrated and it will also be the 10th anniversary of the prevention program on this ablation carried out by the Bilbao City Council and through which 189 police officers have been trained. among the members of the affected communities to raise awareness against this practice.
The “cut” -as Intchasso, one of these health agents calls it- is a “brutal act” that does not provide “any health benefit to the woman”, and on the contrary, causes psychological and physical consequences, such as pain intense, bleeding, infections, infertility, increased risk of HIV transmission, complications in childbirth and lack of pleasure in sexual relations.
false beliefs
The “justification” of this ablation is based on “beliefs, which are false and meaningless”, such as that it is a rite of passage to maturity, a control of a woman’s sexuality to guarantee marriage and family honor, or also for religious reasons, although “it is not included in any sacred text”, as this African resident in Bilbao has specified for three years.
In Spain, genital mutilation is classified as a crime punishable by 6 to 12 years in prison, so one of the reasons that Intchasso uses before the members of her community in Bilbao is that “to integrate into a country, you first have to to respect the laws.”
In his country it has also been prohibited since 2011, but even so, it continues to be practiced because “the laws are not enough, it is necessary to carry a message, an education, raise awareness and accompany so that this practice is abandoned, here and in the countries of origin ».
She has highlighted the importance of “awareness” because mutilation has consequences in all aspects of life, and recalled that at her school in Guinea Bissau they cut off the clitorises of five classmates and “they never studied again. They stayed at home.”
“We are moving forward, our job is to get the ‘cut’ to be abandoned little by little and it seems to be having an effect, but it is not immediate,” he said, stressing that “protecting a girl from mutilation means protecting the whole a generation.”
In this objective, as he has recognized, it is important to have the participation of men.
control the woman
One of these men is Seydou Togola Diarra, from Mali, a resident of Bilbao for 20 years and also trained in the same municipal program, who has stated that until he received this training he did not realize “certain traditions that are done without think”.
He has recounted, among them, that when we were little “boys we laughed at girls who did not mutilate themselves and we did not want to play with them.”
In his country, mutilation is also prohibited, but it continues to be practiced because “it is considered normal; sexuality is taboo and you only want to control women. There are mothers who do not want this for their daughters, but social pressure can overcome them and that can only be counteracted with information and training, “she said.
“The great difficulty” in eradicating this practice is precisely “community pressure”, because not doing so supposes “the automatic marginalization” of the daughter, according to the Bilbao City Council, based on expert studies.
This study also highlights that “once people are educated, they internalize the physical and emotional consequences for women and deconstruct the myths associated with them, they never go back.” EFE