Female Genital Mutilation: Man cries out over family’s victimization of 5-year-old daughter

An Artisan, Salaudeen Abiodun Mumeen has filed a petition with the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), a human rights organization, alleging that his five-year-old daughter is being victimized by members of his larger family who are determined to perform female genitals mutilation (FGM) on her.

Salaudeen who resides at No6, Hastrup Layout, Sharp Corner, Oluyole Estate, Ibadan, Oyo State, in a petition written to CEDAW that was made available to newsmen, narrated how his family is insisting on maintaining their family tradition, which states all that female daughters born within the family must be circumcised.

“I’m not comfortable with my daughter, Salaudeen Madea Olakunbi being initiated into the family practice as one of my uncles from the Fawale compound of Oke Oluokun Ibadan is insisting on carrying out FGM on my innocent five-year-old daughter.
“I know that this myth is a harmful belief and militates against women’s health,” said the construction expert while narrating his ordeal to newsmen.

FGM is an unhealthy practice inflicted on girls and women, shrouded in secrecy and controversy, as an initiation ceremony of girls into womanhood, or misguidedly to ensure modesty and chastity.