Funmi Fiberesinma wrote an article about genital mutilation. Please read below:
I will never forget that afternoon. It was a hot day, and I was
relieved that we had almost finished the shoot. I don’t even know how we
started filming it, but we did. I will never forget the smell of hot
metal, sweat, and then the metallic smell of fresh blood. I will never
forget the girl’s scream.
Most of all though, I will never forget the look on the girl’s
mother’s face when it was done. She was smiling. She was happy. I
think that was the most painful thing about that situation, even more so
than the physical pain- her ignorance of what she had just inflicted on
her daughter.
If I had any doubts about what I was doing, about the subject matter
of my first feature length film, they were banished by what I had just
seen. I became ever more determined to finish it, to tell this story
and hopefully challenge the idea, the belief that this practice was
necessary.
Like many of us who grow up in the cities, the practice of Female
Genital Mutilation (FGM) is not something we naturally think about. I
mean I guess we are aware of it in an abstract way, but thankfully, for
many of us, it is not something that we will ever have to personally
deal with.
I actually had another movie in mind for my first movie, but a
scriptwriter, Gbenga Adesanya, pitched the idea for this film to me. I
read the script and I loved it. The film is called ‘Onikola’ and it’s
such a beautiful story, a love story. I left the meeting thinking about
it, and I got home and I did a bit of research and discovered that
despite previous efforts to curb it, it was still practiced in half the
country.
There have been gains, all the research done by international
agencies like UNICEF shows that the numbers have been dropping thanks to
the efforts by government agencies and NGOs but it is not a sustained
drop and once the projects and initiatives run their course the decline
stops. The numbers show that it has been reduced, but not completely
eradicated.
According to UNICEF, the practice had dropped by about half in
Nigeria according to results of a 20-year study. However, more still
needs to be done. Nigeria’s population is vast, and this meant that the
country contributed at least a quarter of the incidents worldwide.
With thirty million people in danger of FGM worldwide, this roughly
means that at least 7.5 million girls in Nigeria are still in danger.
We cannot afford to be relaxed but we are. These days almost nothing,
or let me say minimal efforts are going to combat this perhaps because
we think we’re winning in the fight against it. Well, my experience, my
witnessing a young girl get circumcised shows that it is still
prevalent.
I felt that we needed passionate people, people who were passionate
about young women. Not just about their condition and their fundamental
human rights, although that is very important, but about the way they
perceive the world, the way they think. I felt we needed to do
something, consistently and continually to fight the gender inequality
and gender based violence that is meted upon these young girls by their
parents, by their mothers due to a warped sense that it is what society
wants.
At first I thought that perhaps we could change the law; make FGM
illegal. Maybe I could target my campaign at those with the power to
make and enforce laws in society. Who knows, maybe that would have
worked elsewhere, but not here in Nigeria, where we are our own local
government chairmen and where we provide our own amenities and security.
Would people listen to the government? And in some of those
far-flung rural areas where the practice is rife, could the law even be
properly enforced?
And this is before the fact that the lawmakers in Nigeria’s highest
legislative house recently voted to keep a portion of the constitution
that effectively allowed child marriage intact. Something tells me the
rights of the girl child are not too high on their list of priorities.
Anyway, I don’t believe that Female Genital Mutilation will be
combated with force and statutes. Looking at the reasons that people do
it for instance is enlightening. While those of us looking in from the
outside see it as horrible and barbaric, to the practitioners of it,
they are merely doing their civic duty.
According to UNICEF, the practice is rooted in traditional beliefs
and societal pressure to conform. It is seen as a social norm. People
believe that it is a means of maintaining the chastity of their young
girls. That if they don’t do it, their children will become
prostitutes. Other people believe that their children will die if they
don’t circumcise their daughters.
In a University of Ilorin paper by A.A. Abiodun et al, they found
research that showed that in certainethnic groups in Nigeria, the women
felt it made them more feminine and thus more attractive to men. The
bitter irony here is that if you were to ask most men, the majority
probably don’t care or rank it high on their list of things they find
attractive in a woman.
I am passionate about this because I can see that the parents who
circumcise their daughters do so not to hurt them, but out of love, out
of a desire to protect. They want their daughters to have a good
opportunity in life and they wouldn’t want to do anything to limit that
child’s chances at a good life especially health wise and
psychologically.
The main problem is that the mothers, even though they have gone
through the pain of circumcision feel it is normal what they are going
through and that everyone goes through it. In my opinion, the way to
combat is therefore not through law and decree saying don’t do it, but
actually helping them to see the effects.
I realise I can’t change the minds of people with a film. It sounds
counterproductive to say, but I don’t think it will change decades of
doctrine. When we were making the film, I decided not to flog people
over the head that FGM was negative. My message in this film was to
parents that they should stop doing this to their daughters; let her
grow up and decide. Brainwash her if you want, but let the decision be
hers at the end of the day.
People do all sorts of body modification and augmentation and if an
adult woman decided she wanted to get a circumcision, it’s her decision
at least. As it stands right now, the practice is done to girls who are
completely vulnerable and have no say as to whether they want it done
to them or not.
A big challenge for us was remaining culturally sensitive. Despite
my feelings about the practice, I realized I could not rush in there and
castigate centuries of culture, no matter how senseless it was. That’s
the easiest way to lose your audience. If we did that, they’d never
listen to us. I think couching our message in a love story really helps
soften the bitter pill.
I am African, there are many things I hold dear to my heart that
might not make sense in the Western-centric world we live in these days,
but that is what makes me African; so I am not about to tell someone
that the culture they grew up with, the culture of their beloved parents
and grandparents is wrong.
Yes, they love their parents, and yes maybe FGM was good and right
during their time, but are they sure that when it is gone, it will be
the best thing to leave their daughters with? I just want them to
think.
This is why I made ‘Onikola’. We just finished post-production and
I’m very proud of the final product. I’m hoping that this film, and the
foundation that I’ve started will reach into the communities where this
practice is rife and hopefully educate them that there is a better way.
Actually, just educating them in general would be great. It’s
only through education that we can end this. If people were educated,
maybe they could question things more. Like, if not
being circumcisedcauses the girl to become a prostitute how come there
are some circumcised prostitutes?
We could educate them that this is not something that everyone does;
that it is actually in most of the world it is the exception rather than
the norm.
What I am trying to do with this movie is to talk to my generation.
If it stops with us, then our children are safe. My generation can
still be reached as far as female circumcision is concerned, and it is
my generation that is having kids now. I feel I am still young enough
and if I work hard and dedicate a lot of time to this, then maybe I can
make some headway.
I have always been the kind of person who wants to help others. I’m
very empathic and when I read the script and saw the research it really
lit a fire under me. I hope my movie will help the movement to stop
Female Genital Mutilation. If I can just reach one parent to think
about the effects, or maybe inspire one young girl to stand up for her
right to the sanctity of her own body, for her right to be free from all
forms of violence both physical and mental; if ‘Onikola’ can do this,
then it will have been a totally worthwhile enterprise.
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