Transcript

Unsafe Traditional Health Practices Against Females in Nigeria | Taiwo Orimoloye | TEDxOsogbo

[Music] my first contact with a unsaved health practices someone to remain in an injury I was as an SES one student I was part of the peer educators of the life and application organized by Society for Family Health in the body then it was just more like is my short introduction into the concepts the last year I was a serving call member in Carlos Dietze we had a medical outreach to one of the villages in condo Gidon Dondo which I'm very correct and one of the days of the heart reach my attention was drawn to a girl between 12 and 13 years of age she was Vince no accompanying scene of bad friends to her husband's house more like a final rites of the marriage ceremony don't forget Sophia's 13 years old questions popped up in my mind what about the aspirations the goals the life ambitions the desires of this girl Hall perhaps I have gone down the drain and I was going to the review of a professor professor blessing in Peru she is a professor working hard the African population and ultra trust Research Center in Nairobi as in Kenya she shared a particular story of a girl rights in an injury i Bonilla States against 19 years of age she was pregnant four months the woman in the community came together and it sold error she must have female circumcision as if he doesn't during delivery the head of I believe might touch the our clitoris and individual die of course she was pressurized so she had it done first four to five months after she was about to deliver the mail in process is such that there will be scar formation am I correct yes the vagina was already very touched the baby could not come out they are to resort to zero resection something dr. Ivanov going forward this lady during each sexual our fear with our husband you shall refuse severe pain because of the female circumcision she underwent these are the gory details the stories surrounding onset our practices among hosts in this society Nigeria according to lady mo and Arkansas in 2002 they defined on self-help practices as traditional or cultural practices that have adverse health effects on the individual or the victims as I suppose to them until major importance uncivil practice against women in our country Samiha enzyme methylation and then Haley or child marriage unless the World Health Organization to meet genital mutilation is defined as whole procedures which involves the posture or the complete removal of the Astana female genitalia and or injuries the familiar genital organs would have or cultural or any known therapeutic purpose we must understand something UNICEF in there are sixteen made it known that is very praxis is a human rights issue affecting women and girls across the world it's a violation of the fundamental human rights of our women and girls honor and O's it is something that must be called against and is deeply rooted deeply entrenched in the cultures and traditions now societies cultures and traditions that are very very difficult to change the board Dean of this problem is very heavy to professor's invasion idea dozen and abou the Chi doubts a review like you study I discovered at nine julia has the highest prevalence of male genital mutilation in the world of course according to them they narrowed it down the highest prevalence we have in the south south the southeast right here with us and the Southwest they won't put the prevalence at forty one percent that is statistically speaking UNICEF in 2016 the White House review more like a comparative study and they looked at 1985 to 215 they discovered that the percentage decline in familiar NATO means relation has just been a very slight wound between 1985 on 2015 last 30 years and yet we still have also recorded like 27 percent of prevalence according to UNICEF internal testing even according to the national our democratic L so V enzyme tasting the prevalence was still put a 25 percent these are gory details he goes I want to work with even according to the national demographic Health Survey the told us that the Yerba race has the highest prevalence after the Yoruba race it was found house but or shoe states as the highest building with seventy six point something presents portion states where we have to tell us that this problem is actually around horse not for any academic purpose but to actually drive home the point I'm trying to make want to look at the types of million and some resolution according to the uho type one in the type one they remove the clitoris of the lady here are the entire Pretorius or part of the clitoris in type to remove the entire clitoris and they'll also removed part of the libyan minor or the entire libya minor some of our students in schools who are in biology will relates with this anatomy I'm trying to explain in time 3 which is called infibulation please listen very carefully here it's involved remove of the clitoris the Libya my no the Libyan video then you go ahead to suture the entire length of the vagina together leaving a small pin size all just for urine and demonstration it's very very barbaric type for is it involves whole holder a box that they do to the vagina that's why it's called unclassified type is actually more prominent to the northern part of Nigeria it involves the piercing the court scene tricking of the vagina sometimes this stretch the clitoris sometimes even cuts out the entire general pocket into it on corrosive substances and the whole hug justifications for doing this we call them our cake justifications archaic reasons all of us we agree with me that the Nigerian community is a deeply cultural and traditional community the topmost reason for this practice is culture it's tradition what you are cording to simple definition is the way of life of a group of people am I correct yes so the SIS has a way of life you know these communities it is seen as a rite of passage it is celebrated as a transition from girlhood to huddled so that if you have not done it you're costing eated we are looked down upon perhaps are not even worthy to be married out reasons for familiar and some insulation some of the other communities they believe that it enhances the purity of the lady its mix our chests it's mixed appeal it makes a hygienic very clean according to the story I shared with you from professor in Europe the beliefs of them believe that if the aid of the baby should touch the clitoris during delivery the baby would die instantly because that's a lie for many of the communities is a socio-economic thing socio-economic in the sense that there are people who carry all these processes and then gets money out of its they don't only lose their means of livelihood but that's how we see these very grieved grooviest a a practice continuing with us in our community we should understand that female genital mutilation is something very evil something that has to stop why am I saying that because right now in some communities in Nigeria we are trying to medicalize it medicalize in the sense that they now take the process the practices to out personnel are to help them to cut house so that you'll be less bleeding his oral I just trying to actually covers Barbary practices on medical explanation after almost week hope and fight against it there are very grief consequences to this practice these girls are young they are very small you see the pain they go through the shock of the procedure sometimes you have to hold them down to get this thing down because what are we talking about today even have an STD at all pinky last perhaps new so in the process of holding them down some of them saw steam fractures to the a bouns also talked about different levels and degrees of infections what about the leads complications lead complications range between no urinary tract infection difficult with passing urine and it's one that I must explain to you recall it the fistula many people know it's fistula is an abhorrent abnormal communication between two and cilia surfaces always being further we have just two types and these two sets are very common among women that are circumcised perhaps at a very early age we have the rap to vagina fistula and then the physical version of history for the repto Bojana fistula is an abnormal communication between the anus and the vagina such that the woman none attempts to defecate she doesn't even feel it the feces comes out directly to our vagina this is what happens all around us and therefore the vesicle Vienna facility removal communication between the bladder and the vagina also the restraints that you normally feel you feel pressed so gran pass urine don't feel it the arrangers comes out directly to the vagina these are our Owen things we need to fight against I must tell you there is no benefit at all no health benefit at all forefinger genital mutilation from female genital mutilation let's go to address the issue of hailey marriage in many countries in the world this stipulates the age of independence in and reality of independence is 18 years but we still see people giving out girl's house in marriage at the age of 12 13 14 some of them even ten eleven and to give them out in married to hold a name and the reasons are not also far-fetched some of them talk about the fact that a woman must be vitamin before she enters a husband's house and then in many of the communities being it very naturally accrues a very big a high prior bright price so for some of them it is a religious thing but some of these social quarantine is just part of their cultures all these things are evil and the implications are whole so they utter clarity else implications and the psychological implications for the health implications are those run through them sexual these girls are not yet mature enough to engage in sexual intercourse and that's why you see them coming down with several degrees of cortisol lacerations that's why they also add the risk of fistula formation they can also have the fistula that I described earlier the repto vaginal fistula or the vesica vagina Fasulo as a kiss maybe what about the pregnancy complications they are not yet already know the bodies are not yet mature enough to accommodate pregnancy but you already have been forced into its system of coming down with different levels of anaemia pregnancy-induced hypertension and so on and so forth and what about the trauma of him married to a man you don't love what about the agony of having to stay all your life long knowing that a conscript and constricted to just that life as I have to wake up and fight these very bad practices in our community where do we go from here until 2015 there was no legislation against female genital mutilation in Nigeria now was the implication of this this very deal in the legal recourse against female genital mutilation is responsible for the decline the slow decline we've had in the progress the slow progress we've adding the declare a de Familia in time resolution in Nigeria such that even as a point of speaking the figures are being put between 27 and 25 the same which are very very big internal 15 the law came home the balance against persons provision a 2015 it criminalizes every form of media and some insulation and cots in the start in 1990 the Marriage Act puts the minimum age of marriage at 21 years of age a child right out of Gen 3 puts the minimum age of marriage at its hears but if you look across the communities you understand very well that's not all how people how actually adhering to this legislation making us to come to one main thing that the issue of addressing these evil practices goes beyond legislation rules and government regulations it is multidisciplinary the something I must take to the grassroots something that high must join my voice with your voices and we speak up so that people can understand that these practices must stop in our land how do we worry about it we must join how our voices in the campaign the crusade to say no against female genital mutilation our country apart from that we must make sure that we inquire in our communities find out the community where you see about these harrowing practices these terrific practices and make sure you educate and inform people about it our students are here today let's also take this application back to their classes and tell them about this horan very bad practices besides must also work together with organizations that are fighting these practices and most discuss with our legislators and our law enforcement agencies to ensure that the laws are who bid by dosed by both the makers and also the people that allows one made for I believe with these practices now these grassroots decisions and options and their opinions we're going to be able to stem the tide of female genital mutilation and early forced child marriage in our country Nigeria thank you very much [Applause] [Music]