By Ragan Conteh
Some of the Civil Society Activists especially some Female Civil Society Organizations have expressed concern over the rampant initiation of young girls into Female Genital Mutilation in Sierra Leone.
According to one of the prominent Civil Society Activists, Madam Rugiatu Neneh Koroma, the practice has over the years been subjected to women, especially young girls into medical complications, economic burden and social problems.
She said as big holidays commence some parents are determined to initiate their daughters into F.G.M practice, a practice that is prohibited by the international community as well as the Government of Sierra Leone.
Neneh Koroma went on that Sierra Leone is part of the global village and that the country has signed many treaties and conventions which prohibit the act of initiation of young girls and women into F.G.M practice.
She said her organization, the Amazonian Initiative Movement is working hard especially in Port-Loko and Tonkolili districts to end the practice of F.G.M in that part of the country.
F.G.M, according to her, has retrogressed women in Sierra Leone in terms of education, health and other vices because most of the girls especially in the rural settings, abandon their education after the initiation processes in the Bondo Society.
She continued that women suffer most in homes because of the practice of F.G.M, “women abandon their husbands in bed because the sexual urge that prompt them to have good time and sex with their husbands have been removed”.
Madam Neneh Koroma has called on the Government of President Julius Maada Bio and the Office of the First Lady to swiftly look at issues surrounding F.G.M practice in Sierra Leone so as to save women and girls from this vicious practice.
The Government of Sierra Leone’s policy on F.G.M is the age of consent (18 years) that prohibits women society from initiating young girls at that age.
Sierra Leone Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2017 has also indicated that over 90% of women have been subjected to F.G.M and that such a practice should be examined for possible ban.
F.G.M according to Neneh is a practice that does not respect age of consent, adding that women suffer most under the age of eighteen years and called on authorities to ban the practice in Sierra Leone.