Edo women make case against FGM

As the world marked the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), a group, Edo Women’s Development Initiative (EWDI) yesterday called on the Federal Government and the media to collaborate in stopping the practice which the United Nations has classified as violence against women.

The group said government should make it as a policy to stop the practice just as it charged the media to embark on urgent sensitisation against the practice.

A statement issued by the Chairperson of EWDI, Rosaline Okosun said that apart from the health risks involved in FGM, the physical and psychological effects “are extensive and irreversible and negatively impacts the sexual, reproductive and mental health wellbeing of victims. In some cases FGM leads to death.

Globally, it is estimated that over 200 million girls and women have undergone the unfortunate experience and of that number, 40 million Nigerian women have been affected.

“EWDI believes that FGM is not acceptable in the 21st century” and called on the government to implement the violence against person’s prohibition law (VAPP) and ensure it’s domesticated in all the states of Nigeria. They called on the authorities to view the practice of FGM as a serious human right violation that it is, and address it as such.