CHILDBIRTH EXPOSES RAMPANT FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION
THE Ministry of Community Development and Social Services is investigating increased cases of women being found with mutilated genitals in Eastern and Muchinga provinces during child delivery.
The two provinces are said to be recording high numbers of women being found with mutilated genitals during child delivery.
Female genital mutilation (FGM), the ritual of removing or injuring the genitals of a girl or woman for non-medical reasons, is said to come with consequences such as constant pain, cysts, complications in pregnancy, urinary tract infections, as well as anxiety, difficulty having sex, and depression.
Ministry of Community Development and Social Services chief child development officer Changano Ngoi told journalists in Chipata on Monday that there is a big number of women who have mutilated their genitals for unknown reasons in the two provinces.
Mr Ngoi said the women who are mutilated are not allowed to reveal more information surrounding the same and end up suffering alone.
“As people responsible for children, we have gone round to find out whether this practice of genital mutilation is there in Zambia,” he said.
“And what we are finding out is that the women who are genitally mutilated are there in Zambia and there is a big number.
“A big number has been reported in Muchinga Province, Eastern Province and North-Western Province, but now what is there is these people have very serious restrictions where the people who are mutilated cannot report they suffer the pain and anguish quietly.” Mr Ngoi said some women who are mutilated fail to manage the condition and end up bleeding to death.
He said some female children have died under unclear circumstances due to bleeding after mutilation of the genitals.
Mr Ngoi said it is only through post-mortem that the cause of bleeding is noticed, but further investigations always fail to lead law officers to people behind the same.
CREDIT: Zambia Daily Mail