The Day 13 years old Folake's Genital Was Mutilated, Violated, disenchanted And Ends The Scare Of A Life Time.

The day 13 years old Folake was circumcised, she had no idea what was about to happen. She had gone to bed the previous evening only to be woken in the dead of the night by a loud bang on the door of the room where she and her 10-year-old sister slept. The room was in inky darkness as the door crashed open and before Folake could move, she felt a large hand covering her mouth and nose while another strong hand lifted her off the bed and dragged her out of the room into the passage.

Genital-mutilation In shock and unable to protest or wriggle free, Folake  heard her sister screaming in the background, but under the pale, moon-lit night, as she was dragged out of the back door into the compound and onto the footpath leading to the main road, she  quickly became aware of some figures standing by the house. She recognized one of those figures as her mother’s and made a vain attempt to call out to her. She was surprised that her mother made no move to rescue her from the assailant. Tears came to her eyes when she heard her mother whisper “Folake, you are going to be cut. It’s your turn.”



The rest of the events after that went by in a blur. Folake practically passed out as a result of the choking grip on her mouth and nose. When she came to life, she found herself naked and spread-eagled on the floor in an unknown room. A candle burned unsteadily nearby as she struggled hopelessly to get up, but was pinned onto floor by four women. A fifth woman knelt between her legs, bent over her lower abdomen with a razor blade in her right hand , urged her to stop struggling. “You won’t feel it. It’s not going to be painful, the woman remarked. But Folake felt it. As her flesh was being cut off, white-hot pain enveloped her entire being. The pain was more intense than she ever imagined. She bled a lot. For many days thereafter, she was in agony. She felt abused, violated and disenchanted.

 Why, why? She kept asking. But there were no answers. She had gone through Type 3 form of Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting and did not know why. Slowly she healed and time passed. She thought her ordeal was, but only became aware of how much she’d been affected psychologically and physiologically when she fell pregnant.

Folake was severely depressed and hated being vaginally examined. It was her worst nightmare. Her gynaecologist could not understand why she was so averse and so scared? Folake did not know it, but her body was experiencing flashbacks—a reminder of what had happened to her when she was 13. There are millions of girls and women like Folake that are victims of FGM/C. It is time to implement laws that protects these innocent females from these harmful scourge called culture that still persist in our very beloved land of Africa. Let the campaign continue for Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting in Africa, it is harmful, absurd and it is an unhealthy cultural practice that must not be allowed to continue in this 21st century era of human civilization.