As one of the last official acts of Nigerian President’s Goodluck Jonathan’s term in office, he has outlawed female genital mutilation. The law was passed on May 5th , weeks before his successor, Muhammadu Buhari was sworn into office.
According to the World Health Organization, female genital mutilation has impacted the lives of more than 140 million women and girls worldwide.
In Indonesia, an annual mass circumcision, sponsored by The Assalaam Foundation ushers in young girls as young as 5 and as old as 14. They reward them with an article of clothing or a snack after the procedure.
The foundation’s chairman of social services, Lukman Hakimm spoke to the New York Times and shared what he believes are 3 benefits of female circumcision.
“One, it will stabilize her libido,” he said through an interpreter. “Two, it will make a woman look more beautiful in the eyes of her husband. And three, it will balance her psychology.”
Tactics like female genital mutilation seek to brainwash women into believing their role is to serve men dutifully and their physical pleasure is unimportant. With time, the passing of this new law will trigger a new outlook on women’s sexuality in these countries that treat women as property or second class.
This world is waking up. It is only a matter of time before everyone stops pretending to believe the lies that have been pushed upon us by men who seek to subjugate women so that we will not understand our power.
We already know. Our next step is to get religions to release women from feeling shame about our bodies and sexual desires. It remains to be seen whether our complete awakening will result from a sexual awakening but it sure would be nice to ride into our most brilliant futures on the waves of unlimited orgasms.
