Female Genital Mutilation - World Health Organization

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CASE 3
Asma is a 30 year old housewife. At the age of 6 she
was infibulated. She still remembers the pain and
brutality of the procedure. She was married at the age
of 16, and says the pain she experienced when her
husband penetrated her made her terrified of him for
a long time because she thought he was so brutal.
Intercourse continued to be painful for the first 6
months of her marriage, and she has never enjoyed sex
but accepts it as an obligation in marriage.
Asma has four children, one of whom is a 2 month
old girl. At each delivery she is opened to allow the
passage of the baby, and then re-stitched after the
birth. Her husband insists that she should have a tight
vagina. Asma is currently debating with herself
whether or not to have her daughter infibulated. She
feels that if it is done, then it should be less extensive
than her own type of FGM, because she does not like
to think of her daughter experiencing the agony she
has been through.
CASE 4
FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION
STUDENT MANUAL
Meda is a 35 years old university lecturer who
decided that her two daughters would not be excised
as she and her sisters had been. Meda’s daughters were
born while she and her husband were studying abroad.
When the family returned home Meda’s mother and
mother-in-law asked her if the girls had been excised.
Meda said they had not, and explained to the older
women that she and her husband had agreed the girls
would not be mutilated.
Meda went back to work, but she was unable to
find a maid to look after the children while she was
out of the house. Since her mother-in-law lives in the
same town, she decided to leave the girls with her
during the week and to fetch them on Friday evenings
to take them home for the weekends. One Friday
evening when she went to fetch the girls, she was
surprised not to find them playing outside as usual.
Her mother-in-law explained that they could not come
out because they were not well. Meda thought perhaps
they just had a fever. But as she entered the room, the
girls cried out: “Mum it hurts!” It did not occur to her
immediately that the girls had been genitally
mutilated, but then her mother-in-law announced
proudly: “ I have excised my grand-daughters; I have
done what is right for them”.
CASE 5
Agnes is a village woman who was excised when
she was a child. She does not remember how old she
was at the time, only that she grew up with this scar.
She was married at age 17 and realized four months
after her marriage that she was pregnant.
Agnes decided to deliver at home, and her husband
called a well-known and experienced traditional birth
attendant when labour started. She was in labour for
two days, and finally gave birth to a stillborn baby.
Agnes was badly torn during the delivery and had to
be taken to hospital to have the tears stitched. She also
bled profusely and was transfused with one unit of
blood.
However, the tear was so extensive that Agnes
developed a vesico-vaginal fistula (VVF), which she
had repaired eight months after delivery.
Unfortunately the operation was unsuccessful, and she
is to have another operation to try to repair the fistula,
which she hopes very much will be successful. While
she is undergoing treatment, she is living with her
parents again. But she says her husband, who is a
farmer, is very supportive and visits her regularly.
CASE 6
Ella is a 19 year old woman married to a soldier.
She has a 2 year old daughter who was infibulated 7
days after birth. The child has been admitted to
hospital several times because of urinary tract
infections. During discussions, Ella reveals that she