Young girls in an ethnic group in Uganda have undergone genital cutting for generations. An NGO is working to end the practice and empower girls.
A six-year-old girl screams while being cut in Somalia, 17 June 1996. (AP Photo/Jean-Marc Bouju)
Esther Chebet recalls pain “deep inside the brain” when her genitals were cut.
Every winter of even-numbered years, her tribe, the Sabiny of Uganda, gather for a ceremony: the cutting season.
For this rite of passage to womanhood, girls are lined up on the ground, surrounded by a crowd. Their clitorises and labia are cut off and their vaginas sewed almost shut, without anesthesia.
After two months of healing, the newly cut girl usually gets married. A man chooses a bride based on her bravery during the operation.
This is female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C).
Female genital mutilation is a human rights violation.
More than 125 million girls and women have been cut in the 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East where the practice is concentrated.
FGM/C has been recognized globally as a human rights violation. Most countries where it is practiced have banned it.
Still, it persists: the United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that 30 million girls could be cut over the next decade if nothing changes.
Longstanding cultural, religious and social factors underpin the practice in some communities.
Social status, respect for ancestors, pressure to conform, deep-seated beliefs about what is considered proper sexual behavior, cultural ideals of femininity and modesty: efforts to curb the practice need to take into account a complex variety of causes.
An outsider might find FGM/C difficult to understand. But for the Sabiny people, it is a tradition that for generations has bound them together.
Genital mutilation can damage a girl’s health.
Esther Chebet bears a scar on her arm that proves she was cut, and so made “pure” and eligible for marriage. In the Sabiny tribe, only cut women can hold certain jobs and enjoy privileges such as attending feasts, collecting water or having an honorable burial.
A cut woman feels intense pain during sexual penetration, which the Sabiny believe prevents adultery.
The Sabiny believe a girl who hasn’t been cut remains a child her whole life.
After being cut, Chebet said, “you are now a woman of Sabiny, and you are ready to get married, and you are going to be respected.”
Although the Sabiny tribe of approximately 230,000 has practiced FGM/C for the entire length of its oral history, it is carried out by a small minority in Uganda. It is most widespread in Somalia, Guinea, Djibouti and Egypt, where more than nine out of 10 females have been cut. Most females are cut before the age of 15.
The procedure provides no health benefit and can be dangerous. The cutters — usually midwives or traditional birth attendants — often do not wash the razors from one girl to the next, which can cause infections, HIV and tetanus.
FGM/C can produce severe bleeding, infertility and labor complications.
Sabiny cutters ask for 20,000 Ugandan shillings (about 5 euros) per girl. One season’s earnings can provide two years of financial support for a cutter, who enjoys respect from the tribe.
Patricia Cheptoyek is 24. She avoided being cut and has become an advocate against FGM/C.
When speaking to families and congregations, she notes how her husband loves and respects her although she has not been cut. She points out that FGM/C can endanger a girl’s health and facilitates sexual abuse.
“Rape is common in the night, during the girls’ preparation,” Cheptoyek said.
In 2010, Uganda’s parliament made FGM/C a criminal offense, punishable by time in prison.
That same year, Delmark Mangusho, a Sabiny leader working with the U.S. non-profit Life Together International, created the Christian Sabiny Stop FGM (CSSF) project, which leverages Christian teaching in the fight against cutting.
“We empower the Sabiny girls so they are able to speak against FGM on their own,” Mangusho said.
CSSF supervises 25 groups of 15 girls using activities such as tailoring, baking, marathons and biblical teaching to promote gender equality.
“We’ve been lied to!”
Patti Ricotta, head of the Life Together International NGO, first noticed how Christianity could help combat FGM/C at a conference in 2007. There she cited the Bible’s book of Genesis, which says God created male and female “in his own image.”
Past campaigns to end FGM/C, led by Western organizations, had difficulty convincing the Sabiny to change. Emphasizing why FGM/C is wrong according to the Bible has encouraged the Sabiny to act, Ricotta said.
Ricotta recalls the words of one Sabiny: “If God made women equal to men, maybe that means God doesn’t want us cutting our girls.”
Still, superstitions survive. Many Sabiny think that if one sees cutting tools, they will go mad.
So whenever Ricotta hosts a meeting, she shows photos of the tools. “They realize they’re not going mad and tell me, ‘We’ve been lied to!'”
Life Together International (LTI) thanks News-Decoder for sharing about the Sabiny and their movement toward abandonment of FGM! The Sabiny are not terrible people! Like so many others around the world who still practice FGM, the Sabiny are dear men and women who have lived without the knowledge they’ve needed to make a better choice. When LTI respectfully shares with them the reasons why God made the woman’s body the way it is, they understand what they could not have understood before. As they grasp the spiritual, biological and medical reasons for keeping the woman’s body intact (LTI”s 3-pronged approach), their long-believed myths are exposed as lies and thousands of them have become willing to change. They are changing history in their tribe and nation! It is amazing to see! I believe we will soon be reaching the tipping point, where there are more Sabiny who are willing to abandon the practice than there are those who don’t. This January we are hoping to work with the Sabiny women to help them discover a new rite-of-passage that honors and lifts girls up into womanhood without mutilating their bodies. This is extremely important. We do not want to encourage the Sabiny to take something away from girls/women without encouraging them to find something far more wonderful and powerful to put in it’s place. The Sabiny will have to decide on a new ceremony for themselves, but I believe they would be touched and honored to have the global community offer suggestions for what might make a meaningful rite-of-passage as their girls enter into womanhood. What a beautiful and powerful thing to see the global community lovingly support their movement toward change, rather than shaming them for their past! I hope you will add your suggestions and comments here. I promise to take them to the Sabiny for their consideration. You can stay tuned on our new, in-the-process-of-being-born website at https://lifetogetherinternational.wordpress.com/ Thank You News-Decoder for caring about this issue! Rev. Patti Ricotta, President, Life Together International
Thank you Patti for your tireless devotion to this cause!
THE BUTCHERS OF WOMANHOOD- FGM ( THE COVENANT OF THE FLESH). When God told Abraham to sign the covenant of the flesh, he circumcised all the male children and he was circumcised. The message was direct and in plain language. GENESIS 17: 1-27. The agreement was strategically initiated and the male child grew beholding daily his agreement with God at every call of nature throughout his married life. The covenant of the flesh for a man is with ease to behold with no ill feelings or regrets without medication required afterwards in life. When God told Moses that the Children of Israel shall not circumcise girls, the message was given in a spiritual language and bore two warnings Leviticus19:29-29. The Israelis parents shall not sexually mutilate daughters and fathers we commanded not have carnal knowledge (incest) of daughters making them prostitutes. Fgm prostitution is a prime satanic sacrifice for a woman, of secrecy with miseries and constrains of disgrace to behold accompanied by many cases of traumatic child delivery requiring medication. Fgm sin of crime of honor humiliation for womanhood persists for many girls globally. There is no open fold of a foreskin in a sexual organ of a woman to cut round that hides dirty stuffs that stinks. There are no undue growths that warrant cutting and scrapping in her sexual organ. There is no part of her sexual organ that rots as she grows old from childhood. Those who justify fgm benefits in in any form are mare agents of satan in sheep skin. There are blunt lies of those women anointed by satan to propagate fgm when they claim women that are not cut stinks. Homes ,cities and countries where fgm is not practiced would have been stinking hell if their claim is true which would have been an open truth known by all. The devil is the father of lies and his accomplished do the falsehood. Fgm falsehood taught has remained guarded and guided in shrewd cover up of honored falsehood in fgm justification. If fgm has any level of cleanness then cleanness and holiness have lost reference value to some parents and men. There is Divine Holiness that belong to children of God and Christians must know the truth to be free from being trapped in greatly justified fgm falsehood taught ,Ephesians4:11-14 Fgm is the most horrible heart breaking tribute to satanic sacrifice in parenthood accepted and appreciated by many communities. They have given parents prime choice of terror in fgm prostitution castration curse positive face value with wholesome none existent cleanliness which is mockery to wisdom and Word of truth unearthed today in plain language regarding the tear of the helm of womanhood in fgm. Fgm classified evils and justified heinous atrocities held by elites are the hard issues of formidable sin of horror of honor firmly held in terror that reign on globally for many girls which many parents are unable to do away with in life in satanic cultural sacrifice justification. Can parents live to deliver dignified Holy honor to a girl child or they access and assert a girl child is sexually demonically born wild thus the need to sexually tame her in fgm the fruit of cultural atrocities and honored cultural religious prostitution castration.
Today those women who favor crippling the heartbeat of womanhood in fgm and in fear of their marriages endangered under attack by unfolding truth on falsified physical and spiritual beneficial issues acclaimed in fgm, all they have is to keep their husbands mentally caged in epic cultural lies and remain relevant to their husbands without divine knowledge. Today it will be double tragedy for girls who have undergone fgm when men change their sexual orientation in favor of girls without the evil cultural cut. Even when some advocate for not cutting much for her benefits and the husband benefit ,this vindicate the opening door of intended sexual deprivation and suppression for the girl child bearing all the shortcomings of fgm. When some women vouch for safe mother child delivery, the devil is in front with others women in destroying the very gate way of safe mother child delivery system in fgm making the sexual organs of girls the arena of social morality without iota of remorse. Parents pay homage to satan in fgm. In old days old women who had undergone fgm used to pass direct messages to young men initiates that a woman once she grows old the man if he wants and wishes to marry another woman he should do so and not disturb her. It was clear message for the young men that past child bearing age they were not readily available for their husbands at their matrimonial bed. It were as though women were more for procreation value only. If uncircumcised was married, they called for her circumcision since she was sexually like a strong magnet to their husband and they needed him less of her. At a time in life when economic reality and faith in God turned men away from cultural way of live, some women left the matrimonial abode. Was it a secret? No. During the transformation and the transition period for the Christianity , the effects of abandoning polygamous marriages for Christians were clear evidence known. Women spent time to visit their married children and left the husbands abandoned alone. It was a sacrifice the early Christian husbands who were in monogamous marriages had to bear. The clergy would call women not to leave husbands behind. The matrimonial issues affecting the women due to fgm were put under the carpet for the deserving wises parents to discern. Women were literally running away from their matrimonial homes. Some women ended in unexplained controversial marital conflicts with husbands in their old age. This brought the impetuous for the wise deserving Christian parents to abandon fgm. Women in polygamous marriages passed the burden of fgm prostitution castration generation curse to young married women. Parents virtually determine the full aspiration of satanic goals in fgm honor.
Fgm destroys the natural glorious lustrous beauty of womanhood which men are able to note today. During fgm initiation ceremonies, immoral cultural songs are accepted and openly sang for a satanic banquet. Fgm remains the formidable honorable sin of choice favored by many parents globally enslaved by satan. Let men love those ladies who have under gone the awful risk of unkind cut in Christ’s Love that bonds on love. Let those ladies not condemn themselves . Let them abound in dignified liberty that is in Christ Jesus and enjoy full life and do away with satanic barbaric fgm for their daughters. Fgm castration is done without Divine dignity for womanhood but more hedged on man’s satanic sexual superiority sort endeavors in perfecting horror of justified atrocities in fgm. The devil has his own even among the smart elites in every society that will justify various forms of fgm atrocities at religious and medical levels at all costs. Falsehoods based on fgm evils clarified and justified by elites are the hardest issues to deal with and come out of them in life. Fgm is a demonic act associated with the existent of parenthood and the devil who has given it a religious backing a cover up of deceptive acceptance in destroying the bridge of womanhood. There are women who have undergone fgm and they hold and tell the bear truth on issues based on fgm. May God Almighty shower them with blessings of fortitude of grace to forbear the deprivations done in fgm. In fgm prostitution persecution castration parents are engaged in a clear active respectable satanic open sacrifice. They indulge themselves in orgy of mutilating the very womanhood of their own girl child for none existing morality for God. Fgm is the smart satanic strategic morality sacrifice hidden tragically and endorsed by many parents across all social status around the world. Parents have their own zeal of faith in fgm and have established their own righteousness not according to righteousness of God in the knowledge of his Word. Roman 10:1-4. Parents spearhead the immoral act in fgm which is a covenant of flesh and blood with satan for society morality acceptance whereby girls loose the natural thread and tread of lustrous beauty of womanhood to satan. Many fathers are bonded and bound by it and sink to abyss of solemn silence even when children and youth raise a protest the battle of minds against the terror of fgm castration persecution. Satan has for generations perfectly cushioned fgm in many families parenthood which is un institution of tender care and love as the acceptable way of life. It is the time Satan tragically prevails in honor in parenthood. Fgm is the parental dear paradox regarding girls chastity at their approved sexual disability for the girls. On fgm sin enslavement , fathers play the pivot role in sexually crippling their daughters behind the scene having been entangled and snared by Satan as it were with Eve and Adam in garden of Aden. There are parents comfortably settled down on mutilating their young girls for community social acceptance and honor at families managed altar of satan. This defeats any iota of holy love and care for the girl child under felony of fgm, bawling for mercy when heaped on her shoulders empty promises bearing the burden of the family and the society morality placed on her very womanhood in the heinous destructive fgm operation of honor.
In fgm operation, parents are heartless and lack ornaments of a holly heart. The formidable focused aggressive force against womanhood in fgm from her very parent is beyond many girls ability to withstand as the gilrl child is dispossessed of her womanhood. The mother’s love towards her girl child, in change of events is full of momentarily intimidation to her uncut state seen as unclean . They are faithful dependable apostles and ministers of satan bound in perpetuating fgm who taunt young girls on their uncut status which is a state of social mental torture for some hard to bear. Finally some face the martyrdom of womanhood in fgm for demonic cultural purity cleansing acceptance . To them, immorality is put to an end. The devil’s strike on womanhood is immortalized in a cultural religious ceremony given a cover up of wholesome acceptance by elders present us custodian pillars of demonic cultural sexual slavery. No earthly education and knowledge can save un ill-fated girl child from fgm with satanic fgm supper elites supporters beside her who have institutionalized women and their sex organs as the center of all evils on earth. It takes two to tangle. Men should stop having holy than though attitude and stop back setting all evils to womanhood in order to justify fgm as Adam did in the Garden of Aden when he blamed God and Eve for his sin. The filth of fgm honor is in the hands of parents and men. Men ought to seek holiness and all cleanness in Divine state. Fgm is a wrong and a sin on earth and in heaven. There is a narrow highway for Christian to follow in righteousness. There is no love or justice in fgm. Men have sought satanic refuge in fgm for their weak incompatible immoral sexual stand. In fgm, men’s protracted fear of women sexuality in Divine order is waged in fgm atrocities. They assert that God is wrong for providing girls with more active evil sexual organs not equal to men and the demonic mission of taming girls and women sexually is hatched by men for satanic cultural immoral quest for righteousness in God. Effectively men who support fgm have morally justified themselves as sexual weaklings before God and women. Thus many parents and men have stayed their morality faith in God in the sexual organs of girls and women under fgm which is demonic and abnormally absurd. Fgm has remained the satanic sacrifice sought by men for their sexual immorality prowls as many girls are dignified in fgm cultural castration atrocities. This is the scaring tragedy of satanic sacrifice and worship by some parents in Christian Churches which its existence is hard for many to believe. The Church should not give parents any form of cover up in regards to brutal realty in fgm castration atrocities nor subject them to any kind of humiliation as we stand firmly wholly against fgm in Christ’s love. If a man has to be circumcised in the Church of Christ, he should join our sisters in spiritual circumcision for all that is salvation. Colossians 2: 8-12. Roman2:28-29. Can a wise man pride himself before God counting the benefits of marrying a prostitute? In Church of Christ, only uncultured men in Godly practices, uncouth, no witty and demonic sadist will applaud sexual mutilation of young girls. Leviticus 19:28-29. FGM is the perennial curse for the girl child and the land. The land is polluted and all evils come to the nation. FGM defeats any Godly purpose for it . Can any clergy support FGM? Only those taught by apostles and ministers of Satan can support FGM. FGM exercise the most Dignified Unreserved Beastly Cultural Atrocities on womanhood, which is the deadly yoke of Satan hidden in parenthood for demonic chastity acceptance. Corinthians11:13-15. NO FGM WITH GOD. When faithful Abraham the father of faith was commanded by God to be circumcised at 99 years old with his son Ishmael at thirteen years old, he obeyed God. Sarah and Hagar were not circumcised or any girl child since there is no women circumcision with God. It was a clear instruction and Abraham obeyed Jehovah God instructions to the letter. GENESIS 17: 1-27. Man cannot seek Holy Almighty God in mirror of fgm castration. The sin of fgm castration is in the harbor of men and fathers hearts who hold firmly fgm as a stronghold for their source of morality enrichment support and for women. The faith of man in God cannot be rooted and stayed in mutilated sex of a woman for him to remain holy in God. Fgm remains the worst religious dogma with elite religious support. This has given satan the upper arm in force religions. Man must stand on his two feet and seek his relationship with his Holly Creator not based on sin of having his hand on a firm filthy grip in mayhem of butchering womanhood and melting away behind the scene after fgm castration. Man is outwitted by the devil in fgm The end of fgm is simple. When fathers decide that they will not sacrifice their daughter to satan in fgm and men decide they will not have fgm in marriage, that will usher to ultimate celebrated end of fgm. There is no trade without customers. Fgm was a satanic sacrifice done by men and today done for men perceived benefits . Men have traded fgm with satan for sexual supremacy over women for generations immemorial. When men do away with fgm, there will be no more fgm atrocities blood bath. This is the way forward for men who stand in truth and just righteousness who acknowledge and live in purpose of Divine knowledge in Divine wisdom order. The church must delink herself from the satanic sacrifice of fgm in honor of the dead.
Men should not enter into marriage in seeking vain glory of sexual competition with women which raises gain to fgm prostitution castration for men to attain sexual superiority over women since it is a Divine given equally shared joy. There should be no sexual militancy in man in marriage life. Men should not take pleasure in sexually humiliating and hurting women in fgm prostitution castration persecution . This is a demonic and the most hypocritical selfish life style for a man on earth when his heart breeds absolute anarchy and evils for womanhood. Men should not seek selfish cultural sexual competition inclinations which make women vulnerable to fgm castration atrocities. Fgm prostitution is a satanic prime reward sacrifice more tied to man as the enforcer but he does not bear the physical scaring scars sufferings women go through silently with physiological scars and no Christian should apply it in life. Christian should eliminate FGM with ability given to us by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for in him there are no generation curses. By instinct his hand lands at the garden of love and joy to prop it up at Divine state how foolish he may be. God Himself told Moses that the Israelis fathers shall not subject their daughters to fgm in honor of the dead or have sex with them making them prostitutes. Leviticus 19:28-29. Fgm is a Satanic sacrifice involving blood, soft bone and flesh and parents are more bonded to demonic world by sacrificing their girl child in fgm. It is hypocritical and mockery for parents in Church of Christ to spend their early marriage live in double standards life to perpetuate FGM and live in their twilight years as devoted loving caring parents close to the clergy having soiled their hands with the blood of their daughters in a well-planned time staged managed shedding of blood, soft bones and flesh of their daughters in fgm in early marriage life as she wade through the jungle of life for demonic chastity sacrifice acceptance . Will ever parents fathom from the bottom of their hearts the unjust physical and spiritual injuries inflicted in fgm? The girl child is deprived of her authority and integrity of her womanhood in fgm. In demonic world where men believe in their objective holiness gain for humanity based on fgm precarious life they remain at peace undisturbed . Parents pride themselves in fgm for tearing down the defense and fences of the marriage court a sacrifice to Satan. Women and girls are given to demonic world morality in fgm at the will of men which bind men more to satanic world. They do not pride and delight themselves in God. But GOD can never be mocked. Some men force their daughters to undergo fgm under guise of their mothers pressure and pleasure forgetting there are no curses for those who are in Christ Jesus. Galatians3:10-14, Proverb26:1-2. It is quite evident parents are under cultural moral slavery siege and ready to sacrifice their daughters in fgm at altar of demonic cultures for binding community social acceptance. Fgm is the historical prostitution and plunder of womanhood bound in cultural prostitution castration respect and honor.
For now wisdom desire for understanding, rescue and redemption of parents enslaved in cultural prostitution castration of their daughters in demonic culture of fgm. Let Christian parents know that fgm is a satanic sacrifice with no spiritual physical benefits or Holly honor at all. Fgm remains a monster in the hands of parents caught captive and enslaved in demonic world of fgm culture which the clergies are not able to handle effectively spiritually. Some religious leaders lack of spiritual knowledge that the Bible prohibits fgm has given lukewarm attitude towards fgm thus giving parents face saving values which helps the perpetuation and legitimizing of the heinous act of fgm carnage among Christians . This is the soft accommodation landing ground for many culturally strong willed parents in fgm without bashing and brushing from the preaching fraternity. When the religious leaders have a firm stand against fgm, it will be the drastic end of sexual disability in fgm brutality among Christians around the world. Fgm satanic sacrifice in cultural honor has profound ramifications on womanhood spiritually and physically which is given a walkover by satan.
Come and be renewed at the throne of grace for Christ is full of love and mercy for your free sanctification and redemption. The cradle of hope in Christ Jesus radiates the inner person in peace who forgives in perfect love and cannot be deformed. Let the abundant love of Christ prevail in your yielding enabling life of righteousness in Christ Jesus. His unfailing love full of grace is sufficient for your triumph future without compromise. The Church is cleansed and perfectly restored for His own glory. Love covers multitudes of sins and weakness . Jehovah God break the yoke of Satan in fgm prostitution castration atrocities at family pillars for the fulfillment of your internal glory. AMEN.
GOD OUTLAWED FGM WHICH WAS FORBIDDEN AND WRITTEN IN SPIRITUAL LANGUAGE, Leviticus 19:28-29.
The message is freely given purely to the body of JESUS CHRIST worldwide.
Bro. Robert Munyui Kamunyu