Abstract
BackgroundFemale genital cutting (FGC) inflicts life-long injuries on women and their female children. It constitutes a violation of women’s fundamental human rights and threats to bodily integrity. Though decreasing, the practice is high and widespread in Nigeria despite efforts towards its eradication. This study was conducted to perform cohort analysis of the state of FGC between the years 2009 and 2018 in Nigeria.ResultsThe study found that that FGC has reduced over the years from 56.3% among the 1959–1963 birth cohort to 25.5% among 1994–1998 cohorts but a rise in FGC between 1994–1998 cohorts and 1999–2003 cohorts (28.4%). The percentage of respondents who circumcised their daughters reduced from 40.1% among the oldest birth cohort to 3.6% among the younger cohort. Birth-cohort, religion, education, residence, region, and ethnicity were associated with FGC. Factors associated with the daughter’s circumcision were birth-cohort, religion, residence, region, ethnicity, wealth, marital status, FGC status of the respondent, and FGC required by religion. Similar factors were found for discontinuation intention.ConclusionsThe practice of FGC is still high but decreasing among younger birth-cohorts in Nigeria. There is no significant change in the perception of the discontinuation of FGC. More awareness about the adverse effects of FGC, particularly among women with poor education in Nigeria will greatly reduce this cultural menace’s timely eradication.
Highlights
Female genital cutting (FGC) inflicts life-long injuries on women and their female children
Since the FGC practice is usually carried out within the first 5 years of life in Nigeria [3], the analysis based on the first question was restricted to four variables while that of the second and third questions were based on background characteristics of the respondents
Distribution of respondents by FGC status The study found that that FGC has reduced over the years from 56.3% among the 1959–1963 birth cohort to 25.5% among 1994–1998 cohorts but a rise in FGC between 1994–1998 cohorts and 1999–2003 fellows (28.4%)
Summary
Female genital cutting (FGC) inflicts life-long injuries on women and their female children It constitutes a violation of women’s fundamental human rights and threats to bodily integrity. In Nigeria, the practice of FGC is performed during infancy especially within 8 days of delivery among some cultures, before marriage in some other societies most especially among the Ibo of the South of Nigeria, and sometimes before the birth of the first child in some other societies [3, 6, 9].
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