"They don't know, except my husband," says the young Kenyan mother--her voice suddenly dropping to a nervous whisper.
“They don’t know, except my husband,” says the young Kenyan mother—her voice suddenly dropping to a nervous whisper.
She sits next to her younger sister inside the humble dwelling. They anxiously glance towards the door of the tiny tin shack—not sure if their sister-in-law is listening.
“I don’t know what will happen, but it cannot be good,” she explains. “They could tell my husband, ‘Chase her away.’” They share a nervous laugh then silence as they stare at the ground.
The 22 and 26 year-old sisters share a secret, which if revealed, would cost them dearly—perhaps even losing their families. Lucy and Rita (not their actual names), like a growing number of young women in Kenya and around the world, have escaped a disfiguring rite of passage—female circumcision.
Girls who do not pass through the ritual of circumcision are intimidated, abused and ostracized by their communities and families.
According to many experts, as many as 135 million women around the world have been subjected to female genital cutting (FGC). For many young women, including some Seventh-day Adventist church members, it is a rite of passage that they must submit to in order to be accepted by society.
Local Seventh-day Adventist leaders in Kenya are working to educate members against the practice, as well as help those victimized by a tradition that has no Biblical or medical basis. Instead of cutting, the church seeks to offer alternative “rites of passage” for young women, as well as education and assistance to those who resist FGC.
There are three types of FGC ranging in severity from a simple ceremonial washing to the complete removal of the female genitals.
Most circumcisions are conducted by women with no medical training. They use razor blades, broken glass, tin lids or home-made knives to cut girls as young as seven. Anesthetics are only used in a handful of cases where the ritual is performed in a hospital or clinic.
In some cases the cutting leads to death. Heavy blood loss, infections, shock and damage to the organs cause serious problems for the young girl. There has even been an increase in the transmission of HIV/AIDS during circumcision rituals where more than one girl is cut by the same blade.
In most countries the practice is now outlawed, but authorities find it nearly impossible to regulate a ritual that is practiced secretly in rural areas.
Consolata, a vibrant and energetic Adventist woman from the Nyamira district in western Kenya, is smiling as she talks about how she has refused to circumcise her two daughters. She herself was a self-proclaimed crusader for FGC until she attended a seminar at her Adventist Church where she learned about the dangers of the tradition. She faced opposition from family members. She was told her daughters would not be able to marry within their tribe. But this courageous woman, who has run for public office, is not swayed.
She stood by her daughters while they were “abused” by friends and family for being impure, unwholesome young women. Consolata is unfazed by any opposition to her beliefs.
Suddenly her confident expression disappears when she talks about going through the circumcision ritual at the age of 10.
Her eyes widen and begin to water.
“Very scared . . . and I can’t forget,” she searches for words. The pain is still present in her voice.
Consolata was made to stay inside her home for one month without any contact to the outside world except for her mother and a woman who cared for her.
Today she is teaching mothers and daughters that many of their beliefs about FGC are false. It is a commonly held belief that uncircumcised women are prone to be promiscuous or that their husbands or newborns will be injured or killed by her intact genitals.
Consolata has paid a high price for her activism. To this day several family members, including her mother, refuse to speak to her.
Her friend Margaret strongly supports the FGC rite of passage. Margaret has seven girls between the ages of eight and 18—all of which she plans to circumcise.
Margaret does not believe that there is much danger associated with FGC. She says hemorrhaging should not be a problem if the cutter, as the performer of the ritual is called, is well trained. She also believes that AIDS is not a problem if parents provide their own knives.
She responds strongly when told that there can be fatal complications during childbirth. “Who says they have those problems?” she asks sharply. “Medical doctors say so? That’s their perception.”
Margaret says that her local Catholic church has not taken a position against FGC, so she has no problem performing the ritual and finds no need to attend seminars.
However, in March Kenya’s Catholic bishops issued a statement joining other faith organizations in condemning FGC. The statement, issued during Lent, said that by keeping silent, faith-based organizations have promulgated the practice.
The Adventist Church in Kenya has joined other faith-based and development organizations in trying to educate people who still practice the disfiguring tradition. Many women like Martha Momanyi, a programs coordinator for the Adventist Development and Relief Agency in western Kenya (ADRA/Kenya), are helping spread the word about newly created alternative rites of passage.
“It’s painful, it does not serve any purpose and many of the rites associated with it have ceased. It’s only the cutting which remains,” says Mrs. Momanyi. She stresses to young women the complications that stem from circumcision when they get married, such as difficulty with sexual intercourse, severe problems during childbirth and a reduced self-esteem. Many women die or are severely injured during delivery as the result of the scar tissue.
An increasing number of young women are refusing to be circumcised. Some, like Lucy and Rita, do it at great risk. When they were ready to deliver their babies, the two sisters were forced to travel far from their village to find midwives and doctors who did not know their families.
They must preserve this secret, for in their culture they would be considered impure women who could lose their children, their families, and face considerable physical and emotional abuse.
To many societies the dangers and needlessness of the practice may seem obvious, but according to Mrs. Momanyi, it is a cultural practice, a tradition that has been passed down for generations. Then, with a grimace, she adds that it is a practice that will take generations to stop completely.
Complicating the education of communities about the dangers of FGC is the fact that discussion about sexuality is taboo. Most young people don’t receive information about sex or FGC until it is too late.
Mrs. Momanyi says that most girls don’t realize why sexual intercourse is so difficult after circumcision.
“In some communities where the cutting is [extensive], the scar that remains closes down and reduces the [opening],” says Momanyi. She says that the young girls don’t understand that it is the result of circumcision.
The Adventist Church in the Nyamira district of Kenya has made a decision to campaign against FGC, according to Pastor Richard Nyakego, executive director of the church in this region. They regularly meet with young people and counsel them.
The church has teamed up with other denominations and ADRA/Kenya to provide support and develop structured programs and alternative rites of passage.
Because rites of passage are an integral part of most Kenyan tribal cultures, it became important to develop rituals that affirmed the positive roles of women in society. They include activities, such as parades or festivals, that announce to the community that the girl has become a woman.
Peer groups have been created for the young girls who choose to bypass FGC. Church leaders say it is important for young women to encourage each other so that they avoid succumbing to the ritual as a result of peer, family or community pressure.
One of the challenges faced by the Adventist Church is that some members still support or practice FGC. Church leaders say that it is difficult to come out against the tradition while some of its members actively practice female circumcision.
“This is where the church leadership is coming out strongly,” says Momanyi. “If they promote [alternative rites] strongly, then it will be recognized.”
FGC is so deeply rooted in Kenyan tradition that those who still practice it believe that it is cultural and has nothing to do with religion.
Nyakego believes that their cultural beliefs are so deep that, to this day, it is carried out secretly.
“Since there is nowhere you can go to penalize a person for breaking the law of God,” says Nyakego, “there are some who do it, knowing that you can’t penalize them or cannot punish them.”
Nyakego does, however, believe that the church and its partners are making strides against FGC. In his 11 years of service in this region, Nyakego says he has seen the church’s alternative rites make a difference. He says the HIV/AIDS pandemic has especially made people in Nyamira take notice of the dangers associated with FGC.
“Some even say, ‘We thank the church so much for having assisted us in coming out of this [tradition] because it was not serving any purpose,’” Nyakego says with a broad smile. “So I think there is a lot of change.”
Momanyi agrees that the fight against FGC will be won. She works diligently to show the young men and women of Kenya that there is an alternative to FGC, and she feels that someday change will come.
“The girls need to be given an opportunity to move on with education,” says Momanyi with a gleam in her eye. “We need to support our girls to come out of that practice so that they can also enhance their maturity, becoming dynamic women who can add more to development than just bearing children and being wives.”
Until that day arrives, Martha, Consolata, Pastor Richard and many like them will continue to campaign against FGC until all Kenyan girls can become women without being subjected to female circumcision.
