Costs are immediate and real

By RATNAKAR ADHIKARI

Notwithstanding the gains of the WTO accession, there are several challenges Nepal is bound to face. The costs of WTO membership are immediate and real, unlike the benefits, which are potential and intangible. We should, therefore, prepare a suitable strategy so as to ensure that the costs of the WTO membership are minimised or contained through the use of proper safeguards. This calls for identification and through evaluation of the costs to be incurred and the possible mitigating factors.  

The first and foremost condition for a free, liberal and open economy is the existence of a mechanism to protect competition and competitive processes. Since the raison d’etre of the free trade is promoting competition, making efficient allocation of productive resources and providing greater choices to the consumers, it becomes the responsibility of the State to ensure that big companies do not abuse their market power and engage in monopoly or anti-competitive practices. What we need to see is how much are we geared towards facing this challenge in the post-accession era. One way of doing it is to have an effective competition policy in place supported by a competition law.  

Secondly, the inclusion of Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement in the WTO goes against the principle of trade liberalisation ushered in by the WTO as it facilitates the use of ‘limited monopolies’. This Agreement in its present form is extremely deleterious to the interests of the Nepalese farmers, indigenous communities, consumers, biodiversity and traditional skills, knowledge and practices. To prevent an open assault of the TRIPS Agreement on our livelihood, legislation aimed at protecting biodiversity, farmers’ rights and rights of the indigenous communities need to be enacted and effectively enforced. Moreover, in order to prevent piracy of our genetic resources and traditional knowledge, which is indirectly perpetuated by this very Agreement, the government should initiate the process for their documentation and/or registration. However, the problem is HMG/N has been moving at snail’s pace in this direction. 

Thirdly, complete liberalisation of agriculture sector will breed food insecurity for a net food importing country like Nepal due to the possible wiping out of the farming communities coupled with increase in global food prices resulting from massive reduction in subsidies provided by the developed countries. However, this situation could be completely reversed if we could become a net food exporter and take advantage of whatever incremental market opening come our way. In order to ensure that it is indispensable to implement Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP) fully and faithfully. Lack of political and bureaucratic commitments to implement the APP is a matter of grave concern for all. This needs to be corrected as an issue deserving topmost priority. 

Fourthly, as is being often argued, the WTO will trigger dislocation in some of the vital nerves of our economy. Readymade garment sector, the number one foreign exchange earner for the country at the moment, is one of them. The vulnerability of this sector is evidently clear because of the heavy dependence of our export on quota items, which occupy 80 percent business of this sector. After 2004, due to eventual phase out of quota system granted to Nepal under the Multi-Fibre Arrangement, this sector is likely to receive a shot on the arm. But the government does not seem to have any programme in hand at this stage to tackle this inevitable crisis. 

Fifthly, Nepal already has a very low tariff structure due to autonomous and/or Bretton Woods Institutions [The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)] led liberalisation measures. At the time of entering the WTO, if we bind our tariffs at a low level it would not be possible for us to raise them to a higher level at a later stage. Therefore, we should bind our tariffs at a sufficiently higher level and ensure that tariff reduction does not lead to de-industrialisation or cause devastation to our agriculture sector. We should at least be allowed to bind our tariffs at least at the level of other South Asian member countries of the WTO.

Sixthly, the implementation costs of the WTO Agreements are enormous. As per a study conducted by the World Bank, the cost of implementing three agreements, namely, TRIPS, Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures and Agreement Customs Valuations was US$ 130 million. Assuming that Nepal is a much smaller country in terms of size as well as economy, it might have to incur 10 times less than that, which is still a substantial amount. The implementation of these agreements is not only mandatory as per the WTO, but is also important for enhancing our export base as well as for attracting foreign direct investment. If this resource has to be spent from the regular budget of the government, it would mean further cut in social sector spending. Whether to channel scare resources on education, health and infrastructure or spend them on pursuing the trade liberalisation agenda under the WTO is a difficult political question for our government. Fortunately, there are some multilateral and bilateral lender/donors, which are willing to provide such funds to a country like Nepal, provided we could make a genuine case for such assistance.

 Finally, it is learnt that during the accession negotiations, developed member countries of the WTO are asking Nepal to assume "WTO-plus" commitments, i.e., more commitments than what the WTO would normally ask an LDC to make. This will entail additional burden on a resource strapped country like Nepal. Moreover, imposing of such conditions for the WTO accession is not at all justified. But our negotiators have to provide solid arguments to these members to prove that Nepal deserves to be treated properly and impartially.

Given the difficulty in quantifying the benefits and costs of Nepal’s accession to the WTO and due to dearth of study as well as lack of data on these issues, it becomes imperative for us to conduct an in-depth study from these perspectives. While Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies has been making endeavours towards this end, due to lack of financial, human and institutional resources, the efforts of the Ministry cannot be considered upto the mark as demanded by the breadth and depth of the issues and their long-term implications. Therefore, business associations, civil society, academia and other sectors which have high stake in Nepal’s accession to the WTO should join hands to conduct such studies and disseminate them for the benefits of the stakeholders at large. Time is running out, we cannot afford to wait any longer.

(Concluded)

Post-ceasefire responsibiltiy

By SAGUN BASNET

For quite some time, I’ve been planning to write this, and now, surprisingly, the time is right, especially when everywhere I go, I hear people talking about the cease-fire. The cease-fire topic has become inexhaustible today, as the insurgency and violence are.

It is soothing to ears to hear, at least, that the conflicts between one Nepali to another and man are in the process of being resolved but at this moment, people like me wonder why mothers, sisters, wives and daughters have turned into ravaging monsters. Those people attempted to find peace through violent means, but did they get peace themselves? I would like to ask: Isn’t violence as detrimental to who cause it as the ones who experience it? Doesn’t violence lead them to battle fatigue, putting emotional and physical stress on them?

Somewhere in the fog of conflicting perceptions, I wonder the situation of those who are the makers but are untouched by the violence on one hand, and on the other, people are devastated by it. The people of both groups share the same sky, the same grounds and the same mountains.

Whatever the backgrounds, with the announcement of the ceasefire, superior brains is preparing for a well built nation, where violence should find an outlet, not in slaughters but in subjugation.

Despite the attempts of such communications, my heart still beats faster for the families of makers and victims of war. These families are the ones who represent the real scenario. They have suddenly been left alone and are struggling with mixed emotions: Whether to be happy that no more people would be killed or mourn upon the deaths of their beloved.

This is a very sad state of affairs. We are demoralized, with our faiths in everything concerning "human" fragmented. Not only these people who have experienced violence in some ways, but people like me who live a normal life are also its victims. For the problem is all too national. The tragedy that has befallen our country is something we used to see in movies.

The rulers—the power hungry despots— the mob mechanism, looting, rioting, killing, burning, these words have haunted us so much in recent times that aggression has become a new household mantra. It is taught inside a family, when another child beats a child, his parents encourage him to reciprocate. The crisis has only led to clouded results, and people are even more confused about how to set things right.

Though the process of communication for resolving the problem is encouraging, it will take some years to heal the emotional scars inflicted by the seven years of insurgency.

We must realise that the onus of building our nation lies on us.

Fight against discrimination in Pakistan

By MUDDASSIR RIZVI 

Women in Pakistan may not have ever felt as empowered as they did after the general elections in October 2002. With a share of 33 per cent seats in local governing councils already, women now have 17 per cent reservation in legislative assemblies at the national and provincial levels.

For the first time in the country’s democratic history - often punctuated by military rule - the National Assembly has 13 women elected on general seats, through various political parties. This is in addition to 60 women who have been elected on the reserved seats, making a total of 73 women in the 350-member house. In the past three decades, there have never been more than six women members in the National Assembly.

"This is a dream come true for women’s rights campaigners, who have been advocating for decades for a greater political role in patriarchal Pakistani society," commented Kaneez Zehra, a rights activist in Islamabad.

Now that the euphoria has died down, women’s activists, rights campaigners and women parliamentarians have initiated moves to work together towards an equitable society, free of gender insensitive laws and policies churned out by a male-dominated State over the past 55 years. It is the beginning of a long and arduous struggle.

The much-criticised Hudood Ordinance introduced by Zia-ul Haq in the early 1980s is still intact, despite several reports by official commissions declaring portions of the law as discriminatory against women and not in tune with Islamic teachings. There are serious problems with the inheritance, family and evidence laws.

According to a report by the Dr Mahboob ul Haq Centre for Human Development, Pakistani women and girls are more deprived than their male counterparts in every sphere. At least 29 per cent girls and women are deprived of health opportunities, whereas an alarming 72 per cent - as against 47 per cent males - are missing out on education opportunities.

Despite the claims of successive governments of having made headway in curbing crimes against women, these have registered an alarming rise. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says that at least 1,000 women are killed every year in the name of honour. Women are sexually harassed at work or abused in the home everyday, but not all cases are reported.

Clearly, a huge working agenda awaits the women parliamentarians, who represent various parties with conflicting agendas and contradictory positions on issues concerning women. While some secular political parties want a repeal of the discriminatory laws, those representing the religious parties do not agree. For instance, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League - commonly called Q League - has a conservative agenda; it has not made public its position on discriminatory laws and policies. Even so, some of its women legislators have been calling for a repeal of all discriminatory laws.

What is important is a united stand by women parliamentarians on issues that have long been ignored," comments Ayla Malik, elected on a general seat from central Punjab on the ticket of the Millat party led by former president Farooq Leghari. The party is part of the ruling coalition.

But forging this unity may not be an easy task. "It is not proper in this society to send women out on the streets," said Raheela Qazi, elected through the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), the alliance of religious parties, which forms almost 25 per cent of the National Assembly’s membership. The MMA opposes a repeal of the Hudood Ordinance and advocates separate educational institutions for women.

Raheela Qazi says the problem with the Hudood Ordinance is in its implementation: "We want the Sharia (Islamic law) to be implemented in letter and spirit as it provides justice to everyone. What has been happening against women recently is wrong, un-Islamic and unjust."

But a leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, Fouzia Wahab, holds that the Hudood Ordinance, the law of evidence and the law of inheritance are discriminatory, and should be repealed. "Our party will continue to work for the protection of women’s rights in the country."

Against this fractured opinion, the rights campaigners and civil society organisations have already started lobbying with elected MPs to forge alliances in women’s interests across the political divide. One such initiative is the Parliamentary Organisation for Women’s Empowerment and Rights (POWER), by more than 20 women MPs from various political parties.

"The women’s caucus will bring together members from different parties to work with each other on issues, and push their programme by seeking the help of politicians of their respective parties in the House. This group will also develop and implement successful programmes beneficial to rural women in consultation with civil society groups," says a spokesperson for POWER.

However, a few rights groups are sceptical of the role women legislators could play because their party manifestos have little to offer on gender equality. "If these women go by what their parties say, they will not be able to do much to change the lot of women," says an activist with Aurat Foundation, a strong women’s rights watchdog.

"Women from the elite class have come forward or been pushed forward to capture the space and opportunities created by the government through the reservation of seats to bridge the gender gap in the political sphere," says Farzana Bari in an article published by the Islamabad-based English-language daily, The News. "Women representatives from the elite class will work within limitation of gender hierarchies as well as class in the legislative bodies."

Bari is critical of the mechanism adopted by the military regime to fill the seats reserved for women. Under the rules, only political parties that win more than five per cent seats in the national or provincial assemblies can nominate their representatives on the reserved seats. This enabled women close to party leaders or their families to make it to the assemblies.

Women legislators on the reserved seats, say rights groups, will be particularly weak. "In the absence of their own constituency and political training, it is highly likely they will be dependent on the male leadership of their political parties, says Bari.

But on a more hopeful note, she adds, "At the same time they will be compelled to take up women’s issues in order to legitimise their existence."

Women’s Feature Service

Children of a Lesser God

ANIL PANICKER

She was barely eleven-year-old. For the last four years,  she was a domestic helper in the house of a prosperous North Indian family, who owned of a palatial residence in the very heart of Lutyen’s Delhi, the capital of India.

She worked from dawn to dusk, diligently and tirelessly, doing all the household chores assigned to her. She washed the clothes of the entire family that consisted of nine members. She looked after the kitchen, cooked delicious food and even tended to the well-manicured garden.

For all this backbreaking labour, Radha received two half cooked stale rotis twice a day, which she had to eat with one single pickle or sugar.

By way of salary, she received a paltry Rs 50 per month. When she was first brought in by a distant relative to serve in this rich man’s house, she was promised a monthly sum of Rs 250 apart from food, shelter and a homely atmosphere.

How homely the atmosphere was can be gauged from the fact that at least four times in these past four years, she was thrashed a dozen times and forced to go without food for days together.

Twice the lecherous master of the house tried to outrage her modesty and only last week, the young girl received a hot oil scalding on her arms as punishment for getting up late by a measly two minutes.

Let us rise and pat ourselves on our backs. This is the way we, the self-obsessed salaried and well-off classes of society treat our children.

Let us thump our chests and be proud whenever we read that every fourth child labourer has been abused, beaten, raped or threatened by his or her employer.

We hire their services, force them to do all our routine work, expect them to look after our children, cook our food, wash our dirty linen, tend the garden and still gloat over the fact that we are giving them a life.

Oh, what a life do we give them!

Is this the way to shape the future of the world’s children. Agreed that the children who engage themselves in child labour are poor, who come from families where every single penny counts, where every single working hand means that much less hunger, starvation, deprivation and disease will befall the hapless family.

But has anybody cared about their lost childhood when they hire them and keep them confined inside their high grilled gates and stone walls as virtual slaves?

India takes the cake when it comes to blatant exploitation of child labour, being the single largest employer of them. Estimates put their figures at over 30 million.

The Official National Sample Survey of 1983 reports 17.4 million child labourers, while a Labour Ministry sponsored study concluded that the child-labour force was 44 million . UNICEF cites figures ranging from seventy-five to ninety million child laborers under the age of fourteen. Of these over 75 per cent are girls.

The rightists may argue that by employing young under age children to wash our dirty linen we may actually be doing them a big favour. They may quote figures culled from survey reports which have shown that a child’s income accounted for between 34 and 37 per cent of the total household income, thereby happily concluding that a child labourer’s income is important to the livelihood of an impoverished family.

They may be right once, true they may get away with stark truth twice, but they cannot get away with such unholy truth all the time. Their reasoning is sickening and lopsided. They are no different from the Devil who quotes the Scriptures to prove his point.

Instead why don’t these holier than thou souls do something to address the root causes that give rise to incidence of child labour. None can dispute that child labour is inextricably linked to poverty. India and most of the Third World is home to some of the poorest inhabitants in this globe. While some nations have at least some mechanism of social welfare systems in place to help its citizens combat this menace of deprivation, India still prefers to live in its ivory tower and allows its day-to-day affairs be run, managed, manipulated and blackmailed by greedy politicians, bureaucrats and sundry other social leeches who think nothing of selling the interests of the nation in order to accumulate some filthy shards of ill-gotten wealth.

Nobody bothers to help build sustainable schools and provide these unfortunate children with wholesome education that will help not only their families but will also ensure they grow up to be responsible, well meaning and dignified citizens of tomorrow.

Why bother with all that trouble, we all seem to say. Let us take the easy out and employ them in our homes and farmhouses to tend to our children, mothers, grandmothers, cows, buffaloes, dogs or whatever else is that is dear to us.

And pray, what does the Indian government have to say. Article 24 of the Indian constitution clearly states that "No child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or employed in any hazardous employment". Article 39 (e) directs State policy such "that the health and strength of workers . . . and the tender age of children are not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their age or strength". Do I need to say anything more?

Fending for themselves

RISHI RAM POUDYAL

Babu ama chhodera gayeni,
Kam pa’chhau gothalo bhayeni,
Ma ghar ga’chhaina, babu ama kaha chhan
Hamlai thhaha chhaina.

(Although my parents have left me, I have got a job of shepherding. I have not been to my house and don’t know where my parents are.)

Everyone says this song reflects the life of a ten-year-old singer living in Giranchaur of Bansbari Village Development Committee of Sindhupalchowk district. Utsav Neupane repeats the sad melody whenever he gets a chance – be it at school or in the field.

Many villagers knowing his past cannot stop their eyes from watering while others put some cash in his hands, whenever they hear his sweet, sad voice.

Born into a poor family of Chainpur in Kavre Nayagaon, Utsav, his twelve-year-old brother Naniram and eight-year-old sister Sharmila, have also sung similar songs over the past few years. When their drunken father sold out all the property they had to fulfil his needs, they became ‘orphans’. All they know is that their father has gone abroad, and that their mother has eloped.

Their father, Bhimsen, sold around 70 ropanies of land and vanished from the eyes of these children. Their mother, Maina, eloped with a Tamang boy of the same village after a year, leaving behind three children. "Mother said she would return after looking for a room in Kathmandu, but never returned," Naniram quotes her. They also remember that their parents were used to drinking a lot and spent the money they had.

Today, the children are staying with their maternal uncles, where they are treated no better than servants are. They look after cows, clean cowsheds, carry water and help in household works; and when they are free, they go to school. "I take the cows for grazing early in the morning so that I can get the time to go to school," Naniram says.

Utsav’s duty is to clean the cowsheds early morning; Sharmila is too little to work and she weeps whenever anyone talks about her mother. Utsav says he can sing for an hour, though no one has taught him to sing. He expresses his own life in the form of songs.

They have four maternal uncles, who have agreed to feed them in turn. But the eldest one, Bhagirath Tiwari, says that it’s become difficult to raise them. They wish someone took the children, may be as servants. But no one has ever come with such an offer.

(The writer is our reporter based in Sindhupalchowk)

An open letter to Nepali mothers

My dear mothers,

Today the world is celebrating the 93rd International Women’s Day but I know that for many Nepali mothers, especially in rural Nepal, this day means nothing. While in Kathmandu, there will be some demonstrations, there will be words of congratulations, there will be parties and TV shows, but so many mothers will be working in the field without a cup of tea, or even water. Many women will be giving birth in dirty huts without a clean knife to cut their umbilical cords and many of them will die due to lack of proper medicine. Many other women will be bearing the pain of violence unleashed by their husbands or family members. Their stories will not be written; neither will their pain be heard, nor will their suffering become news of the day.

This is a letter from your daughters as a gift of the day in order to tell the world about your pain. We know it will not be possible for us to write all of your sufferings in one letter, but at least, we can try to tell the world that your daughters have understood your silence and your heart. We may not have been able to take any strong steps to reduce your sufferings or heal your wounds but we, your daughters, have at least been able to break the culture of silence, which the Nepali mothers have been preserving.

We were able to tell the society that a woman is not an object of sex for men to play with, as they wish; we were able to demand that the law should be changed to save the lives of women and in some way, we succeeded. But I am sorry to write that our voice and steps did not reach many parts of our country where most of our mothers live. Many of you are unaware that we have got property and abortion rights. These words mean nothing to so many of you because we, your daughters, were unable to deliver the message properly to you.

We believe that you are not ignorant because we saw your bravery during the 1990 People’s Movement. You kept your shyness behind, came to the street and made the movement a success. For the last six years during the people’s war, you as a mother sacrificed sons and daughters, as a wife sent your husbands to the battle field and, as a sister asked your brothers to bring you a new light and, as a soldier went to the battlefield. Those people, who never believe that you were capable of doing more than cooking rice, had to believe that you are powerful mentally and physically. But, in spite of your bravery, you are not given a proper place at home, in society, in work place.

If one of those days, mothers of Terai region would have been able to say: "We do not want to be in pardha and we want to feel the freshness of air". It would have been a great victory, if one of those mothers of far-western Nepal had been able to say: "We do not want to stay in cow shed after we deliver babies." And if you would have been able to say, "we demand justice and peace." Unfortunately, we know that our mothers will not be able to do it now as so many of you are afraid of society and culture.

We remember your stories about our aunts, who married to the persons they had never seen, and lost their lives while giving birth. We remember you telling us the story of a drunken husband, who used to beat his wife when she did not give him food as there was no food in the kitchen and the whole family was starving for two days. But the husband had money to go to a bar and drink as much as he wanted. Sometimes, you told us beautiful stories of Nal and Damayanti and a love story of Hir–Ranjha but those stories were less in your stores than the stories of pain and suffering.

It is a paradox that, on the one hand, you are brave and capable of doing so many things and, on the other, you are afraid to speak against those values and culture, which had not only destroyed your lives but had also crippled the road to development. We know that many of you will not be able to read these lines and will never know that your daughters have sent you a letter.

But we hope that our daughters and sons will be brave enough to bring the light in your lives and one-day, they will be able to tell you about our letters and you will smile.

With love,
Aruna Uprety,
Afghanistan

Curse for African women

SAVITEREE THAPA GURUNG

Although nearly all societies suppress women in some way, female genital mutilation (FGM) is the most drastic measure taken by any society to control women sexuality and reproduction. FGM is practised in many countries, but it is mainly prevalent in Africa. At present it is reportedly practised in at least 28 African countries, among a few groups in Asia and among some African immigrants in North and South America, Australia, and Europe.

Nearly 100 million and 180 million women have undergone FGM, and some 600 girls are at risk everyday. FGM has grave health effects which include hemorrhage, shock, pain, and many types of infections. The health risks of and complications of female genital mutilation depend upon the gravity of the mutilation, hygienic conditions, the skill and eyesight of the operator, and the struggles of the child. Those infections can extensively damage a girl’s lifetime health. Sometimes it can lead them to death. If this practice is so serious and risky, then why they practice it? It is practiced because of religious and societal beliefs. These beliefs have to do with maintaining virginity, upholding family honour, and controlling women’s sexuality. In addition, communities have a range of enforcement mechanisms to ensure that the majority comply: fear of punishment from God, men’s unwillingness to marry uncircumcised women.

FGM is ritualistic practices where actual cutting and removal of sexual organs takes place. It is one of the traditional rituals that prepare girls for womanhood. The age for these rituals varies as early as infancy to the marriageable age, approximately 14 to 16 years old.

This practice involves partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for cultural and other purposes. It is important to keep in mind the FGM in neither a disease not a reproductive risk. It is human-made setback that causes critical damage to women. The World Health Organisation classifies FGM into four types: excision, clitoridectomy, infibulations and unclassified types. However mainly two types of FGM are in practice; that is clitoridectomy (reduction operations) and infibulations (covering operations).

The first type of mutilation is clitoridectomy. In this type one or more parts of the external genitals are removed. These include partial or total removal of the clitoris or removal of both the clitoris and inner lips. Clitoridectomy damage or destroys the organ for sexual pleasure in the female. Male circumcision is not perceived by African communities as a practice aimed at reducing the sexuality of men; on the contrary it is perceived as enhancing their virility. The complications of clitidectomy are at first bleeding. Elimination of the clitoris involve cutting across the spongy tissue of the clitoris and its surroundings. This artery has a strong flow and high pressure. Bleeding also can lead to hemorrhage. Protracted bleeding commonly lead to anemia, which may, sequentially, affect the growth of the child. If bleeding is very stern and uncontrolled, it can lead to death.

The second complication is infection which can be caused by unsterilised cutting devices or may occur within a few days as the area becomes soaked in urine and contaminated by feces, and infection is very common.

The second type of FGM is called infibulations. An estimated 15 percent of all women who experience FGM are infibulations or Pharonic circumcision. In this group of operations, the clitoris is removed, some or all of the labia minora are cut off and incisions are made in the labial majora to create raw surfaces.

The complications from infibulation are compounded by the extensive cutting and stitching associated with infibulation. Greater chances of hemorrhage are there and the pain is more severe and less likely to be dulled with local anesthesia. Because the raw wound is larger, the risk of infection and stitch abscess are higher, urine retention is also much more common, since the skin is stitched over urethra, obstructing the normal flow. Urination remains painful for weeks and the health problems of infibulations can prolong.

In addition to the physical complications, the multiple cutting and stitching performed on infibulated women must be considered health risks in themselves. The recurring de and reinfibulation begins with the wedding night, when the "hood" must often be cut open to allow intercourse. Furthermore, a huge cut is necessary to allow childbirth. Where ten to fifteen births common in some countries in Africa, it can be imagined how additional cutting and stitching in each birth cause the severe pain and disturbance to women. Not only this, the sexual and psychological effects of FGM are painstaking. Removal of the clitoris takes away the primary specialised female sexual organ. The tulip of the clitoris, like the tip of the penis, has dense supply of nerve endings which are extremely sensitive to touch. The body of the clitoris is made of spongy erectile tissue with a covering layer of more sensory nerve endings and rich blood supply from the clitoral artery. This erectile tissue spreads deep under the root of the clitoris, is found inner lips and on the floor of the vulva and forms a ring around the entry of the vagina. This is to let the people know that organism completes sexual pleasure. By altering the normal anatomy of the female sexual organs, FGM reduces the ease with which sexual fulfillment is achieved, or makes it extremely difficult. The clitoris is a specialised sexual organ dedicated only to pleasure; removal of this is to abandon women from sexual pleasure.

Most of the attention given to the health problems associated with FGM on the physical aspect, with little attention to psychological problems. The psychological complications of FGM may be submerged deeply in the child’s unconscious mind. However, many children do exhibit behavioral changes and some problems may not become evident until some problems stretch into adulthood. Many women, who may be traumatised by their circumcision experiences, worried about a physical complication, or fearful of sex have no acceptable means of expressing their feelings and suffer in silence. When the pressure reaches a certain level, their condition can progress to psychopathological levels. The vague symptoms of general fatigue, loss of sleep, backache, headache, pelvic congestion, uttered in a depressed, monotones voice, are a muted cry for help a much more deeply felt pain. With a little probing, the women talk about fear of sex, the threat of infertility after infection and fears about the state of their genitals. These women’s symptoms are labeled hysterical, their feelings dismissed as those of idler.

Female genital mutilation is horrifying and even barbaric. It is part of a patriarchal repression of female sexuality, which has been repressed in a variety of ways in all parts of the world through history and up to the present time. Methods vary in scope and in degree, but not in kind. It is obvious that repression of female sexuality remains in many way. Psychology and patriarchal myths control girls and women sexuality. FGM is a crucial example of this oppression from which millions of our African as well as other sisters are suffering.