STAMP OUT GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE (FGM/RAPE/DSV)

Female Genital Cutting (also known as Female Genital Mutilation *FGM*) in Nigeria accounts for the most female genital cutting/mutilation (FGM/C) cases worldwide. The Female Circumcision, or FGM, is the removal or alteration of female genitalia – it varies in severity from partial removal of the clitoris to complete removal of the clitoris and adjoining labia as well as the joining of both sides of the vulva together across the vagina. After the circumcision is complete, many experience severe bleeding, difficulty urinating, childbirth complications, infections, loss of sexual pleasure and in some cases, death. But the supporters of this practice are justifying it on much of the same grounds that the world support male circumcision, one said: “The uncircumcised clitoris and penis are considered homologous aesthetically and hygienically: Just as the male foreskin covers the head of the penis, the female foreskin covers the clitoral glands. Both, they argue, lead to build-up of...

Femi had closed late at work and was few streets to his home when he heard a muffled scream coming from a bush in an abandoned building; he panicked when he realized it was a sound of a struggle - heavy grunting, pleading and tearing of fabric. Just yards from where he was, a woman was pleading while her dress was being torn - she was about to be gang-raped by two men! "Should I get myself involved?” he thought as he was scared for his safety, "But what if they attacked me and still raped her?" The woman was crying and pleading with the rapists but they showed no mercy as they slapped her and tore off the remaining tiny fabrics on her waist. He stepped sideways and brought out his phone to call the police, but there was no airtime in his phone - even if he had and called them, wouldn't the rapists had been through with their act and disappeared before the police came? He was deciding on his next step when a voice spoke in his mind's ear, "It...