The transitional ticket

Narropil is a young beautiful 8 year old girl. Her parents never had a chance of going to school. The parents had 6 children. Three sons (first, second and last) and 3 daughters (third, fourth and fifth). The first of the two girls Nairrie-eliyio died at age 10 years, due to pregnancy complications. The second dropped out of school to take care of the family goats, then she was circumcised and at the beginning of this year 2016 she was secretly married off at the age of 9 years to a man in Kenya a country that boarders Tanzania to the North.

This trend is common among the pastoral communities. They keep changing tactics. They conceal their plans by telling neighbors that their daughters went to visit relatives far away.

Just like the two sisters circumcision awaits Narropil which is the ticket to marriage, an indication that she’s ready / ripe for marriage. This painful ordeal awaits her and will soon become a child mother. Circumcision is usually very painful. They are not given anesthetic injection to prevent them from going through the painful process but rather they have to feel the pain and live with it until they heal. This ticket is not only to marriage but at times it may result to death like in the cases that have gone unreported.

What is Narropil fate? FGM is a terrible experience that awaits many girls like Narropil. It is many times exercised in very poor unhealthy conditions. Many times this is carelessly handled by those performing it. They wear no gloves and for that reason may result in transmission of diseases while using non-sterilized instruments.

According to some people that I randomly approached to find out why circumcision is practiced, they all seemed to have a common answer and that is a transition from childhood to adulthood. Is this statement true? No, this again is not true. FGM does not make a 9 year old an adult. She is still a child who is supposed to be in school and needs to be given a chance to grow and has a right to education.

In many African countries parents prefer to send boys to school, seeing little need for education for girls. Where the girls have had a chance of going to school and have had a chance of attaining higher education, men in the community view them as a spoiled, social misfits and fear to marry them and are ridiculed for any mistake. This affects the innocent growing girls into believing in the negative branding and therefore would choose to stay uneducated to please the community. Others have gone to a point of demanding to undergo FGM to please their parents and those in support of the same and avoid being outcasts in their respective societies.

FGM is a very common practice in Tanzania. It is a big problem that needs to be urgently addressed. If this is not done, girls will continue suffering silently. There is a need for training the society and advocating for girl education and prevention of negative traditional/cultural practices. Who then will help me help Narropil and many others like her? ‘Girls’ circumcision is a ticket to nowhere but girls’ education is a ticket to prosperity- the transitional ticket’.

The solution for FGM in Tanzania and any other country is to have an Alternative Rite of Passage and education that will lead to negative tradition/ cultural practice avoidance.