Gender and Sexuality: The Myth of Female Genital Mutilation

The rights to good health, fulfilment and happiness should not be segregated. Boys and girls, men and women, as created by God are entitled to the right to live in health, feel fulfilled and enjoy a certain level of happiness. In some parts of Nigeria, the female gender is expected to be chaste as well as inactive sexually. In order to maintain chastity in young girls and keep married women faithful during marriage, females are made to go through circumcision medically known as female genital mutilation (FGM). The age and kind of mutilation varies from tribe to tribe. However, this precaution is not reciprocal in male, because the man has the right to decide to be faithful to his spouse or not. Drawing from primary and secondary data, the paper seeks to solve the puzzle: Does genital mutilation reduce the sexual drive of a female? Primary data were obtained from focus group discussions and interview, while secondary data were obtained through relevant literature pertaining to female genital mutilation in Nigeria were obtained from journals, textbooks, selected documents, and Internet. A review of these articles was conducted and after critical appraisal, using narrative analysis, the data extracted from the articles regarding FGM were analysed. Using a comparative scope covering the northern and southern parts of Nigeria, the paper argues that FGM is a women rights violation. The paper therefore recommends that females be allowed to enjoy equal sexual rights as their male counterparts.

The road not taken:sexuality education and its associations with sexual knowledge and attitudes among senior high school students in rural areas of Western China

The poor performance and limited availability of sexuality education programs in rural areas of western China increase the danger of younger cohorts being exposed to sexually transmitted diseases(STDs)and engaging in risky sexual behaviors.A traditionally conservative culture,low levels of economic development and the relative lack of faculty resources all contribute to the weakness of sexuality education efforts.This study uses a sample of 164 boys and 195 girls who were senior high school students aged 15-19 in rural western China in 2017.The study aims to explore sexuality education,and sexual and reproductive behaviors,and to identify associations between sexuality education and sexual knowledge and attitudes among adolescents in rural western China.The results reveal a positive association between courses about reproductive health and lectures about STDs,and sexual knowledge;and a positive association between lectures about STDs and sexual attitudes.Our study also found that access to consulting services provided by governmental organization in the field of family planning and reproductive health helped rural adolescents enhance their sexual knowledge.Making such services available appears to offer a feasible method to develop a comprehensive sexuality education system in western China.The study concludes that an improved school-based sexuality education program strictly implemented as a part of the standard school curriculum is an effective way to increase sexual knowledge and promote de-stigmatized sexual attitudes among adolescents in rural western China.