medicalenglish
The practice is thought to date back thousands of years, in Egypt, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Somalia for reasons ranging from preservation of girls’ virginity, rite of passage into adulthood, control of sexual behavior of women, and making a girl a better marriage prospect [1] (maybe because it guarantees the man gets a bride with her highly prized virginity intact?). But FGM persists because of the drive to stick to old traditions, the need for social survival in some cultures, and sometimes out of habit that is so removed from the original purpose 2000 years ago, that today’s believers might not even themselves know why they do it:“ It’s just always been so.