ArticleReproductive health2022
Escaping social rejection, gaining total capital: the complex psychological experience of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) among the Izzi in Southeast Nigeria.
Article in Reproductive health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- "All you Gain is Pain and Sorrow": Facilitators and Barriers to the Prevention of Female Genital Mutilation in High-income Countries.Trauma, violence & abuse · 2024Pooled it
- Unexplored avenues: a narrative review of cognition and mood in postmenopausal African women with female genital circumcision/mutilation/cutting.Frontiers in global women's health · 2024Pooled it
- Community awareness and cultural beliefs on female genital mutilation in Ibadan, Oyo State: Insights from a localised intervention.BMC women's health · 2026Article
- Evaluating the effectiveness of the violence against persons prohibition act in reducing female genital mutilation/cutting in Nigeria: a multi-year policy impact analysis.BMC research notes · 2026Article
- Lived experiences and impacts of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C): a meta-ethnographic synthesis.BMJ public health · 2026Article
- The relational ground of emotion: an Ubuntu-based critique of individualist ontology in theories of emotion.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- A decolonial feminist perspective on gender equality programming in the Global South.PLOS global public health · 2025Review
- Female genital mutilation/cutting: going beyond urogynecologic complications and obstetric outcomes.Archives of gynecology and obstetrics · 2023Review
- Circumcising daughters in Nigeria: To what extent does education influence mothers' FGM/C continuation attitudes?PLOS global public health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWhile the deleterious effects of FGM/C on physical health are well documented, the psychological experience of this harmful practice is a neglected area of research, which limits global mental health actions. As FGM/C was a traditional practice in some areas of Nigeria, the study aimed to understand the psychological experience of FGM/C in context.
methodsThis qualitative study was completed in urban and rural Izzi communities in Southeast Nigeria where FGM/C was widely practiced. In-depth interviews were completed with 38 women of the same ethnicity using the McGill Illness Narrative Interview (MINI) to explore the collective psychological experience of FGM/C before, during and after the procedure. The MINI was successfully adapted to explore the meaning and experience of FGM/C. We completed thematic content analysis and used the concepts of total capital and habitus by Bourdieu to interpret the data.
resultsDuring the period of adolescence, Izzi young women who had not yet undergone FGM/C reported retrospectively being subjected to intense stigma, humiliation and rejection by their cut peers. Alongside the social benefits from FGM/C the ongoing psychological suffering led many to accept or request to be cut, to end their psychological torture. Virtually all women reported symptoms of severe distress before, during and after the procedure. Some expressed the emotion of relief from knowing their psychological torture would end and that they would gain social acceptance and total capital from being cut. Newly cut young women also expressed that they looked forward to harassing and stigmatizing uncut ones, therein engaging in a complex habitus that underscores their severe trauma as well as their newly acquired enhanced social status.
conclusionFGM/C is profoundly embedded in the local culture, prevention strategies need to involve the whole community to develop preventive pathways in a participatory way that empowers girls and women while preventing the deleterious psychological effects of FGM/C and corresponding stigma. Results suggest the need to provide psychological support for girls and women of practicing Izzi communities of Southeast Nigeria.
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