Photos: Father Beaten to Pulp for Refusing to Subject Daughter to Genital Mutilation

Olalowo Hammed Olalekan

 

In a bid to escape painful and senseless female genital mutilation prevalent in certain communities in Nigeria, Mr. Olalowo Hammed Olalekan and his wife, Modinat have fled the shores of Nigeria for the safety of their children.

According to New Telegraph, it was learnt that Modinat Olalowo, who got married to Olalowo Hammed Olalekan, ran away from her matrimonial home, with her children, when she was asked to bring her daughter for the painful and needless circumcision.

Owing to the terrible and painful experience their daughter would pass through, if subjected to such mutilation, Modinat and her husband jointly objected to such traditional requirements of their offspring and insisted that their child would not be circumcised.

According to Hammed, enormous physical, sexual and emotional abuses prevalent in the country at the moment, force many women out of their homes at mentioning of genital mutilation or circumcisions as the case may be.

Hammed, who was said to have been attacked by his kinsmen for not subjecting his daughter for the exercise said he didn’t expect to survive the attack due to thorough beating he got when he tried to escape, saying he was abused by his family and the community alike and was left to die.

 

He said: “I thought I had died.

"I was bleeding all over tmy body with swollen face and cuts on my body. What I experienced from them is not what I wish anybody. If it were my wife or children, they may not have survived it.”

Speaking further, he said: “I was on my way home, when some men began taunting me for not allowing my daughter to be circumcised, rather aided their disappearance.”

However, human rights activists have described the act as barbaric and blame it on Nigerian government for not providing adequate security to its citizens against such practices