Positive and Negative Aspects of our Cultural Values

Female genital mutilation (FGM)

1. FGM is a collective name describing procedures or practices involving partial or total removal of the clitoris or other parts of the female genital organ, whether for cultural or other non-medical reasons.
2. FGM is a violation of basic human rights.
3. Areas affected by this practice in Tanzania include Kilimanjaro, Dodoma, Arusha, Manyara, and Morogoro regions.

Reasons, which force people to engage in (FGM)

Most reasons are based on the nature of the society. Among these are as follows:

1. To control women's sexuality. Societies, which adopt this practice (FGM), know that biologically there are some parts of the body, which are very sensitive during sexual intercourse. One of them is the clitoris. Therefore, to prevent a girl from developing interest in sexuality and become loose they mutilate it.
2. It is propounded that FGM goes with initiation ceremonies that promote young girls to women hood. Thus, it is considered by some prestige traditional societies as a prestige and a sign of maturity among girls.

Effects of female genital mutilation

1. Marital conflicts due to sexual dissatisfaction. This situation can result from two reasons. Some men dislike women who are mutilated. On the hand, circumcised women don't enjoy the sexual activity. Thus, they lack satisfaction in sexuality and may dislike sexuality altogether.
2. Women who are mutilated develop a feeling of anxiety and depression. This can be a result of the pain they feel during circumcision or due to the deformation of their genitalia. This can cause psychological disturbance.
3. The practice can lead to the loss of one's life. Some girls and women lose blood from the cut part.
4. The last effect is possibility of getting the HIV/AIDS infection as this practice is done under unsafe conditions. Sometimes a single knife is used to circumcise several girls/women without being sterilized. For this case, those who are mutilated have the risk of being infected with HIV and may get other diseases.

Effects

1. Wife inheritance: Wife inheritance is the process of taking one's wife after the death of her husband. Inheritance of wives can also be termed as inheritance of widows. This has been a major problem to the societies, which practice this system of life these days. This is because those who tend to inherit widows can die due to the effects of HIV/AIDS because widows may be victims of HIV/AIDS and a person who inherits them will be infected.
2. Early marriage: This is the process/situation whereby a person gets married before his/her right age. Normally the suggested right age for marriage is 18 years and above. Nowadays marriages among people under the right age have been common. This has been happening especially to young girls who are married while they are still in tender age. These types of marriages are sometimes accompanied by forced marriages.
3. Forced marriage: Sometimes young girls have been forced to get married to men whom they do not want. Parents or guardian propounds this situation perhaps for the aim of reducing the burden of children at home. Young girls are thus forced to be married rather than being forced to attend school. The reason is, some parents depend on the dowry or bride price they get as capital for production. This situation leads to forced marriages.

Customs, which lead to gender discrimination

These customs can best be analyzed by different institutions, which perpetuate them. Such institutions are:

1. The family: The family-level, it is a belief that boys will continue the lineage and support the family, while girls will get married. Thus, most families prefer to educate boys or spend more money on them at the expenses of girls, when a choice has to be made between the two.
2. Traditional institutions: Initiation ceremonies play a major role in perpetuating bias. Girls who have undergone initiation ceremonies become passive in school. Traditional counselors and elders initiate, girls with emphasis on submissiveness to men. Because of that, women do not take part in decision making at home.
3. Learning institutions: In these institutions, it is a common practice that boys are offered science subjects and mathematics, while girls are made to study the traditional girl's subjects such as home economics and typing. More often, there is also discrimination from some teachers, who expect boys to be more intelligent than girls.
4. Religious institutions: Church or Mosque leaders refer to the Bible or Quran on the submissive nature of women. Women are denied opportunities to hold positions of leadership and decision making in those institutions. In some mosques land churches, decisions made usually discriminate women.
5. Work place: The socialization process in the community has effects on the gender division of labor for boys and girls. Girls are marginalized from participating in education and decision making activities.

Major effects of gender discrimination

1. With reference to sex there is unequal distribution of powers in all spheres of social life as in politics, economics, military and social sector.
2. Women continue to be left out in areas of development.
3. Women continue to face violence and aggression, as they do not have any economic power base to support themselves.
4. Girls lack the spirit of competition in class, leading to poor performance in schoolwork.
5. There are very few women at the managerial and decision –making levels.

Reproduction

Reproduction is the process of giving birth to a newly born offspring, which resembles their parents.

Reproductive health

1. Ensures people have a satisfactory and safe sexual life with the capability of reproducing.
2. Involves deciding when, how, and why to have children.
3. Includes the ability to decide how many children to have.
4. Ensures freedom from sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) such as gonorrhea, HIV, and Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID), which can damage the reproductive system.

The definition of reproductive health includes

1. Knowledge of reproductive system, its functions and processes.
2. Men and Women are informed of and have access to safe effective, affordable and acceptable methods of regulating fertility.
3. People have access to health care services, which include prevention and treatment of infertility reproductive tract infection and sexually transmitted infections.
4. Promotion of mutual, respectful and fair gender relations.
5. People are free to practice family planning. Necessary reproductive health services.

The following are some of the reproductive health services necessary to the individual in the family and community

1. Maternal clinics, child vaccinations and immunization.
2. Birth control by using contraceptive methods such as drugs devices and operations. Lack of reproductive health services can lead to severe consequences. For example, many children could die due to lack of immunity against curable diseases. Moreover, many women could die during pregnancy or soon after giving birth.

Advantages of reproductive health education

1. Prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STI's) including
2. Prevention of HIV/AIDS. Unwanted pregnancies.
3. Promotion of gender rights and equality.
4. Improvement of women's safety during pregnancy and childbirth.
5. Regulation of one's fertility.
6. Prevention of major child diseases.
7. Strengthening the management of infertility.
8. Identification of reproductive tract infection and seeking their appropriate treatment.
9. It ensures healthy motherhood, steady and controlled population growth.

Initiation ceremonies

1. Initiation ceremonies include "Jando" (for males) and "Unyago" (for females), as well as female genital mutilation (FGM) and other initiation practices.

2. These ceremonies have been hindering reproductive health due to their unsafe practices.

   • For example, using one knife to circumcise the entire population.

Risks of female genital mutilation

Several disasters can arise from FGM, including:

1. Loss of a significant amount of blood.
2. Development of scars, which may lead to severe pain during delivery.

Cultural practices affecting women and reproductive health

1. Habits of marriage: In most African societies, there has been the practice of getting married to a woman by first fulfilling the condition of paying what is called bride- price. This price has stood as a payment paid for buying a commodity. Bride price paying has therefore acted as an enslaving factor for women.
2. Habit of food eating: In some tribes, women are forbidden to eat certain types of food. The Wakerewe tribe in Mwanza puts a taboo forbidding woman to eat goat meat, eggs and dogfish. Such cultural customs were contributing to the poor health of women especially during pregnancy or nursing a baby.
3. Decision Making: There has always been the cultural practice of excluding women in decision making in important domestic, economic and political issues. Women have been regarded as being unable to give good ideas on certain socioeconomic issues like marriage, education and the domestic budget.

The following are the problems facing women in Tanzania

1. Poor health. This is due to the focus of the society that women should bear many children something that tends to weaken their health.
2. Poor diet and little food.
3. Lack of education.
4. Too much work. Women work harder and for many hours than men do.
5. Maltreatment from their husbands. Some societies administer punishment over women. This cause physical injuries and psychological hopelessness.

The following are cultural practices that lead to the spread of HIV/AIDS and STI's

1. Female genital mutilation (women circumcision) can lead to the spread of HIV because the instruments used are not sterilized and are used by the whole group being circumcised. Most of the instruments used are knives, razor blades, and pairs of scissors or any other sharp tools.
2. Some tribes cut tribal marks on parts of the body of their kids claiming that they want to shed off the dirty blood. In addition, the instruments used are not changed so they can spread HIV to the kids.
3. Inherited widows may contact or spread HIV from to men who inherit them.
4. Certain traditional dances are accompanied by alcohol drinking which can draw men and women into sexual intercourse. Such practices may cause the spread of HIV.
5. Local traditional midwives who are not well trained may spread HIV/AIDS to both mother and the newly born baby due to using unsterilized instruments.
6. Polygamy may also be a potential cause of HIV/AIDS. Once one of the wives get HIV/AIDS all of them will also get it.
7. Forced marriage can also create problems where someone is forced to be married to certain man or woman who may have unfortunately been infected with one of HIV/AIDS.

1. Female genital mutilation (women Circumcision) can lead to:
   1. Prolonged bleeding during and after the mutilation.
   2. Disturbance of the natural vaginal elasticity during delivery due to the scar left after the mutilation.
   3. Reduction of sexual pleasure during sexual intercourse.
   4. Spread of sexual transmitted infections (STI's) because the instruments used are not sterilized and are used by the whole group being circumcised.
   5. Death because of excessive bleeding and STI's such as HIV/AIDS.
2. Gender biases can lead to:
   1. Unequal distribution of powers in a community.
   2. Women being left out in areas of development.
   3. Lack of spirit of competition hence poor performance.
   4. Few women in managerial and decision-making levels.
   5. Violence and aggression.
3. Beliefs and practice of witchcrafts can lead.
   1. Transmission of STI's especially when male witchdoctors demand to hold sexual intercourse with their clients as a cure for some diseases.
   2. Despise modern health services and rely on local herbs some of which do not cure.
   3. Family conflict.
   4. Unnecessary deaths, etc.
4. Polygamy can lead to:
   1. Rapid population increase.
   2. Transmission of STI's.
   3. Increase of street children.
5. Inheritance of wives (widow) can lead to:
   1. Contact of STI's including the HIV/AIDS.
   2. Conflicts between the inherited wife and the former/original wife of the husband.
6. Early marriages can lead to:
   1. Long difficult labor because of immaturity of the reproductive organs.
   2. Sometimes babies are born too early (premature).
   3. Blocked births, which may damage the uterus and rupture the bladder and can even cause death to the victim.
7. Forced marriages may lead to:
   1. Family conflicts
   2. Contact of sexually transmitted Infections (STIs).
8. Bride price can lead to:
   1. Violation of human rights to women who are sometimes treated as bought objects.
   2. Forced marriages conducted by parents after receiving dowry from the man intending to marry their daughter.
   3. Crimes, like beating of the bride when she refuses to obey.

These ways and actions can be discussed at two levels namely, strategies to liberate the whole society.

Strategies to liberate women in Tanzania

1. The formation of women's social organizations. This will help them to have a collective bargaining power for their deprived rights. Through these organizations, women can ask for assistance from the government or donors in order to enable them to open various projects. Women's social organizations in Tanzania are like; WAMA (Wanawake na Maendeleo), TAWLA, TAMWA, etc.
2. The governments have to ensure that women receive equal opportunities as men in all social, political and economic issues.
3. The government should commit itself to the prohibition of all cultural practices and customs that oppress women like the female genital mutilation, polygamy, forced and early marriage etc.
4. Educating men to put off the idea that they are created superior to women.
5. To establish special programs for improving life standards of women especially in the rural areas.
6. Improve the rural technology. To provide women with modern working facilities ploughs, milling machines.
7. To inculcate a sense of awareness to all members of society that, women are able people and can do everything like men.
8. To improve and increase the education opportunities to women. If education opportunities will be improved to women, the development of the country will increase.
9. To improve access to the resources such as land, the situation that is still difficult to some societies in which women have no right to inherit resources such as land.
10. To Participation in political matters and other economic activities. To justify this, the government has added more than 15% special seats in parliament for women in order to bring about gender balance and equal control of resources.
11. To make people aware with all things which cause gender inequality. In general, the world is still emphasizing much on women empowerment through different forums and organization, which try to defend the rights of people such as human rights.

Strategies to liberate the entire society

1. The entire society should be enlightened on the bad impacts of the negative aspects of our socio-cultural values.
2. The government should enact strict laws against those who entertain the negative cultural values like the practice of witchcraft, the killing of twins, the handicapped and albinos.