Vivid memories of my early teen days serve me of times when an elderly woman opposite our house in Lusaka’s Libala township, where I grew up from, would coerce me to engage in labia-pulling without giving reasons why such a strenuous activity was important.
I remember how I would sit in the bathroom in the evenings practicing it as it is supposed to be done behind closed doors.
I would do it manually and at the end of it all, I would but just experience excruciating pain and sometimes I was advised to take certain herbs that would make them grow faster without any pain.
During class, my fellow schoolgirls would say “the labia are used to enhance sexual satisfaction for a man and sometimes makes childbirth easier.”
My teachers would tell me that “women who do not pull their labia to a desirable size will never get married and if they do, men will run away from them in search of women who have.”
Labia stretching also referred to as labia-elongation or labia-pulling is the act of elongating the labia minora through manual manipulation.
It is commonly referred to as ‘bush visiting’ because girls often perform it while in the bush on errands such as collecting firewood.
They begin the practice at 9 to 12 years because at this age, the young girl’s tissues are softer and flexible for pulling.
It is a familiar cultural practice in most African countries such as Rwanda, Zambia, Malawi, Uganda, Burundi and a few other countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
It is performed for sexual enhancement of a man and is perceived to facilitate orgasm and female ejaculation.
However the benefits labia elongation may have, truth remains it adds no ‘flavour’ to the sexual romance between a man and woman.
And to solidify that labia elongation adds no ‘aroma’ to the sexual act, Lusaka-based reproductive health specialist Swebby Macha said there is no evidence medically to suggest that the elongation enhances sexual pleasure in both men and women.
Dr Macha, however, said most of the perceived enhanced sexual pleasure could be psychological.
He noted that there are minor health risks involved in labia pulling such as initial pain, swelling and irritation from certain herbal oils.
“During sexual stimulation, the labia minora swell and become more sensitive to stimulation,” Dr Macha added.
Apart from health risks involved, labia elongation does infringe on the sexual rights of women.
To Peter Mweemba, a married man of Lusaka, labia-elongation is an act of slavery where a woman is made to be an object of sexual satisfaction of a man.
Mr Mweemba said the sexual rights of a woman are violated as she is made to do everything possible to ensure a man is satisfied in bed.
“To me, whether a woman has them or not doesn’t serve any purpose but I would rather go for one with the natural ones,” he narrated.
So true is that labia pulling is solely for the benefit of a man and obviously leaves a woman with no choice to choose what she feels is best for her.
Similarly, Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) an organisation that supports the sexual and reproductive rights of women told this author that the culture of labia elongation should not be mandatory for all girls to practice.
YWCA executive director Patricia Ndhlovu charged that the culture of labia-elongation should not be imposed on the young girls but rather they must be given freedom to choose what they feel is best for themselves.
Ms Ndhlovu challenged traditional counsellors tasked with the responsibility of handling young girls once matured to give proper guidance to them regarding the importance of labia elongation.
“Personally, I do not think labia pulling has any bearing on sexual intercourse and we demand that girls should be furnished with information as regards to why they must be engaged in labia pulling,” she added.
And as we commemorate this year’s 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence, it is particularly important that certain cultural practices are abolished or rather amended to ensure that the rights of women are not violated.
This year’s 16 days of activism against gender-based violence is running under the theme ‘From peace in the home to peace in the nation: Stop gender-based violence: Empower women’.
Violence against women range from physical, emotional, sexual, and verbal and the list goes on.
And part six Article 21 of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) protocol on gender and development, member states are urged to eliminate gender-based violence such as domestic violence, rape, femicide, sexual harassment, female genital mutilation and all other forms of GBV.
Furthermore, the article states that member states should discourage traditional norms including social, economic, cultural and political practices, which legitimise and exacerbate the persistence and tolerance of GBV with the view to eliminate them.
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