The ManicaPost
Barbara Vhengedza From My Heart
FROM MyHeart is a platform created for you to share your issues and get practical assistance. Together we can create brighter lives and happier people, transforming mindsets one day at a time. Send your heart to heart message to Tete Barbara and read her responses.
Dear Tete
I am a girl aged 15. I live with my parents and my two older siblings in a high density area here in Mutare. Our rural home is not too far from town, so I frequently visit my extended family that lives there. A couple of weeks ago I went there with my mum to meet my aunt. To my surprise my aunt told me that I have to smoke some herb so that I prepare my private parts for marriage and birth. I thought that God created me perfect just the way I am. I do not want to do what she told me, but my mother says every woman must or they risk losing husbands. Help me it is painful and I do not want to deform my body.
Tete Responds:
For decades, so many practices have been handed down from generation to generation. Some of these teachings are indisputably good, but others are questionable. The things that have been proven to be harmful and degrading to an individual have been termed harmful traditional practices (HTPs). It is important that you talk to your mother about your concerns and perhaps you can also visit your gynaecologist to get more information so that you can make out whether it is a harmful or not. At 15 you should be focusing on education and youthful activities, not on marriage.
To Parents:
Let us allow our children’s minds to grasp the finer important things in life before we programme them for marital duties. At least wait for them to mature first psychologically and physically.
