Title: “YOU MUST CUT THAT LONG AND STINKING THING”: UNCOVERING THE
LIVED EXPERIENCES OF UNCIRCUMCISED POKOT WOMEN IN NORTH-EASTERN
UGANDA
Version: 4 Date: 16 Mar 2022
Reviewer's report:
Comments
This is an important study.  FGM is recognized internationally as a violation of the human
rights of girls and women. It reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes and constitutes
an extreme form of discrimination against girls and women. The study looks at YOU MUST
CUT THAT LONG AND STINKING THING”: UNCOVERING THE LIVED EXPERIENCES
OF UNCIRCUMCISED POKOT WOMEN IN NORTH-EASTERN UGANDA. Generally, the
paper is well written. The authors need to address this
1. Abstract
• Under the method section. Where you wrote theme emerged, should be put under results
• In the abstract you state a number of results that are not presented in the result section in
the text. My suggestion is that you stick to the themes in the resulting body for example you
mention all these (suicide and murder, home desertions, Intimate partner violence feelings of
loneliness, rejection, shame, anger and stress and child abuse) but they are not presented in the
results section
2. Methods –
• You said that you had key informants- Who are they and how were they selected?
• What was the rationale of using serial interviews? How did you contact these women again
after one month please provide that detail?
• Did you use an interview guide for the interviews? If so, provide that information what was
in those guides
• When did back translation happen since the interviews were conducted in Pokot?
3. Results
• Description of participants’ characteristics - should be presented in the form of the table so
that we can see the other characteristics of the participants not highlighted in the text
• Under the theme of refusing to give names has two quotations that could easily fall into the
theme of discrimination. You should move them
• Under the theme of denial of sex and basic needs at home – The last quotation is not about
denial of sex or basic needs – it can fit well under domestic violence
• I do think some themes could be merged like denial to mix with circumcised women and
exclusion from cultural ceremonies could be merged into one and get a new theme like denial
or refusal to participate in community and cultural function
• There are quotations in the results which are not in italics for example under ender enjoyment
of sex and less complication in birth and in other themes
• The themes that appear in the result sections should be the ones reported in the result section
in the abstract
4. Discussion
• In the first paragraph highlight the major themes in your results that you will discuss
• Discuss one result per paragraph instead of lumping them
• Discuss only things that you presented in the result section for example you mention
uncircumcised women not benefiting in government development   but it’s not in the results or
suicide and murder
5. Conclusion – conclude on results presented not the ones that are not presented in your results
and what are the implication to social sciences or clinical practice
6. Others – You should put line numbers to make the review easy and also point out exactly
where you want the authors to address