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=Female Genital Mutilation in Islam=
circumcision
[[File:712px-fgc types-ii.svg .jpg|thumb|274x274px|Female Genital Mutilation]]
'''Female Genital Mutilation''' (Arabic: ختان المرأة) is the practice of cutting away and altering the external female genitalia for ritual or religious purposes. It can involve both or either '''Clitoridectomy''' and '''Excision.''' Clitoridectomy is the amputation of part or all of the clitoris (or the removal of the clitoral prepuce). Excision is the cutting away of either or both the inner or outer labia. A third practice, '''Infibulation''' (or Pharaonic circumcision), is the paring back of the outer labia, whose cut edges are then stitched together to form, once healed, a seal that covers both the openings of the vagina and the urethra. Infibulation usually includes clitoridectomy. 


UNICEF's 2016 report into FGM estimates that in the 30 countries surveyed at least 200 million girls and women have undergone FGM.<ref>UNICEF [https://www.unicef.org/media/files/FGMC_2016_brochure_final_UNICEF_SPREAD.pdf Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: a Global Concern (2016)]</ref> Assuming a world population of 7.9 billion, this means that about one in twenty girls or women world-wide have undergone FGM.   
Intro - the nature of circumcision, statistics, distribution, comparative stats (Muslims, Xtians, Jews, etc)


About 80% of this FGM is attributable to Muslims.<ref name=":2">[http://archive.today/2021.04.09-040325/https://fgmtruth.wordpress.com/what-percentage-of-global-fgm-are-moslems-responsible-for/ What Percentage of Global FGM is done by Moslems ?]</ref> And assuming a world population of Muslims of 1.7 billion, this means that at least one in five (20%) Muslim women is mutilated.   
arabic word for male circumcision


FGM is found only in or adjacent to Islamic groups<ref name=":0" />. The 20% of FGM attributable to non-Muslims occurs in communities living in FGM-practicing Islamic societies (e.g. the Egyptian Copts<ref>[http://archive.today/2021.04.09-040655/https://copticliterature.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/prevalence-of-and-support-for-female-genital-mutilation-within-the-copts-of-egypt-unicef-report-2013/ Prevalence of and Support for Female Genital Mutilation within the Copts of Egypt: Unicef Report (2013)]</ref>), or to non-Islamic societies that have been hubs of the Islamic slave trade (e.g. Ethiopia and Eritrea<ref>[https://data.unicef.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/A-Profile-of-FGM-in-Ethiopia_2020.pdf A Profile of Female Genital Mutilation in Ethiopia]</ref>). About one in eighty (1.28%) non-Muslim women are genitally mutilated world-wide.    [[File:Fgmmuslimmap.jpg|alt=World maps comparing distributions of FGM and of Muslims|thumb|World maps comparing distributions of FGM and of Muslims|left|350x350px]]FGM predates Islam. The [[Banu Qurayza|Banu Quraysh]], Muhammad's native tribe, appear to have engaged in the practice (see [[User:Flynnjed/Sandbox#FGM before Islam|FGM before Islam]]). Muhammad maintained the practice after migrating to Medina and is recorded as approving of the practice in four hadith. Two other hadith record the [[sahabah]] (Companions of Mohammed) engaging in the practice. (see [[User:Flynnjed/Sandbox#FGM%20in%20the%20Hadith|FGM in the Hadith]]) 
Male Circumcision: truly reliable figures on the extent of circumcision in the world do not exist. In 1996, during the 4<sup>th</sup> international symposium held in Lausanne, the following figures were distributed: each year, 13,300,000 male children are circumcised in the world. This makes an average of:


The Qur'an contains no explicit mention of FGM. However, Quran 30:30, by exhorting Muslims to 'adhere to the fitrah' indirectly, but ineluctably exhorts Muslims to engage in FGM. (see [[User:Flynnjed/Sandbox#FGM in the Qur.27an|FGM in the Qur'an]]) 
1,100,000 childre per month


The FGM hadith give very few clues as to ''the nature'' of the practice they approve. Hence the nature, incidence and distribution of FGM varies between countries and communities. The most significant determining factor appears to be the presiding school of Islam (fiqh). Other factors include the culture's level of anxiety around female sexuality, its proximity to Islamic slave-trade routes (Infibulation is associated with the transportation of slaves), and the nature and degree of Christian influence ( see [[User:Flynnjed/Sandbox#FGM%20in%20Islamic%20law|FGM in Islamic law]]). 
36,438 per day


Whilst most modern fatwas favour or defend FGM, there has been, over the past half century, a growing unease in the Islamic world concerning the practice (due to a growing concern on the part of organisations such as the UN and UNICEF). This has resulted in some fatwas critical of FGM. It appears that the earliest fatwa clearly critical of FGM was issued in 1984.<ref name=":12">p54 [https://books.google.fr/books?id=qof6J4n1860C&pg=PA54&lpg=PA54&dq=Sheikh+Abu-Sabib+1984&source=bl&ots=-apLOOha6B&sig=dpINFFLI-N9KO8_FmEET-MDFKbI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiXh5Gi5OfcAhVOyoUKHeSgDWUQ6AEwC3oECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=Sheikh%20Abu-Sabib%201984&f=false "Sexual Mutilations: A Human Tragedy" By International Symposium On Sexual Mutiliations 1996]</ref> (see [[User:Flynnjed/Sandbox#Modern%20Fatwas|Modern Fatwas]] and [[User:Flynnjed/Sandbox#FGM%20as%20Un-Islamic|FGM as Un-Islamic]]) 
1,518 per hour


The discussion, debate and analysis of FGM tends to focus exclusively on the question of whether it is Islamic or not. This is not surprising. It arises partly because the majority of Muslim don't practice FGM and have, over the past half century, become troubled by the sizeable minority of Muslims that ''do'' practice it. The focus on the doctrinal issue may also be in part, because it offer a shortcut to explaining the existence of FGM in the Islamic world: if a mother cites her religion as the reason for having her daughter mutilated, and that mother's imam decree the practice as required by Islam, then it feels that something has been demonstrated and proved. 
25 per minute.


However, as the section [[User:Flynnjed/Sandbox2#FGM before Islam|FGM before Islam]] demonstrates, FGM existed before Islam, and there is no evidence that pre-Islamic FGM was religiously-motivated. Thus FGM can not solely a religious practice - there must have been other reasons for its existence in pre-Islamic societies.
Another source indicates that 23% of the male population of the world is cricumcised, which makes a toatl of 650 million. (<nowiki>http://noharmm.org/HGMstats.htm</nowiki>) “


It is all too natural to consider FGM as nothing more than an arbitrarily misogynistic practice. However, it is actually a solution to certain social problems - albeit problems that not all societies suffer from, and that no society ''need'' suffer from. The section [[User:Flynnjed/Sandbox2#The origins of FGM|the origins of FGM]] will consider what these 'problems' are, and why they arise in some societies. The next section ([[User:Flynnjed/Sandbox2#Islamic Doctrine that creates social conditions favourable to FGM|Islamic Doctrine that creates social conditions favourable to FGM]]) shows how Islam doctrine reproduces the very factors that ''made'' FGM useful or necessary in some pre-Islamic societies. A third section ([[User:Flynnjed/Sandbox2#The functions of FGM|Functions of FGM]]) considers how the social purposes of FGM is realised through the experience of the individual child undergoing FGM.
==Quran==
<br />''“Then We revealed to you, [O Muhammad], to follow the religion of Abraham, inclining toward truth; and he was not of those who associate with Allah .”'' Koran 16:123


==FGM in the Qur'an and Hadith==
There is no explicit reference to Female Genital Mutilation in the Qur'an. However, the {{Quran|30|30}} requires Muslims to ''<nowiki/>'adhere to the fitrah'<nowiki/>''.{{Quote|{{Quran|30|30}}|So direct your face toward the religion, inclining to truth. '''[Adhere to] the fitrah''' (فطرة or فطرت) of Allah upon which He has created (فطر) [all] people. No change should there be in the creation of Allah . That is the correct religion, but most of the people do not know.}}'''''The word ''<nowiki/>'fitrah''' appears only this once in the Qur'an, and is left undefined and unexplained. To know what 'fitrah means, traditional scholars turned to hadith which make use of the word. Note that this hadith uses the Arabic word ''khitan'' (ختان) for 'circumcision'.{{Quote|{{Bukhari|7|72|777}}; See also {{Muslim|2|495}}|Abu Hurayrah said: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) say: “The fitrah is five things – or '''five things are part of the fitrah – circumcision''' [اخْتُتِنَّ - khitan], shaving the pubes, trimming the moustache, cutting the nails and plucking the armpit hairs.”}}Two other hadith use the word ''khitan'' in contexts where the procedure is unquestionably being performed on females (and only on females).  {{Quote|1={{Abu Dawud|41|5251}}|2=Narrated Umm Atiyyah al-Ansariyyah: A woman used to perform '''circumcision''' [الْخِتَانُ - khitan] in Medina. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said to her: "Do not cut severely as that is better for a woman and more desirable for a husband".}}{{Quote|1=[http://archive.today/2016.08.04-024338/http://sunnah.com/urn/2212030 Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 53:1247]|2=“Umm ‘Alqama related that when the daughters of ‘A’isha’s brother were '''circumcised''' [اخْتُتِنَّ - khitan], ‘A’isha was asked, “Shall we call someone to amuse them?” “Yes,” she replied. ‘Adi was sent for and he came to them. ‘A’isha passed by the room and saw him singing and shaking his head in rapture – and he had a large head of hair. ‘Uff!’ she exclaimed, ‘A shaytan! Get him out! Get him out!'””}}Three hadith use the word 'khitan to refer to ''both'' FGM and Male Circumcision.{{Quote|1={{Bukhari|7|72|777}}; See also {{Muslim|2|495}}|2=Abu Hurayrah said: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) say: “The fitrah is five things – or five things are part of the fitrah – '''circumcision''' [الْخِتَانُ - khitan], shaving the pubes, trimming the moustache, cutting the nails and plucking the armpit hairs.”}}{{Quote|1={{Bukhari|7|72|777}}; See also {{Muslim|2|495}}|2=Abu Hurayrah said: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) say: “The fitrah is five things – or five things are part of the fitrah – '''circumcision''' [الْخِتَانُ - khitan], shaving the pubes, trimming the moustache, cutting the nails and plucking the armpit hairs.”}}{{Quote|1={{Muslim|3|684}}; see also {{Bukhari|1|5|289}}|2=Abu Musa reported: There cropped up a difference of opinion between a group of Muhajirs (Emigrants and a group of Ansar (Helpers) (and the point of dispute was) that the Ansar said: The bath (because of sexual intercourse) becomes obligatory only-when the semen spurts out or ejaculates. But the Muhajirs said: When a man has sexual intercourse (with the woman), a bath becomes obligatory (no matter whether or not there is seminal emission or ejaculation). Abu Musa said: Well, I satisfy you on this (issue). He (Abu Musa, the narrator) said: I got up (and went) to 'A'isha and sought her permission and it was granted, and I said to her: 0 Mother, or Mother of the Faithful, I want to ask you about a matter on which I feel shy. She said: Don't feel shy of asking me about a thing which you can ask your mother, who gave you birth, for I am too your mother. Upon this I said: What makes a bath obligatory for a person? She replied: You have come across one well informed! The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: When anyone sits amidst four parts (of the woman) and the '''circumcised''' [الْخِتَانُ - khitan]
parts touch each other a bath becomes obligatory.}}Thus, the word '<nowiki/>''khitan'<nowiki/>'' appears to refer to both or either FGM and Male Circumcision. According to traditional interpretive methodology, {{Quran|30|30}} by requiring Muslims to ''<nowiki/>'adhere to the fitrah'<nowiki/>'' advocates FGM.


A sixth Hadith reports Uthman, one of Muhammad's closest companions, having newly converted women under go FGM as part of their initiation into Islam. The word he uses is not الْخِتَانُ (khitan), but فَاخْفِضُو (khaffad), which translates as 'reduce them' or 'trim them'.


The remaining hadith includes an exchange of insults between Meccan warriors and Muhammad's companions prior to the [[Battle of Uhud|battle of Uhud]]. It has little import doctrinally, but is of linguistic, historical and sociological interest because it appears to indicate that Muhammad's native tribe, the Banu Qaraysh, traditionally practiced FGM.{{Quote|1={{Bukhari|5|59|399}}|2=“[…] I went out with the people for the battle. When the army aligned for the fight, Siba’ came out and said, ‘Is there any (Muslim) to accept my challenge to a duel?’ Hamza bin `Abdul Muttalib came out and said, ‘O Siba’. O Ibn Um Anmar, '''the one who circumcises''' [أَنْمَارٍ مُقَطِّعَةِ الْبُظُورِ - muqaṭwiʿaẗi al-ْbuẓūri] other ladies! Do you challenge Allah and His Apostle?’ […]”}}
There is no explicit reference to Male Genital Mutilation in the Qur'an. However, the {{Quran|30|30}} requires Muslims to ''<nowiki/>'adhere to the fitrah'<nowiki/>''.{{Quote|{{Quran|30|30}}|So direct your face toward the religion, inclining to truth. '''[Adhere to] the fitrah''' (فطرة or فطرت) of Allah upon which He has created (فطر) [all] people. No change should there be in the creation of Allah . That is the correct religion, but most of the people do not know.}}'''''The word ''<nowiki/>'fitrah''' appears only this once in the Qur'an, and is left undefined and unexplained. To know what 'fitrah means, traditional scholars turned to hadith which make use of the word. Note that this hadith uses the Arabic word ''khitan'' (ختان) for 'circumcision'.{{Quote|{{Bukhari|7|72|777}}; See also {{Muslim|2|495}}|Abu Hurayrah said: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) say: “The fitrah is five things – or '''five things are part of the fitrah – circumcision''' [اخْتُتِنَّ - khitan], shaving the pubes, trimming the moustache, cutting the nails and plucking the armpit hairs.”}}“...the Koran mentions 69 times Abraham's name, who is considered a “good example” to follow (60:4), without ever speaking of circumcision.”<br />
==FGM in Islamic Law==
{{Main}}
[[File:Madhhabplusfgm.jpeg|thumb|Maps showing distribution of madhabs and prevalence of FGM]]
Only one school of Islam - the Shafi'i - makes FGM universally obligatory. The other schools of Islam recommend it with differing levels of obligation. No school of Islam forbids FGM since nothing that Muhammad allowed can be prohibited.  


===Sunni Islam===
==Hadith==
<br /><!-- don't forget 'FGM hadith' which advocate MGM -->


*The Maliki school recommends FGM, but does not decree it as obligatory.
This is an inventory of sahih and hasan Hadith which touch exclusively on Male Genital Mutilation ( or 'circumcision').
*The Hanafi school decrees FGM to be optional. The Hanafi is the school of fiqh which least favours FGM and Hanafi communities generally don't practice FGM.
*The Shafi'i school decree FGM to be obligatory. Shafi'i countries genearlly have +90% FGM-rates. Infibulation, the most severe form of FGM practiced under Islam, is almost entirely attributable to followers of the Shafi'i school.
*The Hanbali school has have two opinions concerning FGM: some scholars decree it obligatory, other as 'honourable' and therefore recommended.


===Shia Islam===
It should not be taken as comprehensive.
The attitudes of Shia Islam towards FGM are as not clear-cut as with the schools of Sunni Islam. The Jafari school appears to recommend FGM, while the Ismaili school (notably the Dawoodhi Bohras) treat it as obligatory.


===Modern Fatwas===
To compile it I used the wild-card search for “circumc*” on the site quranx.com.
For a compilation of about 40 fatwas concerning FGM issued since 1939 see [[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Female Genital Mutilation#Modern Fatwas]]


==The History of FGM==
This search gave 50 results.
===FGM before Islam===
====Islamic sources====
The hadith [[#other ladies|'One Who Circumcises Other Ladies']] suggests that FGM was practiced by the Banu Quraysh, Mohammed's native tribe, and that the FGM reported in the Hadith (which therefore took place after Mohammed's migration to Medina) was a practice carried over from pre-Islamic Mecca.{{Quote|{{Bukhari|5|59|399}}|“[…] I went out with the people for the battle. When the army aligned for the fight, Siba’ came out and said, ‘Is there any (Muslim) to accept my challenge to a duel?’ Hamza bin `Abdul Muttalib came out and said, ‘O Siba’. O Ibn Um Anmar, '''the one who circumcises other ladies!''' Do you challenge Allah and His Apostle?’ […]”}}The Hadith tells how, prior to the battle of Uhud, Hamza, one of Mohammed’s companions, taunts the Meccan warrior, Siba. Hamza implies that Siba is like ‘Ibn Um Anmar’ – a woman who was a known circumciser of women. The more descriptive phrase ''muqteh al-basr'' – ‘one who cuts clitorises‘ – is used rather than the usual ''khitan''.


This taunt suggests that clitoridectomy was practiced by the Quraysh, and that it was a role reserved for women, probably of low-status, hence its insulting nature when directed against a warrior. The taunt could only be effective if it humiliated Siba in the eyes of ''both'' his fellow Meccan warriors and also the Muslim warriors. Thus its use implies that members of both camps had knowledge of the practice and a shared culture of clitoridectomy. The fact that a circumciser of women could be famous (or notorious) also suggests that it was an established practice with the Meccan Quraysh.
''“Abu Hurayrah said: I heard the Prophet say: “The fitrah is five things – or five things are part of the fitrah – circumcision, shaving the pubes, trimming the moustache, cutting the nails and plucking the armpit hairs.””'' Bukhari 77:106


====Non-Islamic sources====
<nowiki>***</nowiki>
There is evidence that FGM was practiced before the birth of Muhammad in the Middle East and along the African coast of the Red Sea. The following are listed in roughly chronological order.


'''There are reports''' that some Egyptian mummies show signs of FGC. However this appears to be disputed.
''“''[…]''He (Abu Musa, the narrator) said: I got up (and went) to ‘A’isha and sought her permission and it was granted, and I said to her: 0 Mother, or Mother of the Faithful, I want to ask you about a matter on which I feel shy. She said: Don’t feel shy of asking me about a thing which you can ask your mother, who gave you birth, for I am too your mother. Upon this I said: What makes a bath obligatory for a person? She replied: You have come across one well informed! The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: When anyone sits amidst four parts (of the woman) and the circumcised parts touch each other a bath becomes obligatory.”'' Sahih Muslim 3:684
{{Quote|[http://archive.today/2021.04.09-071736/https://www.scribd.com/document/317447900/Female-Genital-Mutilation-Cutting Salima Ikram, professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, told to Discovery News.]|“This was not common practice in ancient Egypt. There is no physical evidence in mummies, neither there is anything in the art or literature. It probably originated in sub-saharan Africa, and was adopted here later on,”}}
[[File:Glyph1.jpg|thumb|spell or prayer found on an Egyptian coffin dating from sometime between 1991–1786 BC ]]
'''A spell or prayer''' found on an Egyptian coffin dating from sometime between 1991–1786 BC appears to refer to an uncircumcised girl.  
{{Quote|[http://archive.today/2021.04.09-072542/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3080631?seq&#61;1 Mary Knight - 'Curing Cut or Ritual Mutilation?: Some remarks on the Practice of Female and Male Circumcision in Graeco-Roman Egypt' (2001)]|“But if a man wants to know how to live, he should recite it [a magical spell] every day, after his flesh has been rubbed with the b3d [unknown substance] of an uncircumcised girl [‘m’t] and the flakes of skin of an uncircumcised bald man.”}}
An analysis of this hieroglyph by the Egyptologist Saphinaz-Amal Naguib suggests that the procedure referred to was not the infibulation that has become commonly associated with Ancient Egypt (hence ‘pharaonic’ circumcision), but rather clitoridectomy. This seems to be confirmed by other later Greek descriptions of the Egyptian practice.


'''A fragment referring''' to a fifth-century B.C. history by Xanthos of Lydia (Western Asiatic Turkey) uses the word 'castrated' in relation to women. It may refer to FGM, or some method of permanently sterilizing women.
<nowiki>***</nowiki>
{{Quote|1=[http://archive.today/2021.04.09-072542/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3080631?seq=1 Mary Knight - 'Curing Cut or Ritual Mutilation?: Some remarks on the Practice of Female and Male Circumcision in Graeco-Roman Egypt' (2001)]|2='The Lydians arrived at such a state of delicacy that they were even the first to “castrate” their women … Thus Xanthos says in his second book on the Lydians that Adramytes, the king of the Lydians, castrating the women, used them instead of male eunuchs…. In the second book, he reports that Gyges, the king of the Lydians, was the first who “castrated” women, so that he might use them while they would remain forever youthful.'}}
'''There are several classical references from the geographer Agatharchides of Cnidus (fl. 2nd century BC., who identified a tribe living on the west coast of the Red Sea which excised their women in the manner of the Egyptians, and that another group cut of in infancy with razors the whole portion that others circumcise'.'' <ref>[https://www.amazon.com/Agatharchides-Cnidus-Erythraean-Hakluyt-Society/dp/090418028X 'Agatharchides of Cnidus: On the Erythraean Sea' by Stanley M. Burstein]</ref>


'''A papyrus dated''' from 163 BC refers to the operation being performed on girls in Memphis, Egypt, to coincide with the time when they received their dowries.
''“Abu al- Malih ibn `Usama’s father relates that the Prophet said: “Circumcision is a law for men and a preservation of honour for women.””'' Ahmad Ibn Hanbal 5:75; Abu Dawud, Adab 167
{{Quote|'Greek Papyri in the British Museum.' Kenyon, F. G. (1893)|'Sometime after this, Nephoris [Tathemis’s mother] defrauded me, being anxious that it was time for Tathemis to be circumcised, as is the custom among the Egyptians. She asked that I give her 1,300 drachmae … to clothe her … and to provide her with a marriage dowry … if she didn’t do each of these or if she did not circumcise Tathemis in the month of Mecheir, year 18 [163 BCE], she would repay me 2,400 drachmae on the spot.'}}
'''Strabo (64 or 63 BC – c. AD 24)''', a Turkish-born Greek geographer, observed the practice whilst travelling up the Nile.
{{Quote|'Geographica' - Strabo|‘This is one of the procedures most enthusiastically performed by [the Egyptians]: to raise every child that is born and to circumcise the males and cut the females… as is also the custom among the Jews, who are also Egyptians in origin. And then to the Harbour of Antiphilus [Naucratis in Egypt], and, above this, to the Creophagi [meat-eaters], of whom the males have their penises circumcised and the women and cut in the Jewish fashion'}}
Another passage from Strabo suggests that Jews practiced FGM some time after Moses’ death.
{{Quote|'Geographica' - Strabo|'Superstitious men were appointed to the priesthood, and then tyrannical people; and from superstition arose abstinence from flesh, from which it is their custom to abstain even today, and circumcisions and excisions of females'}}
'''The Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria''' (c. 20 BC – 50 AD) reports in his ''‘Questions on Genesis’''<ref>[http://archive.today/2021.04.09-073825/https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674994188 Questions on Genesis - Philo]</ref>:
{{Quote||‘Why orders he the males only to be circumcised? (Genesis 17:11). For in the first place, Egyptians, in accordance with the national customs of the country, in the fourteenth year of their age, when the male begins to have the power of propagating his species, and when the female arrives at the age of puberty, circumcise both bride and bridegroom. But the divine legislator appoints circumcision to take place in the case of the male alone for many reasons: the first of which is, that the male creature feels venereal pleasures and desires matrimonial connexions more than the female, on which account the female is properly omitted here, while he checks the superfluous impetuosity of the male by the sign of circumcision.’}}
'''The Greek physician Galen''' (129-c. 200 AD) notes that the Romans developed a procedure which involved slipping fibulae (the latin word for ‘brooches’) through the labia majora of female slaves as a form of contraception. He also notes in his ''‘Introductio sive Medicus’'':{{Quote||‘Between these [labia majora], a small bit of flesh, the clitoris, grows out at the split. When [the clitoris] protrudes to a great extent in their young women, Egyptians consider it appropriate to cut it out’}}
'''Greek physician, Soranus of Ephesus''' (1st/2nd century AD. Ephesus was a Greek colony found on the west coast of Turkey) also noted the same procedure. One of the titles in his manual of gynecology is ''‘On an excessively large clitoris’.'' The actual text of this chapter has not survived. However there exists a translation, probably from the the sixth century AD:
{{Quote|Projected Cultural Histories of the Cutting of Female Genitalia: A Poor Reflection as in a Mirror Sara Johnsdotter,
Malmö University|'On the excessively large clitoris, which the Greeks call the “masculinized” [reading “yos” as a Latinized Yril/Ya;, the god of fertilizing moisture] nymphe [clitoris]. The presenting feature […] of the deformity is a large masculinized clitoris. Indeed, some assert that its flesh becomes erect just as in men and as if in search of frequent sexual intercourse. You will remedy it in the following way: With the woman in a supine position, spreading the closed legs, it is necessary to hold [the clitoris] with a forceps turned to the outside so that the excess can be seen, and to cut off the tip with a scalpel, and finally, with appropriate diligence, to care for the resulting wound.'}}'''Caelius Aurelianus, a fifth-century AD physician''' from Sicca Veneria (modern el-Kef in Tunisia), synthesised much of Soranus’s work. In a chapter entitled ‘On an excessively large clitoris’, he wrote:
{{Quote||'A dreadful size attends to certain clitorides and it upsets the women with the ugliness of the parts, and, as many relate, when it is affected by immoderate tumescence, these women acquire an appetite like men, and when [the clitoris] is so driven, they come into venery. The woman is placed in a supine position with her thighs slightly together so they do not have recourse to too much of the space of the female cavity. Then the superfluous amount should be held with a forceps and an appropriate amount cut off with the scalpel. For if it is stretched out to its greatest length, [?] may follow, and it may cause hurt to the patient with a very large discharge from the cutting off. But after surgery, a remedy that keeps [the wound] under control and [?] should be applied.'}}
'''Closer to the time of Mohammed''', the Byzantine Greek physician Aëtius of Amida (fl. mid-fifth century to mid-sixth century. Amida was located where modern Diyarbakır now stands in east Turkey) describes a clitoridectomy, citing the physician Philomenes:
{{Quote|Aëtius Amidenus 'Tetrabibilion 16'|‘The so-called nymphe [clitoris] is a sort of muscular or skinlike structure that lies above the juncture of the labia minora; below it the urinary outlet is positioned. [This structure] grows in size and is increased to excess in certain women, becoming a deformity and a source of shame. Furthermore, its continual rubbing against the clothes irritates it, and that stimulates the appetite for sexual intercourse.


For this reason, it seemed proper to the Egyptians to remove it before it became greatly enlarged especially at the time where the girls were about to be married.
<nowiki>***</nowiki>


The surgery is performed in this way: have the girl sit on a chair while a muscled young man standing behind her places his arms below the girl’s thighs. Have him separate and steady her legs and whole body. Standing in front and taking hold of the clitoris with a broad-mouthed forceps in his left, the surgeon stretches it outward, while with the right hand, he cuts it off at the point next to the pincers of the forceps.
There were many Hadith where the ''matn'' was essenitally the same. Rather than reproducing each one of these I have quoted a 'representative' Hadith, and listed links to the other versions beneath.


It is proper to let a length remain from that cut off, about the size of the membrane that’s between the nostrils, so as to take away the excess material only; as I have said, the part to be removed is at the point just above the pincers of the forceps. Because the clitoris is a skin-like structure and stretches out excessively, do not cut off too much, as urinary fistula may result from cutting such large growths too deeply.
''...The sub narrator adds, "Ibn An-Natur was the Governor of llya' (Jerusalem) and Heraclius was the head of the Christians of Sham. Ibn An-Natur narrates that once while Heraclius was visiting ilya' (Jerusalem), he got up in the morning with a sad mood. Some of his priests asked him why he was in that mood? Heraclius was a foreteller and an astrologer. He replied, 'At night when I looked at the stars, I saw that the leader of those who practice circumcision had appeared (become the conqueror). Who are they who practice circumcision?' The people replied, 'Except the Jews nobody practices circumcision, so you should not be afraid of them (Jews). 'Just Issue orders to kill every Jew present in the country.' While they were discussing it, a messenger sent by the king of Ghassan to convey the news of Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) to Heraclius was brought in. Having heard the news, he (Heraclius) ordered the people to go and see whether the messenger of Ghassan was circumcised. The people, after seeing him, told Heraclius that he was circumcised. Heraclius then asked him about the Arabs. The messenger replied, 'Arabs also practice circumcision.' (After hearing that) Heraclius remarked that sovereignty of the 'Arabs had appeared. Heraclius then wrote a letter to his friend in Rome who was as good as Heraclius in knowledge...''


After the surgery, it is recommended to treat the wound with wine or cold water, and wiping it clean with a sponge to sprinkle frankincense powder on it. Absorbent linen bandages dipped in vinegar should be secured in place, and a sponge in turn dipped in vinegar placed above. After the seventh day, spread the finest calamine on it. With it, either rose petals or a genital powder made from baked clay can be applied. This [prescription] is especially good: Roast and grind date pits and spread the powder on [the wound]; [this compound] also works against sores on the genitals'}}
<nowiki>https://quranx.com/Hadith/Bukhari/USC-MSA/Volume-1/Book-1/Hadith-6</nowiki>
'''Paulus of Aegina''' (Aegina is one of the Saronic islands of Greece), a 7th Century AD urologic surgeon, was something of an expert and gives his version of how to perform the procedure (the word ‘nympha’ usually refers the labia minora, but here seems to be being also used of the clitoris):
{{Quote|Paulus of Aegina “De Re Medica” book 7|'In certain women the nympha is excessively large and presents a shameful deformity, insomuch that, as has been related, some women have had erections of this part like men, and also venereal desires of a like kind. Wherefore, having placed the woman in a supine posture, and seizing the redundant portion of the nympha in a forceps we cut it out with a scalpel, taking care not to cut too deep lest we occasion the complaint called rhoeas'}}


===FGM since 622 CE===
<nowiki>*</nowiki> * *
{{Quote|al-Zahrawi (born 936 AD, Córdoba, Spain)|The clitoris may grow in size above the order of nature so that it gets a horrible deformed appearance; in some women it becomes erect like the male organ and attains to coitus. You must grasp the growth with your hand or a hook and cut it off. Do not cut too deeply, especially at the root of the growth, lest hemorrhage occur. Then apply the usual dressing for wounds until it is healed.}}{{Quote|[https://archive.org/details/ethiopiaorienta00santgoog Fr Joao Dos Santos (1609)]|a custome to sew up their Females, specially their slaves being young to make them unable for conception, which makes these Slaves sell dearer, both for the their chastitie , and for better confidence which their Masters put in them}}
reported that inland from Mogadishu a group has
{{Quote|James Bruce (British explorer)|The Falasha [as the Agaazi] submit to both [male and female circumcision]. These nations however they agree in their rite, differ in their accounts of the time they received this ceremony, as well as the manner of performing it. The Abyssinians of Tigre say, that they have received it from Ishmael’s family and his descendants, with whom they wee early connected in their trading voyages. They say also , athat the queen of Sheba, and all the women of that coast, had suffered excision at the usual time of life, before puberty, and before her journey to Jerusalem. The Falasha again declare, that their circumcision was that commonly practiced at Jerusalem in the time of Solomon, and in use among them when they left Palestine, and came into Abyssinia.}}
The British explorer  in his account of his journey in Africa between 1768 and 1772 reports
 
James Bruce also reports that the Catholic missionairies in Egypt thought Copts practiced excision ''“upon Judaic principles”'', therefore, they ''“forbade, upon pain of excommunication, that excision should be performed upon the children of parents who had become Catholics”.''


Browne reported in 1799 that Egyptians practice female excision, and that infibulation to prevent pregnancy is general among female slaves, who come from the Black south.
Narrated Ibn `Abbas:''The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "You will be gathered (on the Day of Judgment), bare-footed, naked and not circumcised." He then recited:--'As We began the first creation, We, shall repeat it: A Promise We have undertaken: Truly we shall do it.' (21.104) He added, "The first to be dressed on the Day of Resurrection, will be Abraham, and some of my companions will be taken towards the left side (i.e. to the (Hell) Fire), and I will say: 'My companions! My companions!' It will be said: 'They renegade from Islam after you left them.' Then I will say as the Pious slave of Allah (i.e. Jesus) said. 'And I was a witness Over them while I dwelt amongst them. When You took me up You were the Watcher over them, And You are a witness to all things. If You punish them. They are Your slaves And if You forgive them, Verily you, only You are the All-Mighty, the All-Wise." (5.120-121)''


<nowiki>***</nowiki>
<nowiki>https://quranx.com/Hadith/Bukhari/USC-MSA/Volume-4/Book-55/Hadith-568</nowiki>


Other travelers to Egypt (Larrey 1803 and Burckhardt in 1819) confirm Browne and claim that Moslem slave traders infibulated young female captives.
<nowiki>https://quranx.com/Hadith/Bukhari/USC-MSA/Volume-6/Book-60/Hadith-149</nowiki>


<nowiki>*</nowiki> * *
<nowiki>*</nowiki> * *


The explorer Sir Richard Burton claimed that ''“Female circumcision'' […] ''is I believe the rule among some outlying tribes of Jews.”''
''Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "Abraham did his circumcision with an adze at the age of eighty." Narrated Abu Az-Zinad: (as above in Hadith No. 575) With an adze.''


==The origins of FGM==
''<nowiki>https://quranx.com/Hadith/Bukhari/USC-MSA/Volume-4/Book-55/Hadith-575</nowiki>''
The roots of FGM as lying in polygyny, particularly the kind of extreme polygyny that existed at the heart of empires, where some men could become powerful and wealthy enough to afford harems of hundreds of concubines (the word 'concubine' is a euphemism for sex-slave).<ref name=":0">'[http://webarchiv.ethz.ch/soms/teaching/OppFall09/MackieFootbinding.pdf Ending Footbinding and Infibulation: A Convention Account' Gerry Mackie (1996)]</ref><ref>[https://pages.ucsd.edu/~gmackie/documents/BeginningOfEndMackie2000.pdf 'Female Genital Cutting: the Beginning of the End' Gerry Mackie (2000)]</ref><ref>[http://pages.ucsd.edu/~gmackie/documents/UNICEF.pdf 'Social Dynamics of Abandonment of Harmful Practices: A New Look at the Theory' - John Lejeune and Gerry Mackie (2008)]</ref>


In a monogamous marriage a husband and wife can spend much time together (and thus better monitor each others fidelity), can develop strong bonds, and their sexual and emotional needs are more-or-less proportional. But in polygynous societies the high-status men who can afford to keep multiple wives face a problem guaranteeing the fidelity of their many wives, whom he must satisfy emotionally and sexually, and provide with offspring. If these needs are not satisfied, his wives will be tempted to be unfaithful, and this may result in the high-status man rearing children that are not his own - the worst outcome for a man, genetically speaking. The consequence of this is that the modesty, chastity, fidelity and purity of girls and women, wives and potential wives, is an aggravated anxiety amongst polygynous men. And the greater their polygyny the greater the anxiety. [[File:Polygamy-fgm.jpg|alt=maps showing distribution of polygamy (its legal status and/or its practice) and the distribution of FGM|thumb|maps showing distribution of polygamy (its legal status and/or its practice) and the distribution of FGM]]
''<nowiki>https://quranx.com/Hadith/Bukhari/DarusSalam/Hadith-6298</nowiki>''


Chastity assurance practices therefore evolve which assure the chastity of multiple wives: '''harems,''' guarded by eunuchs, imprison 'concubines'; '''footbinding''' (as once practiced by the Chinese) imprisoned girls and women by reducing their mobility; '''chaperoning and gender segregation''' eliminate interactions between the sexes; '''arranged and child marriages''' obviate the dangers that romance and courtship pose to a girl's chastity and reputation; '''veiling''' makes dehumanise girls, making them less identifiable and desirable to other males. '''FGM''' is a chastity assurance practice. It reduces women's capacity for sexual pleasure both physically (through the removal of the clitoris and labia, or sealing the vagina shut) and mentally (through the effects of trauma).
''<nowiki>https://quranx.com/Hadith/Muslim/USC-MSA/Book-30/Hadith-5844</nowiki>''


In polygynous societies:
''<nowiki>https://quranx.com/Hadith/Adab/English/Book-53/Hadith-1244</nowiki>''


*the only acceptable role for a girl to aspire to is that of 'wife'. A girl can only better her life by marrying a rich man;
''<nowiki>https://quranx.com/Hadith/Adab/English/Book-53/Hadith-1250</nowiki>''
*the wealth gradient tends to be steeper – the poor poorer, the rich richer;
*a married high-status man remains available to further marriages (unlike in monogamous societies);
*marriages involve the payment of a brideprice by the groom (or his family) to the bride (or her family), which will be higher from a rich man than from a poor man;
*marriage to high status men is advantageous to the bride's family, who will benefit not only from the bride-price, but also from having a high-status male as a relative.


Thus in polygynous societies it is preferable to be the ''n<sup>th</sup>'' wife of a rich man than the sole wife of a poor man. This makes polygynous societies intensely ''hypergynous'' (hypergyny: the tendency for women to marry men of higher social status).
<nowiki>*</nowiki> * *


To stand a chance of making an 'advantageous' marriage girls must meet the requirements of the high-status polygynous men i.e. persuade him that she is 'pure', chaste and will be faithful. This is demonstrated by adopting the chastity assurance practices required by polygynous elite, whether it be FGM and/or other practices mentioned earlier. The intensely hypergynous nature of polygynous societies means that the marriage requirements of high-status polygynous men cascade down through the ranks of society, and are adopted by almost all families.
Narrated Said bin Jubair: Ibn 'Abbas was asked, "How old were you when the Prophet (ﷺ) died?" He replied. "At that time I had been circumcised." At that time, people did not circumcise the boys till they attained the age of puberty. Sa'id bin Jubair said, "Ibn 'Abbas said, 'When the Prophet died, I had already been circumcised. "


In polygynous societies the marriage market heavily favours polygynous elite men, because they are relatively few elite polygynous men whilst there are many lower-ranking potential brides. Lower-ranking families must therefore compete with each other to ''persuade'' higher-ranking men to marry their daughters. It is not enough to simply ''adopt'' the elite’s marriage-practices, the daughter has to be made to stand out from the crowd of other candidates hoping to make a hypergynous match.
<nowiki>https://quranx.com/Hadith/Bukhari/In-Book/Book-79/Hadith-71</nowiki>


A girl’s fidelity, purity and chastity becomes her most important selling-point and the more spectacularly she can advertise this the better. Families therefore seek to make conspicuous the ‘honour’ of their lines, the purity of their females, and their commitment to the values of chastity, fidelity and modesty. In a process analogous to Sexual Selection in Nature, female modesty takes on a ''competitive'' value rather than an ''intrinsic'' one and this provokes an ‘inflation’ of modesty practices and attitudes: “''one wrong word about my sister and I will kill you”''…''”the smaller the foot, the better the family”''….''”the more extreme the cutting the better the girl’s reputation”''…''”the more harshly a family punishes its females’ immodesty, the more likely she is to be pure”…''
<nowiki>https://quranx.com/Hadith/Bukhari/DarusSalam/Hadith-6300</nowiki>


FGM (and other chastity assurance practices) become a symbol, a proxy, for chastity and fidelity. Girls and families who do not observe these chastity assurance practices are stigmatised as 'impure', contaminating and guaranteed to be unfaithful if anyone should have the misfortune to marry them. They become 'untouchable' and suffer discrimination, ostracism and persecution. Only the daughters of the poorest families, who can not afford to engage in such practices, remain unmutilated. They serve as public demonstrations of the ignominy that results from not following the society's modesty practices. The avoidance of stigma becomes as much an incentive to mutilate one's daughters as making a good marriage.
<nowiki>*</nowiki> * *
 
{{Quote|[http://archive.today/2021.04.24-033223/https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/female-genital-mutilation Female genital mutilation, WHO (2020]|Where FGM is a social convention (social norm), the social pressure to conform to what others do and have been doing, as well as the need to be accepted socially and the fear of being rejected by the community, are strong motivations to perpetuate the practice. In some communities, FGM is almost universally performed and unquestioned.}}
 
Communities that practice FGM tend to do so at near 100% levels. This universality of FGM within a local intramarrying community generates folk beliefs: that women must have excessively lascivious natures to require such scrupulous guarding and restraint; that the clitoris will grow to the length of a goose’s neck if not removed during childhood; that contact with the clitoris kills, be it the baby during birth or the husband during intercourse; that FGM enhances a woman’s facial beauty; that an 'uncut' vulva is ugly; that a ‘cut’ vulva is more pleasurable to the husband; that FGM enhances fertility; that FGM improves a woman's health and hygiene. These folk beliefs are self-enforcing because the believed consequences of violating them are sufficiently grave that their truth is never tested – they are ‘belief traps’. This is the case not only with those folk beliefs which threaten death, but also those which postulate the un-marriageability of the uncut girl.
 
FGM persists even if its originating conditions lapse, and even when the majority of the community wish to abandon the practice. In a community where it is a pre-condition of marriage that a girl should be mutilated, a parent who doesn't have his daughters mutilated risks having unmarried daughters and having to support those daughters for the rest of their lives, and also suffer the stigma and persecution that comes with having uncut daughters. Thus the consequences of not having his daughters mutilated only serve to reinforce, in the eyes of the community, the necessity of having one's daughters mutilated. The only way a community can abandon FGM is if the whole community, or a significant part of it, in a coordinated manner, pledges to not mutilate their daughters and also, crucially, pledges to only marry their sons to unmutilated girls. This approach - the Pledge Association method<ref name=":0" /> - worked spectacularly well with footbinding in China. However, it has been much less successful with FGM, probably because footbinding was a secular practice, whereas FGM is a religious one.
 
==Islamic Doctrine that creates social conditions favourable to FGM==
A society's kinship system shapes the rest of the culture around itself and has far reaching implications - determining laws, beliefs and institutions that, at first sight, can appear unrelated to kinship and reproduction. Islam, in allowing and encouraging polygyny, not only reproduces the originating conditions for FGM. Islam also enshrines in custom and law the secondary consequences of polygyny, such as bride-price, veiling, gender segregation, arranged marriage, child marriage, and excessive preoccupation with feminine 'purity'. Indeed, Islam could be characterised as: '''''the codification and sacralisation of  both polygyny and of the consequences of polygyny'''''. 
 
Thus, even if Islamic doctrine ''didn't'' explicitly mandate/allow FGM,it would still be associated with Islam, since by sacralising the ''causes and consequences'' of FGM it erects round the practice an institutional and normative armature that would nevertheless make the practice useful, and justify and normalise it.
 
Monogamous kinship systems approach a state of equilibrium where every man and woman can expect to find a spouse. This state of equilibrium is impossible in a polygynous system since - assuming an equal number of females and males in the society - every extra wife one man takes will deprive another man of the possibility of finding a bride (imagine a desert island with five men and five women and what happens if one man takes two wives...). Females become a commodity with both inherent value (their beauty, and their reproductive and home-making capacities) and status value (the more you have the higher your status). This fuels a dynamic where the demand for marriageable females always exceeds the supply, where elite men can never have enough wives and poor men are doomed to systemic bachelorhood/celibacy.
 
The 'bride-famine' that develops amongst poor low-status men is alleviated by introducing ever more females to the system: children, cousins, and females captured in raids (either to be taken as wives by the raiders, or sold as sex-slaves to the elite). Where such raids are not an option - celibate young men direct their sexual frustration towards females closer to home: the girls and women of their community. Polygynous societies are violent, and particularly sexually violent<ref name=":3">[https://henrich.fas.harvard.edu/files/henrich/files/henrich_boyd_richerson_2012.pdf The puzzle of monogamous marriage] by Joseph Henrich et al. (2012)</ref>. And this sexual violence further amplifies the society's anxieties with regard to the chastity and purity of their females - leading them to sequester and protect their females even more from young men. This is a positive feedback dynamic whose endpoint is the complete absence and invisibility of non-familial females from the lives of the low-status young men, who are doomed to systemic and chronic bachelorhood. {{Quote|[https://www.amazon.com/Marriage-Civilization-Monogamy-Made-Human/dp/1621572013 'Marriage and Civilization' by William Tucker (2014)]|'In a 2004 New York Times article, a graduate student in his twenties described what it was like growing up in Saudi Arabia. He said that he had never been alone in the company of a young woman. He and his friends refer to women as “BMOs – black moving objects” gliding past in full burkas. Brideprices are steep and men cannot think of getting married until they are well established in a profession. All marriages are arranged and it is not uncommon for the bride and groom to meet at their wedding.'}}
 
The case of Liberia seems to confirm that Islamic laws alone, even in the absence of doctrine explicitly favourable to FGM, may be sufficient to cause FGM. In Liberia FGM is practiced as an initiation rite into women's secret societies. A 2020 survey found that 38.2% of Liberian girls and women have been subject to FGM.<ref>[http://archive.today/2021.04.20-043407/https://www.28toomany.org/country/liberia/ Liberia - 28 Too Many]</ref> Whilst only 12% of Liberia's population is Muslim, its marriage and kinship practices are essentially Islamic: men can have up to 4 wives, a third of all Liberian marriages are polygamous, a third of married women aged between 15-49 are in polygamous marriages, and married woman's rights to inherit property from her spouse are restricted.<ref>https://www.genderindex.org/wp-content/uploads/files/datasheets/LR.pdf</ref> Liberia is marked by the sexual violence that is a characteristic of polygynous societies, and to which chastity assurance practices such as FGM are a response (it should be taken into account that  Islamic polygyny and FGM were probably introduced to what would become Liberia by Islamic immigration from Sudan and from empires based in today's Mali, starting from the 13th or 14th century).{{Quote|[https://odi.org/en/publications/the-fallout-of-rape-as-a-weapon-of-war/ The fallout of rape as a weapon of war]|[Liberia] has one of the highest incidences of sexual violence against women in the world. Rape is the most frequently reported crime, accounting for more than one-third of sexual violence cases.}}The supposed perfection of Islam, makes it hard for Muslims to identify the social causes of the sexual violence endemic to their societies. It is instead attributed to notions that female sexuality is excessive, indiscriminate and dangerous if left unchecked by chastity assurance measures such as FGM. Islam thus creates a concurrence of dysfunctional marital, sexual and kinship practices. It overvalues the chastity and purity of females whilst, at the same time, creating sexually violent societies which put that very chastity and purity at increased risk. The solutions Islam offers to this conundrum exacerbate the problems and create a social and normative context in which chastity assurance measures such as FGM, become useful or even necessary.
 
====Sex-slavery====
Islam permits [[Women in Islamic Law|sex-slavery]], nor limits the number of sex-slaves a man can own.
 
Gerry Mackie suggests that it is ''extreme polygyny'' that gives rise to chastity assurance measures such as FGM. In a closed system (where females are not imported), the extent of polygyny is limited by the number of females in the system and the number of of systemically agamous young men (which, being a cause of crime, conflict and unrest, is a destabilizing force).<ref name=":0" /> Extreme polygyny is therefore only possible if sex-slaves are introduced into the system. We can note that the famously large harems of the Sultans, Shahs and Sheiks scrupulously respected Islamic law (e.g. the Sultan Moulay Ismail Ibn Sharif of Morocco<ref>'[http://archive.today/2021.04.09-075329/https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/locus-control/201008/all-my-888-children All my 888 children' by Nando Pelusi Ph.D. in Psychology Today]<br /></ref> had four wives and at least 500 'concubines', and Fat′h Ali Shah Qajar, the second Shah of Iran, also had 4 wives, but also a harem of 800-1000 'concubines'). Extreme polygyny without sex-slavery (i.e. females forcibly imported into the system) creates correspondingly extreme bride-famines at the bottom of society, and also deprives the affected men of a means whereby to relieve that famine. This makes for unstable societies - where the interdiction on capturing sex-slaves would not, anyway, be respected. [[File:Infibexzisionplus.jpg|thumb|Maps comparing distribution of FGM and Infibulation and main centes and routes of the Islamic Slave Trade]]Furthermore polygyny that is strictly restricted to a maximum of four wives (with no sex-slavery permitted) loses its power as a status symbol and becomes less desirable to elite men, and likewise diminishes the community's hypergynous drive. Thus in the absence of sex-slavery polygyny tends to diminish and die out.
Historians estimate that two thirds of slaves under Islam were girls or women.<ref>'[http://archive.today/2020.08.25-213729/http://bernardlugan.blogspot.com/2020/08/nouveau-livre-de-bernard-lugan.html Esclavage, l’histoire à l’endroit'] by Bernard Lugan</ref> Whilst ''local'' raids on neighbors fuel ''tribal'' polygyny, Islamic polygyny (due to religious fervour, a preference for exotic women and a reluctance to take fellow Muslims as slaves) drew on sources of slaves from far afield - especially Africa. This involved captured women and children in long treks across the continent, often to Ethiopia or Zanzibar for transportation to Arabia. These treks were risky and took a heavy toll on the captives. After eunuchs, virgins (i.e. prepubescent or adolescent girls) were the most valuable commodity. Infibulation (the sealing up of the vagina) developed as a verifiable (by potential customers) protection and guarantee of the virginity of these girls over these long hazardous treks (four out of five slaves died during the forced march to the slave trading post at Zanzibar). There appears to be a correlation between the historical centres of the Islamic slave trade and the distribution of infibulation today, and the influence of the Islamic slave trade could explain the pervasiveness of FGM in Islamic Africa today. 
 
It should be noted that under the Islamic slave trade boys suffered even more than girls. In a process analogous to infibulation captured boys between the age of ten and fifteen were systematically castrated in order to become eunuchs to guard the harems of elite Muslim men. Malek Chebel estimates the death rate had a 10% survival rate,<ref>'[https://www.amazon.fr/Lesclavage-terre-dIslam-Malek-Chebel/dp/2818500710/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_fr_FR=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&dchild=1&keywords=chebel+L%27esclavage+en+terre+d%27islam&qid=1617337451&s=books&sr=1-1 L'esclavage en terre d'Islam' by Malek Chebel] </ref> Charles Gordon (1833 – 1885), governor of Khartoum, estimated the procedure had a 0.5% survival rate. This rate of morbidity made eunuchs extremely rare, and worth about twelve times the other slaves.   
 
{{Quote|quoted and translated from 'L'Escalavage en Terre d'Islam' - M. Chebel (2007)|'[...] completely removing the whole genitals, penis and testicles. After castration, those conducting the procedure introduce a lead wire into the urethra which the mutliated boy removes for urination until the cauterization is complete [...] the number who died was far greater to those who survived, essentially because of a lack of care and hygeine, the procedure concerning vital organs'}}


====Mahr====
''Malik related to me that the generally agreed on way of doing things amongst the community about an accident is that there is no blood-money until the victim is better. If a man's bone, either a hand, or a foot, or another part of his body, is broken accidentally and it heals and becomes sound and returns to its form, there is no blood-money for it. If the limb is impaired or there is a scar on it, there is blood-money for it according to the extent that it is impaired. Malik said, "If that part of the body has a specific blood-money mentioned by the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, it is according to what the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, specified. If it is part of what does not have a specific blood-money for it mentioned by the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and if there is no previous sunna about it or specific blood-money, one uses ijtihad about it." Malik said, "There is no blood-money for an accidental bodily injury when the wound heals and returns to its form. If there is any scar or mark in that, ijtihad is used about it except for the belly-wound. There is a third of the blood-money of a life for it. " Malik said, "There is no blood-money for the wound which splinters a bone in the body, and it is like the wound to the body which lays bare the bone." Malik said, "The generally agreed on way of doing things in our community is that when the doctor performs a circumcision and cuts off the glans, he must pay the full blood-money. That is because it is an accident which the tribe is responsible for, and the full blood money is payable for all that in which a doctor errs or exceeds, when it is not intentional."''
The payment of bride-price (''[[Mahr (Marital Price)|mahr]]'') by the groom (or his family) to the bride (or her family) is mandatory in Islamic law.


All marriages in polygynous kinship systems involve some kind of bride-price. The scarcity of marriageable females cause by polygyny turns them into a valuable asset, that is cashed in when she is 'sold' in marriage. The scarcer marriageable women are the greater the dowries. This makes marriage un-affordable to low-ranking young men, even if they do manage to find a bride. But if a girl is perceived to be unchaste, or if she’s been a victim of sexual violence, she becomes impure and un-marriageable, and loses all her economic value. This leaves her family stuck with a valueless commodity that they must support for the rest of their lives. This creates a further incentive for parents to engage in chastity assurance practices such as FGM.
''<nowiki>https://quranx.com/Hadith/Malik/USC-MSA/Book-43/Hadith-4</nowiki>''


====Child marriage====
''* * *''
[[Child Marriage in Islamic Law|Islamic law sets no lower age at which a girl can be married off]]. [[File:Niqab-eyes-hijab-niqab.jpg|thumb]]Child marriage is universal to polygynous societies. Introducing little girls into the marriage market is a response to the the scarcity of women caused by polygyny. Dowry further incentives child-marriage, as it becomes advantageous for parents to ‘sell-off’ their daughters before adolescence, when reputations (and therefore also the girl's economic value) are at greater risk. The bride-price for a child is generally less than for an adolescent or adult woman. This makes children a more affordable to poor and low-status men. 


Polygyny increases mens' anxieties and doubts concerning paternity. Polygyny also also creates anxieties connected to the general management of multiple wives. Therefore submissiveness, obedience, manipulability - characteristics more pronounced in younger brides - are characteristics of a wife that are more valued in polygynous societies than in monogamous ones. It has been observed that polygamous men select younger girls as wives (even as first wives) than monogamous men.
''Yahya related to me from Malik from Yahya ibn Said that Said ibn al-Musayyub said, "Ibrahim, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was the first to give hospitality to the guest and the first person to be circumcised and the first person to trim the moustache and the first person to see grey hair. He said, 'O Lord! What is this?' Allah the Blessed, the Exalted, said, 'It is dignity, Ibrahim.' He said, 'Lord, increase me in dignity!' " Yahya said that he had heard Malik say, "One takes from the moustache until the edge of the lip appears, that is the rim. One does not cut if off completely so that one mutilates oneself."''
In monogamous societies, the incest taboo extends not only to daughters but also to women young enough to be a man's daughter. This separation of generations does not naturally occur in polygynous cultures. Polygyny thus sexualises the society's perception of prepubescent girls, making them vulnerable to the sexual violence endemic to polygynous societies. This drives down the age at which chastity assurance practices (including FGM) are felt to be required.


====Sexual dysfunction and incest====
''<nowiki>https://quranx.com/Hadith/Malik/USC-MSA/Book-49/Hadith-4</nowiki>''
Long-term prisoners and boys in single-sex boarding schools, when deprived of contact with female coevals, tend to direct their sexuality at the next best things available - viz. other boys or other prisoners. Under Islamic restriction,s boys and girls are deprived of contact with unrelated coevals of the opposite sex. The next best thing available - those whose faces are visible, to whom they can talk, whom they might touch - will be mothers, aunts or sisters - or other boys, babies and children, or even livestock. The evidence for the effects of this on sexual health is anecdotal, but one can hypothesise that rates of incest, bestiality, paedophilia and otherwise deviant sexuality will be higher in polygynous societies, especially where multiple chastity assurance practices are in place, and that paedophilia, incest and bestiality are considered more acceptable than in monogamous cultures, where chastity assurance practices are absent. FGM, infibulation in particular, may serve as much to protect a girl's chastity from the attentions of immediate family members, as from sexual violence of the wider community.
====Violence against girls and women====
[[Wife Beating in Islamic Law|Islamic law permits wife beating.]]


Social scientists such as Joseph Heinrich, et al.<ref name=":3" /> and William H. Tucker <ref>'[https://www.nationalreview.com/2014/02/monogamy-made-us-human-william-tucker/ Monogamy Made Us Human' by William Tucker]</ref><ref>[https://www.amazon.com/Marriage-Civilization-Monogamy-Made-Human/dp/1621572013 'Marriage and Civilization: How Monogamy Made Us Human'] by William Tucker</ref><ref>[https://www.nationalreview.com/2014/05/polygamy-and-african-sex-kidnappings-william-tucker/ Polygamy and African Sex Kidnappings by William Tucker]</ref> have shown that polygynous societies are by their very nature belligerent and sexually violent. These societies develop chastity assurance measures to protect girls and women from this sexual violence.
''* * *''


The bride-famine created by polygyny dooms a sizeable proportion of young men to systemic bachelorhood. The resulting sexual frustrations can be relieved by them capturing females from neighbouring tribes and countries. However, a more available and less dangerous option is to engage in sexual violence towards girls and women of their own community.
''Narrated Ammar b. Yasir: The Apostle of Allaah ( sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam ) said : The rinsing of mouth and snuffing up water in the nose are acts that bear the characteristics of fitrah (nature). He then narrated a similar tradition (as reported by Aishah), but he did not mention the words "letting the beard grow". He added the words "circumcision" and "sprinkling water on the private part of the body". He did not mention the words "cleansing oneself after easing". Abu Dawud said : A similar tradition has been reported on the authority of Ibn 'Abbas. He mentioned only five sunnahs all relating to the head, one of them being parting of the hair; it did not include wearing the beard. Abu Dawud said: The tradition as reported by Hammad has also been transmitted by Talq b. Habib, Mujahid, and Bakr b. 'Abd Allaah b. al-Muzani as their own statement ( not as a tradition from the Prophet, sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam ).They did not mention the words "letting the beard grow". The version transmitted by Muhammad b. Abd Allaah b. Abi Maryam, Abu Salamah, and Abu Hurairah from the Prophet ( sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam ) mentions the words "letting the beard grow". A similar tradition has been reported by Ibrahim al-Nakha'i. He mentioned the words "wearing the beard and circumcision."''


Polygyny by increasing the society's anxieties around the 'purity', chastity and reputations of girls and women, gives rise to 'honour culture' – whereby excessive measures and excessive punishments are used to control girls and women, and to stop the family's honour being sullied by any (actual or percieved) unchastity of female members. This honour, once lost, can only be restored by severe and violent punishment and revenge, including murder of the female family member and/or the male that compromised her honour.
''<nowiki>https://quranx.com/Hadith/AbuDawud/Hasan/Hadith-53</nowiki>''


Polygynyous societies (including Islamic ones) are pervaded by a generalised violence: rape and other forms of sexual aggression, male circumcision, the licitness of wife-beating, public executions and amputations, the glorification of violence in the Qur'an and the Sunnah, the requirement of Jihad, and animal cruelty, including halal slaughter and the mass public slaughter of animals during Eid, – all act to desensitize the culture to the violent nature of practices such as FGM.
''* * *''


====The polygynous family====
''<nowiki/>'Uthaim b. Kulaib reported from his father (Kuthair) on the authority of his grandfather (Kulaib) that he came to the Prophet (ﷺ):I have embraced Islam. The Prophet (ﷺ) said to him: Remove from yourself the hair that grew during of unbelief, saying "shave them". He further says that another person (other than the grandfather of 'Uthaim) reported to him that the Prophet (ﷺ) said to another person who accompanied him: Remove from yourself the hair that grew during the period of unbelief and get yourself circumcised.''
Polygynous households are characterised by (as compared to monogamous households):


*competition and rivalry among co-wives,
''<nowiki>https://quranx.com/Hadith/AbuDawud/Hasan/Hadith-356</nowiki>''
*high spousal age gaps,
*low genetic inter-relatedness within the household,
*reduced confidence as to the husband's paternity of the children (which increases his sexual jealousy and anxiety),
*reduced paternal involvement with children (e.g. Osama bin laden’s father had 54 children by 22 wives and is reputed to have not known many of his children's names),
*ease of divorce for the husband (but not for wives), which creates insecurity for wives, encouraging submissiveness and acceptance of spousal and child abuse,
*more step-parents
*increased levels of violence towards wives and children.


All these factors correlate with increased neglect of, and violence towards, children, either from the father or from step-mothers. Data from 22 sub-Saharan African countries finding that children of (rich) polygynous families were 24.4% more likely to die compared with children of (poor) monogamous families. Fathers have less involvement with their many wives, and even less involvement with their even more numerous children . Islam encourages parents, relatives and teachers to treat and discipline children in ways that are considered unnecessarily harsh in the non-Muslim world. All this and the physical violence and wife-beating that is common in polygynous/Islamic families normalises the cruelty of FGM.
''* * *''


==FGM as an Initiation Rite==
''Salim said, "Ibn 'Umar, Nu'aym and I were circumcised and they sacrificed a ram on our behalf. I think that we were more happy about it than the other children since a ram had been sacrificed on our behalf."''
Islamic FGM is functional (as a chastity assurance measure) rather than an initiation rite, having a symbolic nature. The FGM practiced where Islamic influence is weakest (e.g. coastal West Africa) often takes on aspects of initiation ritual. The Islamic anxieties around 'purity' are, for example, entirely absent from the the FGM practiced by the Liberian Sandé.


The table below compares and contrasts the characteristics of Rites of Passage and Islamic FGM.
''<nowiki>https://quranx.com/Hadith/Adab/English/Book-53/Hadith-1246</nowiki>''
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Rites of Passage
!Islamic FGM
!
|-
|rituals have symbolic function
<br />
|practical function (e.g. chastity assurance)
|
|-
|public or semi-public (witnessed by initiates)
|private and secretive
|
|-
|use symbolism, ceremony and celebration
|lack of symbolism, ceremony or celebration
|
|-
|occur at transitional life events (such as puberty)
|can occur any time between birth and puberty<sup>[a]</sup>
|<sup>[a]</sup> when a girl mutilated may depend on quite practical factors: families and isolated villages, rather than having to pay for a ‘cutter’ to visit as each daughter reaches a certain age, will have ''all'' their daughters cut during a single visit of the ‘cutter’, girls from a wide range of ages therefore being cut at the same time.
|-
| colspan="2" |'''Initiation Rites are marked by three stages: Severance, Threshold and Incorporation<ref>[http://archive.today/2021.04.26-041314/https://courses.lumenlearning.com/culturalanthropology/chapter/rite-of-passage/ Rite of Passage]</ref>'''
|
|-
|severance -
|FGM generally performed with family members present and participation, or in hospital
|
|-
|threshold -
|
|
|-
|incorporation -
|
|
|-
|involve transition from membership of a lower status group to a higher status group
|status before and after FGM largely the same<sup>[b]</sup>
|<sup>[b]</sup> a transitional element with Islamic FGM is that 'uncut' girls are frequently bullied, shunned and stigmatized by their peers. This stigmatization stops when the girl has undergone FGM.
|-
|involve some form of deliberate ordeal
|involves a deliberate ordeal<sup>[c]</sup>
|<sup>[c]</sup> anaesthetics are generally not used, even when available
|-
|often involve some permanent physical or psychological change
|involves a permanent physical and psychological change
|
|}
[[File:Indonesia - susanfemalecircumcision-1.jpg|thumb|Medicalised FGM in Indonesia ]]
<br />
[[File:Fgm-in-the-middle-east.jpg|thumb|Iraqi Kurdish four-year-old Shwen screams during her circumcision in Suleimaniyah on April 14, 2009]]
[[File:Endfgm-campaign-video-016.jpg|thumb|TUZ KHURMATU, IRAQ - AUGUST 25: In northern Iraq, a midwife slices part of seven year-old Sheelan Anwar Omer's genitals while performing a female circumcision. Female circumcision is a rite of passage for most girls in Kurdistan. It is meant to "cleanse" them of improper or sexual thoughts and actions.  A woman who served as an escort for The Washington Post via Getty Images, left, rushed in to comfort the child. Maharoub Juwad Nawchas, the 40-year-old midwife back to camera, also delivered Omer and is a trusted and valued member of the neighborhood. Sheelan's mother, right, holds her. Photographed August, 25, 2008 in Tuz Khurmatu, Iraq. (Photo by Andrea Bruce/The Washington Post via Getty Images)<ref>Image cropped from larger photo - for original see http://archive.today/2021.04.26-065336/https://i0.wp.com/freethoughtblogs.com/taslima/files/2012/06/Kurdish-girl.jpg?ssl=1</ref>]]
As the above table shows, FGM shares with Rites of passage the element of ordeal and physical change - the eschewal of anaesthetics (either general or local), even when available is a near-universal characteristic of FGM.


''* * *''


''It is reported that al-Hasan said, "Are you not astonished by this man? (i.e. Malik ibn al-Mundhir) He went to some of the old people of Kaskar who had become Muslim and examined them and then commanded that they be circumcised although it was winter. I heard that some of them died. Greeks and Abyssinians became Muslim with the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and they were not examined at all."''


FGM shares
''<nowiki>https://quranx.com/Hadith/Adab/English/Book-53/Hadith-1251</nowiki>''


''* * *''


increased visibility of initiation rits and victims skews narrative
''Ibn Shihab said, "When a man became Muslim, he was ordered to have himself circumcised, even if he was old."''


''<nowiki>https://quranx.com/Hadith/Adab/English/Book-53/Hadith-1252</nowiki>''


The  function of chastity assurance is fundamental to both the pre-Islamic origins of FGM and also to Islam's adoption, maintenance and spread of FGM. However, chastity assurance doesn't fully explain certain near-universal aspects of FGM - in particular
''* * *''


This aversion to the use of anaesthetics It is a characteristic
''11 hadith over and above those shared with FGM – notably the fitrah is five things and when two parts touch''


Islamic FGM
===Was Mohammed Circumcised?===
There is no indication in the above Hadith that Mohammed was himself circumcised. Mohammed’s parents were ‘polytheists’ and as the ‘Heraclius’ Hadith (quoted above) makes clear ‘''except the Jews nobody practice''[d] ''circumcision’'' in the middle East and Arabia.


https://answersafrica.com/top-10-reasons-why-female-genital-mutilation-in-africa-is-evil.html
Or at least not until Mohammed imposed circumcision on his followers. At the age of forty, after his vision in a cave, his first ‘revelation’, Mohammed started developing a religion based on Jewish Monotheism. If Mohammed were circumcised, it is therefore likely that it would have been some time after the age of forty and would have been recorded either in his Koran or reported in the Hadith.  


https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/female-genital-mutilation-no-anaesthetic-before-she-cut-me-1.2093014
In order to square this circle, some Muslim traditions declare that Muhammad was born without a foreskin. And indeed, some boys are born without a foreskin – an extremely rare condition (1:10,000 according to this source) known as aposthia. However, there exists no evidence that this was the case with Mohammed, and to assume otherwise is to engage in reverse-reasoning born out of wishful-thinking in which an ''improbability'' is elevated into a ''certainty.''


https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13131835.i-screaming-mother/
One should also keep in mind that Mohammed had a tendency to grant himself exceptions from rules he imposed on others. When Mohammed’s god sent him a ‘revelation’ justifying his preferential treatment of certain wives over others, and also granting him permission to take ''any'' woman who offered herself to him, Aisha, his child-bride and his most perceptive, critical and candid follower, remarked sardonically:


lack of anaesthetics
''“I feel that your Lord hastens in fulfilling your wishes and desires.”Al-Bukhari 65:4788''


https://answersafrica.com/top-10-reasons-why-female-genital-mutilation-in-africa-is-evil.html
Many examples exist of Mohammed granting himself ‘prophetic privilege’, and it would not be out of character for Mohammed to exempt himself from a painful procedure, which would put his sex-life on hold for many months, and reduce the sensitivity of his penis for ever afterwards.  


=== Did Mohammed have his sons circumcised? ===


pain
==Fatwas==
<br />“let's note that proponents of female circumcision also resort to the argument of the perfection of God's creation. So Majdi Fathi Al-Sayyid writes:


https://answersafrica.com/top-10-reasons-why-female-genital-mutilation-in-africa-is-evil.html
“The attachment to the specificities of Islam, of which circumcision , makes appear the beautiful picture according to which God created the human being and of which he says: “He designed you and perfected your design” (64:3). “We created man in the best design' (95:4). so the man apperas in a apicture to which no other picture is superior. To quit or to disregard these natural traditions constitutes a distortion of this divine creature”(Ibn-Asakir (d. 1176))


https://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/a19042103/female-genital-mutilation-survivor/
It means for this author that the human being acquires “the best design” through the performance of male and female circumcision and not by abandoning these two practices. [abu sahlieh p144]


https://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/advice/a6504/female-genital-mutilation-survivor-stories/
==Forced Circumcision==


http://blogs.reuters.com/the-human-impact/2014/02/07/the-pain-is-far-worse-than-childbirth-fgm-survivor/


- break down personality
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_circumcision#cite_ref-41


- instill fear and submission*


- frigidity and trauma
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<p style="padding-left:30px;"><em>A US surgeon from California spent 2 weeks in Bosnia-Herzegovina (including time at Kosevo hospital in Sarajevo) in late August and early September performing remedial urological surgery.The doctor reportedly found that Muslim and Mujahedin irregular troops -- some from Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia -- had routinely performed crude, disfiguring, nonmedical circumcisions on Bosnian Serb soldiers, and he treated one 18-year-old Bosnian Serb soldier who was so brutally circumcised that eventually the entire organ required amputation.<br></em><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110622061202/http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/documents/sdrpt4b.htm">Torture of Prisoners, Fourth Report on War Crimes in the Fomer Yugoslavia: Part II</a></p>
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- chastiry assurance
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<p style="padding-left:30px;"><em>Circumcision has been forced on hundreds of Christians, including children and pregnant women, in a campaign by extremists to spread Islam through the war-ravaged Maluku islands.<br></em><a href="http://www.cirp.org/news/morningherald01-27-01/">Terror attacks in the name of religion, Sydney Morning Herald (2001)</a></p>
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<br />
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<p style="padding-left:30px;"><em>Non-Muslims in these camps, especially children, have been subject to religious indoctrination, circumcision and "Arabization" of their names, and eventual forced conversion to Islam</em> [...] <em>Some boys in these camps or in juvenile houses have reportedly undergone forced circumcision<br></em><a href="http://archive.today/ZuAr6">Sudan: Reports of Catholic residents of Khartoum or elsewhere in Sudan being forcefully converted to Islam (2001)</a></p>


==Arguments de-linking FGM and Islam==
{{Quote|[http://archive.today/2021.04.09-075922/https://www.memri.org/tv/egyptian-cleric-supports-fgm-cites-protocols-elders-zion 'Egyptian Cleric: Female Circumcision Has Economic Benefits; Jews Fight It in Keeping with Protocols of the Elders of Zion' (Mar 27, 2017)]|”The discussion about female circumcision goes back to the past century. The first time that this subject was debated extensively was in the past century. Who were the first to talk about it? The Jews. They do not want Islam or the Muslims to be pure, developed, and civilized, so they started talking about it.”}}As the above quote suggests, the idea that FGM might be un-Islamic appears to be relatively new. The earliest fatwa clearly critical of FGM appears to be from 1984<ref name=":1">p54 [https://books.google.fr/books?id=qof6J4n1860C&pg=PA54&lpg=PA54&dq=Sheikh+Abu-Sabib+1984&source=bl&ots=-apLOOha6B&sig=dpINFFLI-N9KO8_FmEET-MDFKbI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiXh5Gi5OfcAhVOyoUKHeSgDWUQ6AEwC3oECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=Sheikh%20Abu-Sabib%201984&f=false "Sexual Mutilations: A Human Tragedy" By International Symposium On Sexual Mutiliations 1996]</ref> and since then there have been fatwas critical of FGM. However, most are favourable towards the practice. (see [[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Female Genital Mutilation#Modern Fatwas|Modern Fatwas]])[[File:Fgmwordsearches.jpg|thumb|NGram for terms: 'FGM', 'Female Genital Mutilation' and 'Female Circumcision'|link=]]An Ngram for the terms ‘fgm’, ‘female genital mutilation’ and ‘female circumcision’ shows an increased use of ‘mutilation’ and 'FGM' as against the more anodyne 'circumcision' starting around 1990. This coincides with the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, which first identified female genital mutilation as a harmful traditional practice, and mandated that governments abolish it as one of several ''<nowiki/>'traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children'''.<ref>[http://archive.today/2016.10.21-124829/http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx Convention on the Rights of the Child]</ref> Soon afterwards organisations such as the World Health Organisation (1995),<ref>[https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/63602/WHO_FRH_WHD_96.10.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Female genital mutilation : report of a WHO technical working group, Geneva, 17-19 July 1995]</ref> the Council of Europe (1995), and UNICEF & UNFPA (1997)<ref>[https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/41903/9241561866.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Female Genital Mutilation - A Joint WHO/UNICEF/UNFPA Statement]</ref> also issued reports critical of FGM.
For the first time narratives critical of FGM started penetrating the Islamic world, parts of which began to feel uneasy about Islam's association with FGM, and have consequently sought to de-link the two by showing that FGM is un-Islamic.


The 'FGM as un-Islamic' narrative is reinforced by the fact that it is a minority of Muslims that practice FGM. Immigration to the West has till recently come from the Maghreb and Hanafi countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey, or the Maghreb. The Hanafi is the school of fiqh which least favours FGM, merely ruling it as 'optional', and the Maghreb practices a Maliki Islam that appears to eschew FGM. These immigrant populations have effectively imported the 'FGM is un-Islamic' narrative to the West. This narrative is challenged by the rise in immigration from countries such as Indonesia and Somalia, and the Kurdish Middle East<ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305745749_Effect_of_female_genital_mutilationcutting_on_sexual_functions Effect of female genital mutilation/cutting on sexual functions] - Mohammad-Hossein Biglu et al</ref>, where FGM-rates are high and the practice is accepted as compatible with Islam.


The 'FGM is un-Islamic' narrative is further reinforced because the practice gives rise to a dilemma whereby telling the truth (or even just making known facts and evidence) is likely to aggravate the problem.
<a "></a></p>
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In recent decades many agencies and charities have engaged themselves in the fight against FGM<ref>[http://archive.today/2021.04.09-035738/https://www.humanrightscareers.com/issues/organizations-fighting-female-genital-mutilation/ 20 Organizations Fighting Female Genital Mutilation]</ref>. These agencies face a particular challenge when interacting with individuals and populations who practice FGM: how, for example, does an anti-FGM charity respond to a Somali mother who asks whether FGM is Islamic? If the charity worker tells her about the FGM in the hadith, and how FGM is part of the ''fitrah'' (which Qur'an 30:30 exhorts Muslims to adhere to - see [https://wikiislam.net/wiki/User:Flynnjed/Sandbox#FGM_in_the_Qur.27an_and_Hadith FGM in the Qur'an]), and how the school of fiqh which the Somali woman follows, the Shafi'i, makes FGM mandatory - then that mother will come away from that interaction ''more'' likely to have her daughter mutilated, not ''less''. This dilemma is faced not just by on-the-ground charity workers, but the whole hierarchy of institutions devoted to combating FGM, including politicians, the media and academia.
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<p style="padding-left:30px;"><em>The Justice and Peace Commission of Lahor has spoken out against cases of forced conversions: "Young non-Muslim men have been forced to convert and circumcised against their will,"<br></em><a href="http://archive.today/2jin">Christian minorities in Pakistan: little freedom and rising Islamic pressure (2004)</a></p>


The following are the principal arguments defending the proposition that FGM is un-Islamic (each item in the list links to a full analysis and evaluation of each argument).
<p></p>
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*[[Female Genital Mutilation in Islamic Law#FGM Is Not Required by Islam|FGM Is Not Required by Islam]]
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*[[Female Genital Mutilation in Islamic Law#There Is No FGM in the Qur.27an|There Is No FGM in the Qur'an]]
<p style="padding-left:30px;"><em>The Yezidi religious minority has suffered similar but perhaps even more severe forms of oppression than the Christian communities. Despised by Muslims as “devil-worshippers” and not protected by any form of official recognition, they constituted the most vulnerable community. Adult men were forcibly circumcised<br></em><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110605073043/http://www.let.uu.nl/~Martin.vanBruinessen/personal/publications/Violence.htm#_ftn5">The nature and uses of violence in the Kurdish conflict</a></p>
*[[Female Genital Mutilation in Islamic Law#FGM Existed Before Islam|FGM Existed Before Islam]]
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*[[Female Genital Mutilation in Islamic Law#FGM Is an African Practice|FGM Is an African Practice]]
*[[Female Genital Mutilation in Islamic Law#Christians Practice FGM Too|Christians Practice FGM Too]]
*[[Female Genital Mutilation in Islamic Law#Not All Muslims Practice FGM|Not All Muslims Practice FGM]]
*[[Female Genital Mutilation in Islamic Law#The FGM Hadith Are Weak|The FGM Hadith Are Weak]]
*[[Female Genital Mutilation in Islamic Law#The Qur.27an Forbids Mutilation|The Qur'an Forbids Mutilation]]
*[[Female Genital Mutilation in Islamic Law#.27Circumcision.27 is not Mutilation|'Circumcision' is not Mutilation]]
*[[Female Genital Mutilation in Islamic Law#There Is No Record of Muhammad Having His Wives or Daughters Circumcised|There Is No Record of Muhammad Having His Wives or Daughters Circumcised]]
*[[Female Genital Mutilation in Islamic Law#Muhammad Wanted to Forbid FGM but Couldn.27t|Muhammad Wanted to Forbid FGM but Couldn't]]


==See Also==
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<p style="padding-left:30px;"><em>In the city of Falluja, one of the most ancient seats of Mandaeism in the country, the thirty-five families who composed the community were ordered at gunpoint to adopt Islam shortly after the fall of the Saddam regime. The men were forcibly circumcised and the women were married off to Muslim men. Those who resisted were summarily executed.<br></em><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110623041759/http://www.arabwashingtonian.org/english/article.php?issue=4&articleID=71">The Rape of Basra: Cleansing the Iraqi Mandaeans</a></p>


*[[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Female Genital Mutilation]]
*[[Female Genital Mutilation in Islamic Law]]
*[https://unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/De-linking%20FGM%20from%20Islam%20final%20report.pdf 'Delinking Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting from Islam']
*[https://fgmtruth.wordpress.com/2019/06/14/a-response-to-delinking-female-genital-mutilation-cutting-from-islam-part-1/ A Critique of the above (Delinking Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting from Islam)]


==References==
<p></p>
<references />
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Latest revision as of 16:08, 26 January 2022

circumcision

Intro - the nature of circumcision, statistics, distribution, comparative stats (Muslims, Xtians, Jews, etc)

arabic word for male circumcision

Male Circumcision: truly reliable figures on the extent of circumcision in the world do not exist. In 1996, during the 4th international symposium held in Lausanne, the following figures were distributed: each year, 13,300,000 male children are circumcised in the world. This makes an average of:

1,100,000 childre per month

36,438 per day

1,518 per hour

25 per minute.

Another source indicates that 23% of the male population of the world is cricumcised, which makes a toatl of 650 million. (http://noharmm.org/HGMstats.htm) “

Quran


“Then We revealed to you, [O Muhammad], to follow the religion of Abraham, inclining toward truth; and he was not of those who associate with Allah .” Koran 16:123


There is no explicit reference to Male Genital Mutilation in the Qur'an. However, the Quran 30:30 requires Muslims to 'adhere to the fitrah'.

So direct your face toward the religion, inclining to truth. [Adhere to] the fitrah (فطرة or فطرت) of Allah upon which He has created (فطر) [all] people. No change should there be in the creation of Allah . That is the correct religion, but most of the people do not know.
Quran 30:30

The word 'fitrah appears only this once in the Qur'an, and is left undefined and unexplained. To know what 'fitrah means, traditional scholars turned to hadith which make use of the word. Note that this hadith uses the Arabic word khitan (ختان) for 'circumcision'.

Abu Hurayrah said: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) say: “The fitrah is five things – or five things are part of the fitrah – circumcision [اخْتُتِنَّ - khitan], shaving the pubes, trimming the moustache, cutting the nails and plucking the armpit hairs.”
Sahih Bukhari 7:72:777; See also Sahih Muslim 2:495

“...the Koran mentions 69 times Abraham's name, who is considered a “good example” to follow (60:4), without ever speaking of circumcision.”

Hadith


This is an inventory of sahih and hasan Hadith which touch exclusively on Male Genital Mutilation ( or 'circumcision').

It should not be taken as comprehensive.

To compile it I used the wild-card search for “circumc*” on the site quranx.com.

This search gave 50 results.

“Abu Hurayrah said: I heard the Prophet say: “The fitrah is five things – or five things are part of the fitrah – circumcision, shaving the pubes, trimming the moustache, cutting the nails and plucking the armpit hairs.”” Bukhari 77:106

***

“[…]He (Abu Musa, the narrator) said: I got up (and went) to ‘A’isha and sought her permission and it was granted, and I said to her: 0 Mother, or Mother of the Faithful, I want to ask you about a matter on which I feel shy. She said: Don’t feel shy of asking me about a thing which you can ask your mother, who gave you birth, for I am too your mother. Upon this I said: What makes a bath obligatory for a person? She replied: You have come across one well informed! The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: When anyone sits amidst four parts (of the woman) and the circumcised parts touch each other a bath becomes obligatory.” Sahih Muslim 3:684

***

“Abu al- Malih ibn `Usama’s father relates that the Prophet said: “Circumcision is a law for men and a preservation of honour for women.”” Ahmad Ibn Hanbal 5:75; Abu Dawud, Adab 167

***

There were many Hadith where the matn was essenitally the same. Rather than reproducing each one of these I have quoted a 'representative' Hadith, and listed links to the other versions beneath.

...The sub narrator adds, "Ibn An-Natur was the Governor of llya' (Jerusalem) and Heraclius was the head of the Christians of Sham. Ibn An-Natur narrates that once while Heraclius was visiting ilya' (Jerusalem), he got up in the morning with a sad mood. Some of his priests asked him why he was in that mood? Heraclius was a foreteller and an astrologer. He replied, 'At night when I looked at the stars, I saw that the leader of those who practice circumcision had appeared (become the conqueror). Who are they who practice circumcision?' The people replied, 'Except the Jews nobody practices circumcision, so you should not be afraid of them (Jews). 'Just Issue orders to kill every Jew present in the country.' While they were discussing it, a messenger sent by the king of Ghassan to convey the news of Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) to Heraclius was brought in. Having heard the news, he (Heraclius) ordered the people to go and see whether the messenger of Ghassan was circumcised. The people, after seeing him, told Heraclius that he was circumcised. Heraclius then asked him about the Arabs. The messenger replied, 'Arabs also practice circumcision.' (After hearing that) Heraclius remarked that sovereignty of the 'Arabs had appeared. Heraclius then wrote a letter to his friend in Rome who was as good as Heraclius in knowledge...

https://quranx.com/Hadith/Bukhari/USC-MSA/Volume-1/Book-1/Hadith-6

* * *

Narrated Ibn `Abbas:The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "You will be gathered (on the Day of Judgment), bare-footed, naked and not circumcised." He then recited:--'As We began the first creation, We, shall repeat it: A Promise We have undertaken: Truly we shall do it.' (21.104) He added, "The first to be dressed on the Day of Resurrection, will be Abraham, and some of my companions will be taken towards the left side (i.e. to the (Hell) Fire), and I will say: 'My companions! My companions!' It will be said: 'They renegade from Islam after you left them.' Then I will say as the Pious slave of Allah (i.e. Jesus) said. 'And I was a witness Over them while I dwelt amongst them. When You took me up You were the Watcher over them, And You are a witness to all things. If You punish them. They are Your slaves And if You forgive them, Verily you, only You are the All-Mighty, the All-Wise." (5.120-121)

https://quranx.com/Hadith/Bukhari/USC-MSA/Volume-4/Book-55/Hadith-568

https://quranx.com/Hadith/Bukhari/USC-MSA/Volume-6/Book-60/Hadith-149

* * *

Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "Abraham did his circumcision with an adze at the age of eighty." Narrated Abu Az-Zinad: (as above in Hadith No. 575) With an adze.

https://quranx.com/Hadith/Bukhari/USC-MSA/Volume-4/Book-55/Hadith-575

https://quranx.com/Hadith/Bukhari/DarusSalam/Hadith-6298

https://quranx.com/Hadith/Muslim/USC-MSA/Book-30/Hadith-5844

https://quranx.com/Hadith/Adab/English/Book-53/Hadith-1244

https://quranx.com/Hadith/Adab/English/Book-53/Hadith-1250

* * *

Narrated Said bin Jubair: Ibn 'Abbas was asked, "How old were you when the Prophet (ﷺ) died?" He replied. "At that time I had been circumcised." At that time, people did not circumcise the boys till they attained the age of puberty. Sa'id bin Jubair said, "Ibn 'Abbas said, 'When the Prophet died, I had already been circumcised. "

https://quranx.com/Hadith/Bukhari/In-Book/Book-79/Hadith-71

https://quranx.com/Hadith/Bukhari/DarusSalam/Hadith-6300

* * *

Malik related to me that the generally agreed on way of doing things amongst the community about an accident is that there is no blood-money until the victim is better. If a man's bone, either a hand, or a foot, or another part of his body, is broken accidentally and it heals and becomes sound and returns to its form, there is no blood-money for it. If the limb is impaired or there is a scar on it, there is blood-money for it according to the extent that it is impaired. Malik said, "If that part of the body has a specific blood-money mentioned by the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, it is according to what the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, specified. If it is part of what does not have a specific blood-money for it mentioned by the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and if there is no previous sunna about it or specific blood-money, one uses ijtihad about it." Malik said, "There is no blood-money for an accidental bodily injury when the wound heals and returns to its form. If there is any scar or mark in that, ijtihad is used about it except for the belly-wound. There is a third of the blood-money of a life for it. " Malik said, "There is no blood-money for the wound which splinters a bone in the body, and it is like the wound to the body which lays bare the bone." Malik said, "The generally agreed on way of doing things in our community is that when the doctor performs a circumcision and cuts off the glans, he must pay the full blood-money. That is because it is an accident which the tribe is responsible for, and the full blood money is payable for all that in which a doctor errs or exceeds, when it is not intentional."

https://quranx.com/Hadith/Malik/USC-MSA/Book-43/Hadith-4

* * *

Yahya related to me from Malik from Yahya ibn Said that Said ibn al-Musayyub said, "Ibrahim, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was the first to give hospitality to the guest and the first person to be circumcised and the first person to trim the moustache and the first person to see grey hair. He said, 'O Lord! What is this?' Allah the Blessed, the Exalted, said, 'It is dignity, Ibrahim.' He said, 'Lord, increase me in dignity!' " Yahya said that he had heard Malik say, "One takes from the moustache until the edge of the lip appears, that is the rim. One does not cut if off completely so that one mutilates oneself."

https://quranx.com/Hadith/Malik/USC-MSA/Book-49/Hadith-4

* * *

Narrated Ammar b. Yasir: The Apostle of Allaah ( sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam ) said : The rinsing of mouth and snuffing up water in the nose are acts that bear the characteristics of fitrah (nature). He then narrated a similar tradition (as reported by Aishah), but he did not mention the words "letting the beard grow". He added the words "circumcision" and "sprinkling water on the private part of the body". He did not mention the words "cleansing oneself after easing". Abu Dawud said : A similar tradition has been reported on the authority of Ibn 'Abbas. He mentioned only five sunnahs all relating to the head, one of them being parting of the hair; it did not include wearing the beard. Abu Dawud said: The tradition as reported by Hammad has also been transmitted by Talq b. Habib, Mujahid, and Bakr b. 'Abd Allaah b. al-Muzani as their own statement ( not as a tradition from the Prophet, sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam ).They did not mention the words "letting the beard grow". The version transmitted by Muhammad b. Abd Allaah b. Abi Maryam, Abu Salamah, and Abu Hurairah from the Prophet ( sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam ) mentions the words "letting the beard grow". A similar tradition has been reported by Ibrahim al-Nakha'i. He mentioned the words "wearing the beard and circumcision."

https://quranx.com/Hadith/AbuDawud/Hasan/Hadith-53

* * *

'Uthaim b. Kulaib reported from his father (Kuthair) on the authority of his grandfather (Kulaib) that he came to the Prophet (ﷺ):I have embraced Islam. The Prophet (ﷺ) said to him: Remove from yourself the hair that grew during of unbelief, saying "shave them". He further says that another person (other than the grandfather of 'Uthaim) reported to him that the Prophet (ﷺ) said to another person who accompanied him: Remove from yourself the hair that grew during the period of unbelief and get yourself circumcised.

https://quranx.com/Hadith/AbuDawud/Hasan/Hadith-356

* * *

Salim said, "Ibn 'Umar, Nu'aym and I were circumcised and they sacrificed a ram on our behalf. I think that we were more happy about it than the other children since a ram had been sacrificed on our behalf."

https://quranx.com/Hadith/Adab/English/Book-53/Hadith-1246

* * *

It is reported that al-Hasan said, "Are you not astonished by this man? (i.e. Malik ibn al-Mundhir) He went to some of the old people of Kaskar who had become Muslim and examined them and then commanded that they be circumcised although it was winter. I heard that some of them died. Greeks and Abyssinians became Muslim with the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and they were not examined at all."

https://quranx.com/Hadith/Adab/English/Book-53/Hadith-1251

* * *

Ibn Shihab said, "When a man became Muslim, he was ordered to have himself circumcised, even if he was old."

https://quranx.com/Hadith/Adab/English/Book-53/Hadith-1252

* * *

11 hadith over and above those shared with FGM – notably the fitrah is five things and when two parts touch

Was Mohammed Circumcised?

There is no indication in the above Hadith that Mohammed was himself circumcised. Mohammed’s parents were ‘polytheists’ and as the ‘Heraclius’ Hadith (quoted above) makes clear ‘except the Jews nobody practice[d] circumcision’ in the middle East and Arabia.

Or at least not until Mohammed imposed circumcision on his followers. At the age of forty, after his vision in a cave, his first ‘revelation’, Mohammed started developing a religion based on Jewish Monotheism. If Mohammed were circumcised, it is therefore likely that it would have been some time after the age of forty and would have been recorded either in his Koran or reported in the Hadith.

In order to square this circle, some Muslim traditions declare that Muhammad was born without a foreskin. And indeed, some boys are born without a foreskin – an extremely rare condition (1:10,000 according to this source) known as aposthia. However, there exists no evidence that this was the case with Mohammed, and to assume otherwise is to engage in reverse-reasoning born out of wishful-thinking in which an improbability is elevated into a certainty.

One should also keep in mind that Mohammed had a tendency to grant himself exceptions from rules he imposed on others. When Mohammed’s god sent him a ‘revelation’ justifying his preferential treatment of certain wives over others, and also granting him permission to take any woman who offered herself to him, Aisha, his child-bride and his most perceptive, critical and candid follower, remarked sardonically:

“I feel that your Lord hastens in fulfilling your wishes and desires.”Al-Bukhari 65:4788

Many examples exist of Mohammed granting himself ‘prophetic privilege’, and it would not be out of character for Mohammed to exempt himself from a painful procedure, which would put his sex-life on hold for many months, and reduce the sensitivity of his penis for ever afterwards.

Did Mohammed have his sons circumcised?

Fatwas


“let's note that proponents of female circumcision also resort to the argument of the perfection of God's creation. So Majdi Fathi Al-Sayyid writes:

“The attachment to the specificities of Islam, of which circumcision , makes appear the beautiful picture according to which God created the human being and of which he says: “He designed you and perfected your design” (64:3). “We created man in the best design' (95:4). so the man apperas in a apicture to which no other picture is superior. To quit or to disregard these natural traditions constitutes a distortion of this divine creature”(Ibn-Asakir (d. 1176))

It means for this author that the human being acquires “the best design” through the performance of male and female circumcision and not by abandoning these two practices. [abu sahlieh p144]

Forced Circumcision

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_circumcision#cite_ref-41


A US surgeon from California spent 2 weeks in Bosnia-Herzegovina (including time at Kosevo hospital in Sarajevo) in late August and early September performing remedial urological surgery.The doctor reportedly found that Muslim and Mujahedin irregular troops -- some from Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia -- had routinely performed crude, disfiguring, nonmedical circumcisions on Bosnian Serb soldiers, and he treated one 18-year-old Bosnian Serb soldier who was so brutally circumcised that eventually the entire organ required amputation.
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110622061202/http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/documents/sdrpt4b.htm">Torture of Prisoners, Fourth Report on War Crimes in the Fomer Yugoslavia: Part II</a>

Circumcision has been forced on hundreds of Christians, including children and pregnant women, in a campaign by extremists to spread Islam through the war-ravaged Maluku islands.
<a href="http://www.cirp.org/news/morningherald01-27-01/">Terror attacks in the name of religion, Sydney Morning Herald (2001)</a>

Non-Muslims in these camps, especially children, have been subject to religious indoctrination, circumcision and "Arabization" of their names, and eventual forced conversion to Islam [...] Some boys in these camps or in juvenile houses have reportedly undergone forced circumcision
<a href="http://archive.today/ZuAr6">Sudan: Reports of Catholic residents of Khartoum or elsewhere in Sudan being forcefully converted to Islam (2001)</a>


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The Justice and Peace Commission of Lahor has spoken out against cases of forced conversions: "Young non-Muslim men have been forced to convert and circumcised against their will,"
<a href="http://archive.today/2jin">Christian minorities in Pakistan: little freedom and rising Islamic pressure (2004)</a>

The Yezidi religious minority has suffered similar but perhaps even more severe forms of oppression than the Christian communities. Despised by Muslims as “devil-worshippers” and not protected by any form of official recognition, they constituted the most vulnerable community. Adult men were forcibly circumcised
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110605073043/http://www.let.uu.nl/~Martin.vanBruinessen/personal/publications/Violence.htm#_ftn5">The nature and uses of violence in the Kurdish conflict</a>

In the city of Falluja, one of the most ancient seats of Mandaeism in the country, the thirty-five families who composed the community were ordered at gunpoint to adopt Islam shortly after the fall of the Saddam regime. The men were forcibly circumcised and the women were married off to Muslim men. Those who resisted were summarily executed.
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110623041759/http://www.arabwashingtonian.org/english/article.php?issue=4&articleID=71">The Rape of Basra: Cleansing the Iraqi Mandaeans</a>


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