Islamic Doctrine & the Social Origins of FGM

A significant minority of Muslims practice FGM. It is tempting to conclude that they do so because the Prophet Muhammad decreed favourably on the practice in four hadith. This conclusion is made all the more tempting by the fact that debates as to whether or not FGM is Islamic tend to be conducted exclusively as if the question were resolved by determining whether Muhammad decreed favourably (or otherwise) on FGM in the Sunnah and in the Qur'an.

But any explanation for the existence of FGM has to account for the existence of four groups:

1. Muslims who practice FGM
2. Muslims who don't practice FGM
3. non-Muslims who practice FGM
4. non-Muslims who don't practice FGM

The existence of the third group (non-Muslims who practice FGM) undermines the idea that Muslims engage in FGM simply because Muhammad decreed favourably on the practice. However, most non-Muslims who practice FGM today do so as a consequence of living for centuries under the dominance of an FGM-practicing Islamic culture - the most notable example being the Egyptian Copts. For the Copts, maintaining the practice of FGM has been a centuries-old strategy to minimise persecution and stigma from a Muslim majority who would treat 'uncut' women, their families and communities as impure and contaminating. So the existence today of non-Muslims who practice FGM does not necessarily undermine the hypothesis that Muslims engage in FGM simply because Muhammad decreed favourably on the practice. The Copts, for example, practice FGM because their Muslim neighbours require them to do so.

But we should remember that non-Muslims existed before Islam and some of these practiced FGM. Why? Why would people engage in this practice

The political scientist Gerry Mackie has gone a long way towards answering this question in his paper ‘Ending Footbinding and Infibulation: A Convention Account'^[1]. In this paper Mackie identifies polygyny, extreme polygyny in particular, as generating conditions in which (what he calls) Chastity Assurance Practices, such as FGM and footbinding, become functional, that is they resolve real problems faced by the parents of girls and other members of the community.

Thus FGM is not simply caused by Muhammad's decrees on the practice, but also by social factors - laws, traditions, institutions, systems, beliefs - that make FGM in some way 'useful' or 'necessary'.

Understanding both of these causes of FGM helps us understand why some Muslims practice FGM but some don't, and why some non-Muslim also engage in FGM.

Pre-Islamic FGM

Who Practices FGM? Statistics

Who practices FGM?

The Origins and Causes of FGM

intro

Gerry Mackie's 'Convention Hypothesis'

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Problems with Gerry Mackie's 'Convention Hypothesis'

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FGM: a Solution to Problems Caused by Islamic Doctrine

intro

Polygyny and its consequences

Mackie - plus corrections and extensions

Child Marriage

polygyny gives rise to child marriage, drives down age of FGM

Mahr (Islamic Brideprice)

putting financial value on perceived chastity of girls and women...

The Polygynous Family

less emotional investment in children, esp girls, more financial investment at stake

Cultural Congruence

other brutal practices relativise and make acceptable violenc of FGM (MGM, halal slaughter, wife beating, violence of Qur'an, jihad...)

FGM and the uses of Trauma

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