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Female Genital Mutilation in Islamic Law

Female Genital Mutilation (Arabic: ختان المرأة) is the practice of cutting away and altering the external female genitalia for ritual or religious purposes. Those who practice FGM refer to it as 'Female Circumcision'. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) generally consists one or both of the following procedures: Clitoridectomy: the amputation of part or all of the clitoris (or the removal of the clitoral prepuce); Excision: the cutting away of either or both the inner or outer labia. A third procedure, Infibulation, involves 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 also involves clitoridectomy. Those who engage in FGM consider its primary purpose to be the safeguarding of the purity, virtue and reputation of girls and women.

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World maps comparing distributions of FGM and of Muslims

FGM is a practice associated with Islam: about 80% of FGM is attributable to Muslims.[1] Most of the remaining 20% is attributable to non-Muslims living in FGM-practicing Islamic societies (e.g. the Egyptian Copts[2]), or to non-Islamic societies that have been hubs of the Islamic slave trade (e.g. Ethiopia and Eritrea).

Unlike Islamic male circumcision, the nature of which is uniform around the world, the practice of FGM varies greatly from community to community and country to country. This is because the procedure of male circumcision is precisely described (in Genesis). Several hadith report Muhammad approving of FGM, but they give very few clues as to the nature of that which he was approving. Consequently the practice of FGM varies greatly from community to community and country to country, possibly according to the intensity of anxieties around female sexuality in the community, its proximity to Islamic slave-trade routes (Infibulation is associated with the transportation of slaves), the presiding school of Islam (fiqh), and the nature and degree of historical Christian influence and colonisation.

In addition to Islamic law that explicitly addresses FGM, Islamic law favours FGM by creating social conditions that make the practice useful or even necessary. Polygyny (the marriage of a man to several women) is permitted in Islam and creates sexually violent societies in which girls and women are at a heightened risk. In response to this risk polygynous societies develop practices which safeguard the 'purity', chastity and reputation of its girls and women. FGM is such a practice, as are child marriage, gender segregation, arranged marriages, chaperoning, veiling, 'honour' culture, brideprice (mahr) and footbinding. Islam's attitudes towards slavery, especially sex slavery, appears to also have a significant role in the nature, incidence and distribution of FGM.

There exist numerous fatwas supporting and commanding the practice. However, over the past half century there has been a growing unease in the Islamic world concerning the practice (largely attributable to a growing awareness of the practice by organisations such as the UN and UNICEF). The earliest fatwa that is clearly critical of FGM appears to have been issued in 1984.[3]

The euphemism Female Circumcision is often used instead of Female Genital Mutilation by those who practice it, or who wish to defend or excuse it. Those who practice FGM will, of course, not refer to what they do as 'mutilation' - the word having negative connotations. Quran 30:30 forbids mutilation - however Islamic law makes exceptions for mutilations it allows e.g. amputation of limbs of thieves (Quran 5:38) and male circumcision.

FGM in the Hadith

FGM is mentioned (at least) seven times in the Hadith. Four report Muhammad approving of FGM and two report Sahabah (Muhammad's companions) participating in FGM. These have less doctrinal authority than the hadith featuring Muhammad. The remaining, seventh, hadith has little import doctrinally, but is of linguistic, historical and sociological interest.

Hadith: Muhammad and FGM

The fitrah is five things, including circumcision

Hadith methodology dictates that if it is not mentioned specifically or if the pronouns do not point to a certain gender, then the hadith is valid for both sexes. Hence, the following hadith is applicable for both men and women.

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, shaving the pubes, trimming the moustache, cutting the nails and plucking the armpit hairs.”
Bukhari 5891; Muslim 527

A preservation of honor for women

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.

Do not cut "severely"

Note that the judgement concerning what is severe is relative.

Narrated Umm Atiyyah al-Ansariyyah: A woman used to perform circumcision 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.

When the circumcised parts touch each other

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 parts touch each other a bath becomes obligatory.

To 'sit amidst four parts of a woman' is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.

Other Evidence in the Hadith

The following three hadith touch on FGM. Because they do not involve Muhammad they have less doctrinal authority than the hadith in the previous section.

One Who Circumcises Other Ladies

This hadith includes an exchange of insults between Meccan warriors and Muhammad's companions prior to the battle of Uhud.

“[…] 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?’ […]”

In Bukhari's al-Adab al-Mufrad

The following two hadiths come from Al-Adab Al-Mufrad. This is a collection of hadith about the manners of Muhammad and his companions, compiled by the Islamic scholar al-Bukhari. It contains 1,322 hadiths, most of which focus on Muhammad's companions rather than Muhammad himself. Al-Bukhari's evaluation of the hadiths within al-Adab al-Mufrad was not as rigorous as for his best-known collection - Sahih Bukhari. However, scholars have ruled most of the hadith in the collection as being sahih (authentic) or hasan (sound).

Someone to Amuse Them
“Umm ‘Alqama related that when the daughters of ‘A’isha’s brother were circumcised, ‘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!'””
Go and Circumcise Them and Purify Them
An old woman from Kufa, the grandmother of 'Ali ibn Ghurab, reported that Umm al-Muhajir said, "I was captured with some girls from Byzantium. 'Uthman offered us Islam, but only myself and one other girl accepted Islam. 'Uthman said, 'Go and circumcise them and purify them.'"

FGM in the Qur'an

There is no explicit reference to Female Genital Mutilation in the Qur'an.

However, the Qur'an 30:30 requires Muslims to 'adhere to the fitrah'. The word 'fitrah' appears only this once in the Qur'an, and is left undefined and unexplained.

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.

To know what fitrah means, traditional scholars turn to the hadith which make use of the word.

The hadith which offers the clearest explanation is the one mentioned in the previous section.

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, shaving the pubes, trimming the moustache, cutting the nails and plucking the armpit hairs.”
Bukhari 5891; Muslim 527

This hadith uses the Arabic word khitan for 'circumcision'.

Two other hadith ('Someone to Amuse Them' and 'Do not cut severely') use the word khitan in contexts where the procedure is unquestionably being performed on females, and only on females. Three other hadith ('The fitrah is five things, including circumcision', 'A preservation of honor for women' and 'When the circumcised parts touch each other') use the word 'khitan to refer to both FGM and Male Circumcision.

Therefore, in the hadith the word 'khitan' can refer to FGM, or to Male Circumcision, or to both.

Thus, according to traditional interpretive methodology, Qur'an 30:30 by requiring one to 'adhere to the fitrah' indirectly, but ineluctably, advocates FGM.

FGM in Islamic law

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Maps showing distribution of madhaps and prevalence of FGM

A Madh'hab (مذهب) is a school of Islamic law or fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). Within Sunni Islam there are four mainstream schools of thought, which are accepted by one another, there is also the Shi'ite school of fiqh. The various schools of Islamic law all developed as theologians and jurists debated among themselves more than a hundred years after Muhammad's death on how to identify and interpret what Muhammad had left behind by way of oral traditions. The five major schools of Islamic law agree on many things. Adherence to a school of Islamic law appears to be more a matter of geography than conscience.

All schools of Islam favour FGM, but with varying levels of compulsion. No school of Islam can forbid FGM since nothing that Muhammad allowed can be prohibited. Contemporary scholars, however, are adept at phrasing fatwas in such a way as to appear to criticise or condemn FGM whilst at the same time not forbidding it (see section on Equivocation below).

Differences in hermeneutics (methodologies of interpretation of texts, especially religious and philosophical texts) result in certain Hadith having more weight and influence with some schools than in others. The hadith Sunan Abu Dawud 41:5251 is an example of this:

Narrated Umm Atiyyah al-Ansariyyah: A woman used to perform circumcision 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.

Shafi’i and Hanbali scholars have evaluated this hadith as being sahih. Consequently, these schools consider FGM as being either obligatory or highly recommended, and FGM is very common or nearly universal amongst their followers. Maliki and Hanafi scholars have evaluated this Hadith as being mursal (good but missing an early link in its isnad) – possibly explaining the lower rates of FGM amongst followers of these schools.Some prominent modern Islamic scholars have dissented from the otherwise favorable consensus of the Islamic tradition, and ruled it to be unlawful.

Only one school of Islam - the Shafi'i - make FGM unequivocally obligatory. The other schools of Islam recommend it with differing levels of enthusiasm (though the Hanbali school's position is more ambiguous). We can speculate that followers of the Hanafi and Maliki schools who are devout (or who wish to appear devout) will tend to treat as ‘obligatory’ practices that are merely ‘recommend’ – since for the devout anything that is ‘recommended’ should be definitely done.

Maliki Madhab

The Maliki school was founded by Malik ibn Anas in the 8th century, who ruled that FGM is recommended, but not obligatory.

“Maliki hold the view that it is wajib (obligatory) for males and sunnah (optional) for females“

“Maliki hold the view that it is wajib (obligatory) for males and sunnah (optional) for females“
'Delinking Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting from Islam' by Ibrahim Lethome Asmani & Maryam Sheikh Abdi (2008)

Hanafi Madhab

This school is named after the scholar Abū Ḥanīfa an-Nu‘man ibn Thābit (d. 767) and is school with the largest number of followers among Sunni Moslems. Abū Ḥanīfa maintained that FGM is not obligatory but highly recommended.

The Hanafi view is that it is a sunnah (optional act) for both females and males
'Delinking Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting from Islam' by Ibrahim Lethome Asmani & Maryam Sheikh Abdi (2008)

The Hanafi school is the school of Islam under which there is the least incidence of FGM. Pakistani Muslims are generally Hanafi, and have, till recently, been the largest Moslem diaspora to the West. Pakistanis are also frequently English-speaking. Both of which facts increase the prevalence in the West of the narrative that FGM is nothing to do with Islam. With increasing immigration to the West from Shafi’i countries (Somalia in particular) this narrative is harder to maintain since (see below) FGM is obligatory under Shafi’i Islam.

Shafi'i Madhab

The Shafi’i school was founded by the Arab scholar Al-Shafi‘i in the early 9th century. The Shafi’i school rejects two interpretative heuristics that are accepted by other major schools of Islam: Istihsan (juristic preference) and Istislah (public interest), heuristics by which compassion and welfare can be integrated into Islamic law-making. Female genital mutilation (FGM) is obligatory in the Shafi'i madhab.[4] Infibulation, the most extreme form of FGM practiced under Islam, is almost entirely attributable to Shafi'i Muslims.

“Shafi’i view it as wajib (obligatory) for both females and males” Delinking Female Genital Mutilati

'Shafi’i view it as wajib (obligatory) for both females and males'
'Delinking Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting from Islam' by Ibrahim Lethome Asmani & Maryam Sheikh Abdi (2008)

'Reliance of the Traveller' by by Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri (1302–1367) is the Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law according to Shafi'i School.

Obligatory (on every male and female) is circumcision. (And it is the cutting-off of the skin [qat' al-jaldah] on the glans of the male member and, as for the circumcision of the female, that is the cutting-off of the clitoris')
Reliance of the Traveler [Umdat al-Salik], Section e4.3 on Circumcision

Nuh Ha Mim Keller's 1991 translation of Reliance of the Traveller is bowdlerised to make its content more acceptable to Western eyes and translates the word 'bazr' ( بَظْرٌ ) as 'clitorial prepuce' instead of simply 'clitoris' (see section Defining Bazr).

Hanbali Madhab

The Hanbali school is named after the Iraqi scholar Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855). Ahmad ibn Hanbal studied under Al-Shafi‘i (founder of the Shafi’i school) and inherited his deep concerns about the jurists of his time, who were ready to reinterpret the doctrines of the Koran and Hadiths to pander to public opinion and the demands of the rich and powerful. Ibn Hanbal advocated a return to the literal interpretation of Koran and Hadiths. This has made the Hanbali school intensely traditionalist. Today’s ultra-conservative Wahhabi–Salafist movement is an offshoot of this school. The Hanbali school, unlike the Hanafi and Maliki schools, reject Istihsan (jurist discretion) and Urf (the customs of Moslems) as a sound basis by which to derive Islamic law.

'Hanbali have two opinions: -it is wajib (obligatory) for both males and females – it is wajib (obligatory) for males and makrumah (honourable) for females.'
'Delinking Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting from Islam' by Ibrahim Lethome Asmani & Maryam Sheikh Abdi (2008)

Shia Islam

The attitudes of Shia Islam towards FGM are as not clear-cut as with the schools of Sunni Islam. It is known that FGM is practised by Zaydis in Yemen, Ibadis in Oman and at least by parts of the Ismailis (the Dawoodi Bohras in particular) in India. A survey by WADI conducted in the region of Kirkuk in Iraq found that 23% of Shia girls and women had undergone FGM[5].

Jafari

'Ayatollah Khamenei, the leading scholar among contemporary jurists of Iran, says that FGM is permissible but not obligatory for women. He also states that if the husband wants his wife to be circumcised then it might be carried out if it isn’t harmful for her.'


'Ayatullah ali al hussaini ali Sistani form Iraq said in his fatwa in 2010 that FGM is not haram (prohibited). Later in 2014 he revised his fatwa and said that FGM is harmful for the female victims and it isn’t permissible or part of any Islamic injunction.'

Ismaili

FGM appears to be endemic to the Dawoodi Bohras[6] – an Ismaili sect found in India, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Yemen and East Africa. Their current spiritual leader has recommended FGM as being necessary for purity and to avoid sin.

In 2017 two doctors and a third woman connected to the Dawoodi Bohra in Detroit, Michigan, were arrested on charges of conducting FGM on two seven-year-old girls in the United States. Their Attorney confirmed that FGM was, for her clients, a religious practice[7]:

'They have a [right] to practice their religion. And they are Muslims and they’re being under attack for it. I believe that they are being persecuted because of their religious beliefs'

FGM before Islam

Islamic sources

The hadith '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.

“[…] 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 actual fighting, 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 Moslem 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.

Non-Islamic sources

There is further evidence that FGM was practiced in and around the Middle East and along the African coast of the Red Sea well before the birth of Muhammad. 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.

“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,”

A spell or prayer found on an Egyptian coffin dating from sometime between 1991–1786 BC appears to refer to an uncircumcised girl.

“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 later Greek descriptions of the Egyptian practice.

A fragment referring to a fifth-century B.C. history by Xanthos of Lydia says:

'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.'

Lydia corresponds to Western Asiatic Turkey. It is not entirely clear what is here meant by ‘castration’. It may mean FGM, or it may mean some form of permanently sterilizing women.

There are several classical references from the second century BC geographer Agatharchides of Cnidus, who, writing about tribes living on the west coast of the Red Sea, identified a group 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”. [8] Agatharchides of Cnidus is probably referring to an area today comprising by Eritrea, Djibouti and coastal Sudan.

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.

'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.'
'Greek Papyri in the British Museum.' Kenyon, F. G. (1893)

Strabo (64 or 63 BC – c. AD 24), a Turkish-born Greek geographer, observed the practice whilst travelling up the Nile.

‘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'
'Geographica' - Strabo

Another passage from Strabo's Geographica suggests that some time after Moses’ death, the Jews practiced FGM :

'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’[9]:

‘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.

Galen in his ‘Introductio sive Medicus’ also notes:

‘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 to his manual of gynaecology 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:

'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.'
Projected Cultural Histories of the Cutting of Female Genitalia: A Poor Reflection as in a Mirror Sara Johnsdotter, Malmö University

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:

'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:

‘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.

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.

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.

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'
Aëtius Amidenus 'Tetrabibilion 16'

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:

'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'
Paulus of Aegina “De Re Medica” book 7

The word ‘nympha’ usually refers the labia minora, but here seems to be being also used of the clitoris.

Islamic Doctrine that creates social conditions favourable to FGM

There are two broad categories of causes for FGM: doctrinal causes and social causes. Doctrinal causes operate when people practice FGM because they believe their god or religion requires them to do so (see the sections on FGM in the Hadith, FGM in the Qur'an and FGM in Islamic law). However, as the previous section makes clear, FGM existed before Islam and, therefore Islamic doctrine does not completely explain its existence.

Much of what follows is based on the work of Gerry Mackie, who has conducted the most insightful work into the social origins of FGM, using comparative-historical sociology and game theory. [10]

the function of FGM

FGM has its roots in polygyny, and only polygynous societies practice FGM. In polygynous societies it is only rich and high-status men who are able to afford to keep multiple wives. However, these high-status polygynous men face a problem guaranteeing the fidelity of their many wives - and the more wives they have the greater that problem becomes. In a monogamous marriage a husband and wife can spend much time together, become close to one another, and their sexual and emotional needs are more-or-less proportional. A polygynous man may have two, four, hundred or sometiems even a thousand wives/sex-slaves (note that Islamic law places no limit on the number of sex-slaves a man can own), whom he must satisfy emotionally and sexually, and whose desire for motherhood he must also satisfy. If one of his wive's needs are not satisfied, she will be tempted be unfaithful, and this may result in the high-status man rearing a child that is not his own. Which, evolutionary speaking, is a disaster.

In order to assure themselves of the chastity and fidelity of their many wives, polygynous men have developed a variety of Chastity Assurance practices:

  • harems - which keep wives locked away, guarded by eunuchs;
  • footbinding (as once practiced by the Chinese) - which keeps wives from being unfaithful by reducing their mobility and independence;
  • chaperoning and gender segregation - which hamper and eliminate interactions between the sexes;
  • arranged and child marriages - which obviate the dangers that romance and courting poses to a girl's chastity and reputation;
  • veiling - which makes girls less interesting and identifiable to males;

FGM is, of course, a Chastity Assurance practice. It reduces a girl's capacity for sexual pleasure both physically (through the removal of the clitoris and labia) and mentally (through the effects of trauma). Where a girl has been infibulated her chastity is further guaranteed because her vaginal opening is sealed with a covering of skin, the penetration of which is extremely painful and which leads to severe hemorrhaging that is difficult to conceal.

Marriages to high status men are highly advantageous, to both potential brides and their families, who will benefit from having a high status male as a relative. The urge for women to marry into higher strata of society is called hypergyny. It is universal to all societies, but is much more intense in polygynous societies. This is probably because in monogamous societies, once a high-status man marries he is no longer available, whereas in polygynous societies a married high-status man remains available.

Girls who aspire to marry high status polygynous must meet their expectations and standards. And a family wishing to marry a daughter to a high status man must persuade him that their daughter is 'pure', chaste and will be faithful to him. They demonstrate this by adopting (or having their daughter adopt) Chastity Assurance practices expected by that man, whether it be FGM or other practices in the above list.

The intensely hypergynous nature of polygynous societies means that the marriage practices of high-status polygynous men cascade down through the lower ranks of society, and are rapidly adopted by all families. Only the daughters of the poorest families, who can not afford to engage in such practices, are spared. These girls and their families are stigmatised as 'impure' and 'contaminating' and guaranteed to be unchaste, and will be considered as 'untouchables' and suffer from intense discrimination and persecution. Thus the avoidance of stigma becomes an added incentive for families to conform to the community's Chastity Assurance practices.

A Moslem with four wives and ninety-six sex slaves faces the same fidelity-assurance challenges as a non-Moslem with a hundred wives. And four wives are as likely to be a source of anxiety as four sex-slaves. They are therefore are both equally likely to require wives who are mutilated (though a slave-trader may be more disposed to employing the practice on a captured female than a loving parent on a daughter).

the persistence of FGM

FGM in the modern Islamic world

In 2012, the Muslim Brotherhood worked to decriminalize FGM. According to Mariz Tadros (a reporter),"the Muslim Brotherhood have offered to circumcise women for a nominal fee as part of their community services, a move that threatens to reverse decades of local struggle against the harmful practice [...] Many of the Brothers (and Salafis) argue that while it is not mandatory, it is nevertheless mukarama  (preferable, pleasing in the eyes of God)."[11]

FGM as Un-Islamic – A Brief History

”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 Abd Al-Wahhab Al-Maligi says in the above quote, the idea that FGM might be in any way un-Islamic first arose in past three or four decades. Islam is 1400 years old; the various schools of Islam made their pronouncements on FGM in the centuries immediately following Mohammed’s death; this having been done, Islam appears to have given the practice no more thought till very recently: the earliest fatwa clearly critical of FGM appears to be one from 1984.

"The most daring and most coherent opinion coming from a religious leader against female circumcision is that of Sheikh Abu-Sabib, a Sudanese. He spoke at the Seminar on Traditional Practices (Dakear, 1984). The sayings of Mohammed about female circumcision are not reliable. They and the Koran do not require anyone to suffer, when science proves the harm done by this mutilation. The Egyptian Mohammed Salim Al-'Awwah holds a similar opinion."

There has been a flurry of fatwas concerning FGM in recent decades. This flurry has, I believe, been a response to heightened expectations of the rights of women and children in the non-Islamic world, and a growing awareness and revulsion at the practice of FGM.

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NGram for terms: 'FGM', 'Female Genital Mutilation' and 'Female Circumcision'

An Ngram for the terms ‘fgm’, ‘female genital mutilation’ and ‘female circumcision’ gives the following result:

A sharp and steady rise in the more condemnatory term (‘mutilation’ rather than ‘circumcision’) in English-language literature starts in 1989-90. This coincides with the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, which identified female genital mutilation as a harmful traditional practice, and mandated that governments abolish it as one of several “traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children.” Islam saw itself reflected in the non-Islamic world’s eyes and felt ashamed at what it saw – leading to, for the first time in Islamic history, to some questioning and criticism of this practice.

However, keeping in mind the historical context of its 1400-year complicity in the practice, Islam’s response to FGM is reminiscent of that of a burglar who, after having practiced his trade with impunity for decades, has a sudden access of guilt and repentance on his first appearance before a judge. One suspects his distress is more at being found out than guilt or repentance.

As it is, most fatwas that appear to condemn FGM are, at best, worryingly ignorant of the place of FGM in Islamic doctrine, or engage in uncritical thinking, or are, at worst, insincere – designed to be no more than pacifiers of the concerns of the non-Islamic world.

Arguments de-linking FGM from Islam

Over the past 40 or so years, as a consequence of the scrutiny of the international community, and a heightened sensitivity to the rights of women and children, parts of the Islamic world have started to feel embarrassed about Islam's complicity with FGM. The parts of the Islamic word that feel this embarrassment are (of course) those parts that do not practice FGM.

The Hanafi school is the school of Islam under which there is the least incidence of FGM. Pakistani Muslims are generally Hanafi, and have, till recently, been the largest Moslem diaspora to the West. Pakistanis are also frequently English-speaking. Both of which facts increase the prevalence in the West of the narrative that ‘FGM is nothing to do with Islam’. With increasing immigration to the West from Shafi’i countries (Somalia in particular) this narrative is harder to maintain since (as we shall see below) FGM is obligatory under Shafi’i Islam.

FGM existed before Islam

The underlying assumption of this argument is that if a practice existed before Islam then it can not be Islamic.

there is no FGM in the Qur'an

mutilation is forbidden by Qur'an

the FGM Hadith are weak

FGM is an African practice

Christians practice FGM too

The underlying assumption of this argument is that if Christians engage in a practice then it can not be Islamic.

fgm in europe (show map)

not all muslims practice FGM

The underlying assumption of this argument is that only those practices which all Muslims engage in can be Islamic.

lack of consensus of scholars

'sunnah circumcision'

mention reliance of the traveller mistranslation

Defining 'Bazr' (بَظْرٌ )

Nuh Ha Mim Keller, an American convert to Islam, in 1991 published the (then) only English translation of ‘The Reliance of the Traveller’ (the most authoritative handbook of Sharia law). Instead of translating the word ‘bazr’ as ‘clitoris‘, he translates it as ‘prepuce of the clitoris‘ – thus appearing to mitigating the severity of the practice.

'Circumcision is obligatory (O: for both men and women. For men it consists of removing the prepuce from the penis, and for women, removing the prepuce (Ar. Bazr) of the clitoris (n: not the clitoris itself, as some mistakenly assert). (A: Hanbalis hold that circumcision of women is not obligatory but sunna, while Hanafis consider it a mere courtesy to the husband.)'

(the abbreviations in the text mean: A: comment by Sheikh ‘Abd al-Wakil Durubi, Ar: Arabic, n: remark by the translator)

Nuh Ha Mim Keller gives no justification for translating Bazr (بظر) as ‘prepuce of the clitoris’ rather than just ‘clitoris’. And all Arabic dictionaries give the word 'Clitoris' for Bazr ( بظر). None lists ‘prepuce of the clitoris’ even as a secondary definition. A systematic consultation of online Arabic dictionaries gives the same result (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H), as does Google Translate.

If one accepts Keller’s definition of Bazr (بظر) then one has to accept that:

  1. Arabic speakers, writers and translators have, over the past 1400 years, been getting the definition of Bazr wrong,
  2. that Arabic has no word for ‘clitoris’.

To translate 'bazr' as 'prepuce of the clitoris' is to treat what is an extreme improbability as if it were a certainty merely because it fits with the translators axiomatic belief in Islam's perfection.

equivocation

Since the 1990s Islamic scholars, clerics and other sources have issued fatwas and statements that appear to criticise, condemn and even forbid FGM. However, an alert reading of these reveals that they virtually all engage in some form of equivocation ('deliberate evasiveness in wording : the use of ambiguous or equivocal language') in order to appear to be more critical of FGM than they are.

Probably the most cited instance of this is a fatwa issued by Dr Ahmed Talib, the former Dean of the Faculty of Sharia at Al-Azhar University, the most prestigious university for Sunni Islamic learning.

“All practices of female circumcision and mutilation are crimes and have no relationship with Islam. Whether it involves the removal of the skin or the cutting of the flesh of the female genital organs… it is not an obligation in Islam.”

After gaining our trust by forthrightly condemning FGM it could almost pass unnoticed that the implication of his final phrase (‘it is not an obligation in Islam’) is that, under Islam, FGM’s legitimacy may stop only just short of ‘obligatory’ - which, of course, could include ‘highly recommended’. There is a world of difference between something not being obligatory and something being forbidden: the fact something is not ‘obligatory’ in no way implies that it is undesirable, unacceptable or forbidden: owning a dog is not ‘obligatory’ – but that in no way implies that owning a dog is frowned on, discouraged or forbidden; giving to charity is valued, respected and encouraged but, like FGM in Islam, it is not ‘obligatory’. A fatwa may be adorned with much criticism and condemnation of FGM, but if all that criticism amounts to nothing more than a statement that ‘FGM is not obligatory under Islam’ – it merely reveals that the author of the fatwa was unable to state that ‘FGM is forbidden under Islam’.

See Also

References