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But we should remember that non-Muslims existed before Islam and some of these practiced FGM. Why? Why would people engage in this practice | 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'. In this paper Mackie identifies polygyny, extreme polygyny in particular, as generating conditions in which | The political scientist Gerry Mackie has gone a long way towards answering this question in his paper ''‘Ending Footbinding and Infibulation: A Convention Account'''<ref>http://webarchiv.ethz.ch/soms/teaching/OppFall09/MackieFootbinding.pdf</ref>. 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== | ==Pre-Islamic FGM== | ||
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==FGM and the uses of Trauma== | ==FGM and the uses of Trauma== | ||
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