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| =Islam & the Social Origins of FGM= | | {| cellpadding="15" align=right |
| This page addresses the question of why some people engage in Female Genital Mutilation, both today and throughout history. | | |- |
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| Female Genital Mutilation (FGM for short) is commonly associated with Islam: recent data suggests that about 80% of FGM is carried out by Muslims<ref>https://fgmtruth.wordpress.com/what-percentage-of-global-fgm-are-moslems-responsible-for/</ref>, and that, considered globally, about 20% of Muslim females are subjected to the practice. It is tempting to conclude that Muslims engage in FGM because the Prophet Muhammad decreed favourably on the practice [[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Female Genital Mutilation|in four hadiths]], and other hadith show the Sahabah (Muhammad's companions) engaging in it. This conclusion is made all the more tempting by the fact that discussions as to whether or not FGM is Islamic are invariably conducted as if the question is to be resolved simply by determining whether Muhammad decreed favourably (or otherwise) on FGM in the Sunnah and in the Qur'an.
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| But social phenomena rarely happen simply because powerful men decree them. Social phenomena can happen because other social phenomena cause them or create conditions propitious for them. For example, pollution increased in the 19th Century England because of the Industrial revolution. It is unlikely that many 19<sup>th</sup> century industrialists established their factories ''in order to create more pollution''. But their factories ''did'' increase pollution, and did so reliably and predictably. We therefore correctly consider certain forms of pollution as being an inherent property of 19<sup>th</sup> Century industrialism, despite it being an unintended by-product.
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| Similarly, even if FGM were nowhere mentioned in the Sunnah, there is reason to think that Muslims would nevertheless engage in FGM at a higher rate than non-Muslims, since Islam tends to reproduce conditions that make FGM useful or necessary.
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| The political scientist Gerry Mackie, in his paper ''‘Ending Footbinding and Infibulation: A Convention Account'''<ref>http://webarchiv.ethz.ch/soms/teaching/OppFall09/MackieFootbinding.pdf</ref> identifies polygyny as creating problems which are solved with chastity and fidelity-assurance Practices. These are technologies, institutions and behaviours that act to enforce and preserve the sexual purity (whether actual or perceived) of girls and women. Examples of chastity assurance practices are footbinding, veiling, gender segregation, arranged marriages, child marriage, chaperoning, 'honour' culture, brideprice ([[Mahr (Marital Price)|mahr]]) and FGM.
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| Gerry Mackie makes no reference to the decrees of powerful men or prophets in his analysis; nor in his explanation of how such practices become 'locked-in' - persisting long after the originating conditions have lapsed. Whilst Mackie avoids touching on Islam ''per se'', his work demonstrates that FGM is caused not only by Muhammad's decrees, but also by social factors - laws, traditions, institutions, systems, beliefs - that make FGM in some way 'useful' or 'necessary'.
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| In brief: there are two
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| *it is a practice that solves certain problems caused by polygyny;
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| *
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| ==Who Practices FGM? Statistics==
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| Who practices FGM?
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| ==Pre-Islamic & non-Islamic FGM==
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| We will also consider that that FGM predates the origins of Islam. This suggests that FGM has its origin in social factors as much as in the decrees of Mohammed.
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| But any explanation for the existence of FGM has to account for the existence of four groups:
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| #Muslims who practice FGM
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| #Muslims who don't practice FGM
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| #non-Muslims who practice FGM
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| #non-Muslims who don't practice FGM
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| 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.
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| But we should also noteremember that non-Muslims existed before Islam and some of these practiced FGM. Why? Why would people engage in this practice
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| ==The Origins and Causes of FGM== | |
| intro
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| ===Gerry Mackie's 'Convention Hypothesis'===
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| fdfdfd<br />
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| ===Problems with Gerry Mackie's 'Convention Hypothesis'===
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| dfdfd
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| ==Islam as the sacralisation of polygyny and its consequences==
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| Muhammad, in inventing Islam, codified and sacralisied the norms, values, beliefs and institutions of Medina under his rule (and to a lesser extent of pre-Islamic Mecca and Judaism). This included the sacralisation of FGM and the causes of FGM - polygyny in particular. In doing this he ensured that FGM and its causes would persist long after they would normally have disappeared.
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| ==FGM: a Solution to Problems Caused by Islamic Doctrine==
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| intro
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| ===Polygyny and its consequences===
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| Mackie - plus corrections and extensions
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| ===Child Marriage===
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| polygyny gives rise to child marriage, drives down age of FGM
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| ===Mahr (Islamic Brideprice)===
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| putting financial value on perceived chastity of girls and women...
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| ===The Polygynous Family===
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| less emotional investment in children, esp girls, more financial investment at stake
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| ===Cultural Congruence===
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| other brutal practices relativise and make acceptable violenc of FGM (MGM, halal slaughter, wife beating, violence of Qur'an, jihad...)
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| ==FGM and the uses of Trauma==
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| xcxc
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| ==References==
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| <references />
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