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=Female Genital Mutilation in Islam=
[[File:712px-fgc types-ii.svg .jpg|thumb|274x274px|Female Genital Mutilation]]
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. 


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. 
It is all too natural to consider FGM as nothing more than an arbitrarily cruel 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.
'''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. 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> Most of the remaining 20% is attributable to non-Muslims 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>). Assuming a world population of Muslims of 1.7 billion, this means that at least one in five (20%) Muslim women, and about one in eighty (1.28%) non-Muslim women are genitally mutilated.  [[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]]) 
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]]) 
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]]). 
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]]) 
==FGM in the Hadith==
main article
==FGM in the Qur'an==
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.{{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.”}}Note that this hadith uses the Arabic word ''khitan'' (ختان) for 'circumcision'.
Two other hadith ([[Female Genital Mutilation in Islamic Law#Someone to Amuse Them|Someone to Amuse Them]] and [[Female Genital Mutilation in Islamic Law#Do not cut severely|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 ([[Female Genital Mutilation in Islamic Law#The fitrah is five things|The fitrah is five things]], [[Female Genital Mutilation in Islamic Law#A preservation of honor for women|A preservation of honor for women]] and [[Female Genital Mutilation in Islamic Law#When the circumcised parts touch each other|When the circumcised parts touch each other]]) use the word 'khitan to refer to ''both'' FGM and Male Circumcision.
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''' advocates FGM.
==FGM and the Schools of Islamic Law==
main article
==Modern Fatwas==
main article
==Arguments de-linking FGM and Islam==
main article
==The History of FGM==
===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.
====Non-Islamic sources====
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.
{{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.
{{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.
{{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.
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'}}
'''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===
{{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.
<nowiki>***</nowiki>
Other travellers to Egypt (Larrey 1803 and Burckhardt in 1819) confirm Browne and claim that Moslem slave traders infibulated young female captives.
<nowiki>*</nowiki> * *
The explorer Sir Richard Burton claimed that ''“Female circumcision'' […] ''is I believe the rule among some outlying tribes of Jews.”''
==The origins of FGM==
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 be able 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 grow close to one another, and their sexual and emotional needs are more-or-less proportional. 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, provide with offspring. If these needs are not satisfied, his wives will be tempted to look elsewhere, and this may result in the high-status man rearing children that are not his own.[[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]]
Chastity assurance practices evolve to which assure the chastity of wives: '''harems''' keep 'concubines' locked away, guarded by eunuchs; '''footbinding''' (as once practiced by the Chinese) reduces the mobility of girls and women '''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 girls less desirable and identifiable to other males.
FGM is, of course, 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).
In polygynous societies:
*a married high-status man remains available to further marriages (unlike in monogamous societies);
*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;
*the wealth gradient tends to be steeper – the poor poorer, the rich richer ;
*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 highly advantageous to the bride's family, who will benefit from the bride-price and 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 only wife of a poor man. This makes polygynous societies intensely ''hypergynous'' (hypergyny is the tendency for women to marry men of higher social status).
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.
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. Low-ranking families must therefore compete with each other and ''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.
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 daughters’ immodesty, the more likely she is to be pure”…''
FGM becomes 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 are '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 modesty practices. The avoidance of stigma becomes as much an incentive to mutilate one's daughters as making a good marriage.
The 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 its birth or the husband during intercourse; that an 'uncut' vulva is ugly; that FGM enhances a woman’s facial beauty; that FGM improves a woman's health and hygiene; that a ‘cut’ vulva is more pleasurable to the husband; that FGM enhances fertility. 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 to support those daughters for the rest of his life, 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 - worked spectacularly well with footbinding in China. However, it has been much less successful with FGM, probably because whilst footbinding was a secular practice, FGM is a religious one.
==Islamic Doctrine that creates social conditions favourable to FGM==
As might be evident from the previous section, Islam, by allowing and encouraging polygyny, not only reproduces the originating conditions for FGM but also enshrines in law and custom 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 polygyny, and of the consequences of polygyny'''''. 
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. 
Thus, even if Islamic doctrine ''didn't'' explicitly mandate/allow FGM, it is possible that FGM would still be associated with Islam, since by sacralising the causes of FGM and also its consequences it erects round the practice an institutional and normative armature that culturally justifies and normalises 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. 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.
The 'bride-famine' that develops amongst poor low-status men is alleviated by introducing ever more females to the marriage market: 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. This makes for sexually violent societies. And this ambiance of sexual violence further amplifies the anxieties of families and husbands 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 chronic bachelorhood. {{Quote|New York Times (2004) - cited in 'Marriage and Civilization' by William Tucker|'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 mandating or favouring 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.{{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 thus creating 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. Whilst ''local'' raids on neighbors fuel tribal polygyny, Islamic polygyny 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 those in captivity. Virgins (and therefore prepubescent or adolescent girls) were the most valuable slaves. Infibulation (the sealing up of the vagina) developed as a technology to protect 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 boys suffered an even worse fate than girls. In a process analogous to infibulation (see description below) 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. Because of their rarity, eunuchs were worth about twelve times the other slaves because of the death rate from the operation. 
{{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====
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 women which polygyny causes 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 unaffordable 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.
====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]]Introducing little girls into the marriage market is a response to the the scarcity of women caused by polygyny and child marriage is universal to polygynous societies. 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' paternity anxieties and doubts, and also creates anxieties connected to the management of multiple wives – therefore submissiveness, obedience, manipulability are valued in a wife - characteristics more pronounced in younger brides. It has been observed that polygamous men select younger girls as wives (even as first wives) than monogamous men.
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====
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 restrictions 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. and William H. Tucker 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.
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.
Polygynyous societies (including Islamic ones) are pervaded by a generalised violence that normalise practices such as FGM: sexual violence, 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====
Polygynous households tend to be characterised by:
*competition and rivalry among co-wives
*increased spousal age gaps
*decreased genetic inter-relatedness within the household
*reduced confidence as to the husband's paternity of the children (which increases his sexual jealousy and anxiety)
*more step-parents.
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 (Osama bin laden’s father had 54 children by 22 wives and is reputed to have not known many of his children's names). 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===
Islamic FGM is not an initiation rite. However, non-Islamic FGM often is and as Islamic FGM geographically approaches these cultures it often takes on certain aspects of initiation ritual (e.g. Gambia).
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 the eschewal of anaesthetics (either general or local), even when available. (proof)
This aversion to the use of anaesthetics It is a characteristic
Islamic FGM
https://answersafrica.com/top-10-reasons-why-female-genital-mutilation-in-africa-is-evil.html
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/female-genital-mutilation-no-anaesthetic-before-she-cut-me-1.2093014
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13131835.i-screaming-mother/
lack of anaesthetics
https://answersafrica.com/top-10-reasons-why-female-genital-mutilation-in-africa-is-evil.html
pain
https://answersafrica.com/top-10-reasons-why-female-genital-mutilation-in-africa-is-evil.html
https://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/a19042103/female-genital-mutilation-survivor/
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/advice/a6504/female-genital-mutilation-survivor-stories/
http://blogs.reuters.com/the-human-impact/2014/02/07/the-pain-is-far-worse-than-childbirth-fgm-survivor/
- break down personality
- instill fear and submission*
- frigidity and trauma
- chastiry assurance
==See Also==
*[[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Female Genital Mutilation]]
*[[Female Genital Mutilation in Islamic Law]]
==References==
<references />
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