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Female Genital Mutilation in Islam: Difference between revisions
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→Islamic Doctrine Creating Social Conditions Favourable to FGM
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==Islamic Doctrine Creating Social Conditions Favourable to FGM== | ==Islamic Doctrine Creating Social Conditions Favourable to FGM== | ||
Debates concerning FGM and Islam are generally conducted in terms of what Islamic doctrine explicitly decrees concerning FGM. But moral entities (which can be institutions, groups, individuals and ideologies) are | Debates concerning FGM and Islam are generally conducted in terms of what Islamic doctrine explicitly decrees concerning FGM. But moral entities (which can be institutions, groups, individuals and ideologies) are responsible not just what they explictly command or forbid, but also what they allow and what they inadvertently bring about: a mother does not need to ''compel'' her toddler to play with a loaded gun for her to be responsible for any harm that results from it doing so; she merely has to ''allow'' it to play with the loaded gun, or fail to take reasonable measures to prevent it from doing so. Likewise, few 19<sup>th</sup> century industrialists ''intended'' their factories to be polluting. But pollution was an inherent consequence of their choices, actions and inaction. Thus a religion's responsibilities (and identity) do not stop with doctrine, but also include the c''onsequences'' of doctrine, including consequences that may be unintended, or that some may consider undesirable. | ||
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. Islam, in allowing and encouraging polygyny, not only reproduces the originating conditions for FGM. Islam also enshrines in custom and law the 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 both 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. Islam, in allowing and encouraging polygyny, not only reproduces the originating conditions for FGM. Islam also enshrines in custom and law the 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 both polygyny and of the consequences of polygyny'''''. | ||