Female Genital Mutilation in Islam: Difference between revisions

Female Genital Mutilation in Islam (view source)

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 ==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 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.
+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 for what they explicitly command or forbid, but also for what they allow, what they encourage, and what they indirectly 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'' her toddler to play with the loaded gun - or not take reasonable measures to prevent it from doing so. Likewise, few 19<sup>th</sup> century industrialists ''intended'' their factories to produce pollution. But pollution was a consequence of their choices, actions and failures to act. 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 has far-reaching implications for the rest of the culture, determining laws, beliefs and institutions that, at first sight, can appear unrelated to kinship and reproduction. Islam, in allowing and encouraging polygyny, reproduces the originating conditions for FGM. As this section will make clear, Islam also enshrines in doctrine, custom and law ''other consequences'' of polygyny, such as bride-price, veiling, gender segregation, arranged marriage, child marriage, and obsession with feminine 'purity'. Indeed, Islam could be characterised as ''the codification and sacralisation of polygyny and of the consequences of polygyny''.
-Thus, even if Islamic doctrine ''didn't'' explicitly mandate/allow FGM,it would still be associated with Islam, since by sacralising the ''causes and consequences'' of FGM it erects round the practice an institutional and normative armature that would nevertheless make the practice useful, and justify and normalise it.
+Thus, even if Islamic doctrine ''didn't'' explicitly mandate/allow FGM, it would still be associated with Islam, since it also sacralises the ''causes of FGM,'' and also sacrailises the ''consequences'' of FGM, which erect round the practice an institutional and normative armature that justify, normalise FGM, and make it 'useful'.
 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 since - assuming an equal number of females and males in the society - every extra wife one man takes will deprive another man of the possibility of finding a bride (imagine a desert island with five men and five women and what happens if one man takes two wives...). 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/celibacy.