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'Reliance of the Traveller' by by Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri (1302–1367) is the Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law according to Shafi'i School. {{Quote|''Reliance of the Traveler'' [''Umdat al-Salik''], Section e4.3 on Circumcision|'''Obligatory (on every male and female) is circumcision.''' (And it is the cutting-off of the skin [''qat' al-jaldah''] on the glans of the male member and, '''as for the circumcision of the female, that is the cutting-off of the clitoris')}}Nuh Ha Mim Keller's 1991 translation of Reliance of the Traveller is bowdlerised to make its content more acceptable to Western eyes and translates the word 'bazr' ( بَظْرٌ ) as 'clitorial prepuce' instead of simply 'clitoris' (see section [[#Defining Bazr|Defining Bazr)]].

Islamic law makes mandatory the payment of bride-price by the groom (or his family) to the bride (or her family).

All marriages in polygynous kinship systems require that a bride-price be paid by the groom to the bride. The scarcity of marriageable women which polygyny causes turns them into a valuable asset, to be 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. It is a notable feature of folk tales from polygynous societies (such as ''<nowiki/>'One Thousand and One Nights''') that their heroes are often poor young men (such as Aladdin) who loves a girl, but who can not afford the bride-price. The story is resolved when he becomes rich and powerful enough to pay the bride-price and marry her.

 

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. Thus this economic aspect introduced by bride-price creates a further incentive for parents to engage in chastity assurance practices (such as FGM).

 

Child Marriage is universal to polygynous societies. Bringing little girls into the marriage market is a reaction to the the scarcity of women. Dowry further incentives child-marriage, as it becomes advantageous for parents to ‘sell-off’ their daughters before adolescence, when her reputation is at greater risk of being spoiled and her losing her economic value. The bride-price for a child is generally less than for an adolescent or adult woman. This makes children a more affordable option for poor and low status men. In addition 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 also increases mens' paternity anxieties and doubts, and also creates anxieties connected to the management of multiple wives – therefore submissiveness, obedience, manipulability are valued characteristics in a wife - characteristics that are more pronounced in younger brides. It has been observed that Polygamous men select younger girls as wives (even as first wives) than monogamous men.

Thus the perception of little girls is sexualised, making them vulnerable to the sexual violence endemic to polygynous societies. They must also meet the marriage requirements of the polygynous elite. This drives down the age at which chastity assurance practices (including FGM) are initiated .

“''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. “''

Long-term prisoners and boys in single-sex boarding schools, when deprived of contact with females, tend to direct their sexuality at whatever else is available viz other boys and other prisoners. Under Islamic restrictions boys and girls are deprived of contact with 'legitimate' members of the opposite sex. The next best thing available - whose faces they can see, to whom they can talk, whom they might touch- will be the mother or aunts, siblings and relatives - or other boys , 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.

“''A man can have sex with animals such as sheep, cows, camels and so on. However he should kill the animal after he has his orgasm. He should not sell the meat to the people in his own village, however selling the meat to the next door village should be fine.”'' (Ayatollah Khomeini, from Tahrir al-Vasyleh, fourth volume, Darol Elm, Gom, Iran, 1990)

Social scientists such as Joseph Heinrich et al and William H Tucker (“Marriage and Civilization: how monogamy made us human”) that polygynous societies are by their very nature belligerent and sexually violent. Islam protect girls and women from this sexual violence with chastity assurance measures.

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. FGM can be understood as a method of protecting girls from this sexual violence.

Islamic law permits the beating of wives

Polygnynous family structures are loveless compared to monogamous ones. polygynous households tend to be characterised by (i) competition and rivalry among co-wives (ii) increased spousal age gaps (iii) decreased genetic inter-relatedness within the household (iv) reduced confidence as to the husband's paternity of the children (which increases his sexual jealousy and anxiety) (v) 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.