WikiIslam:Sandbox: Difference between revisions

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]]. This conclusion is made all the more tempting by the fact that discussions as to whether or not FGM is Islamic are conducted as if the question were resolved simply by determining whether Muhammad decreed favourably (or otherwise) on FGM in the Sunnah and in the Qur'an.  

But social phenomena don't only happen because powerful men decree them. Social phenomena can happen because other social phenomena cause them. Pollution increased in the 19th Century England because the Industrial revolution happened. It is unlikely that many 19^th century industrialists ''intended'' their factories to increase pollution. But their factories ''did'' increase pollution, and did so reliably and predictably. We rightly consider certain forms of pollution as being an inherent property of 19^th Century industrialism, despite it being an unintended by-product.   

Likewise, even if FGM were nowhere mentioned in the Sunnah, there is reason to think that Muslims would nevertheless be practicing FGM at a higher rate than non-Muslims, since Islam tends to reproduce the conditions that make FGM useful or necessary.   

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 conditions in which Chastity and Fidelity Assurance Practices solve real problems faced by girls, the parents of girls, and other members of the community. Chastity and Fidelity Assurance practices are technologies, institutions and behaviours that act to preserve the sexual purity (whether actual or reputational) 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.   

Gerry Mackie makes no reference to the decrees of powerful men or prophets in his analysis of how polygyny gives rise to Chastity and Fidelity Assurance practices; likewise his explanation of how such practices become 'locked-in' - persisting long after the originating conditions have lapsed. Mackie's work demonstrates that FGM is not 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'.   

*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.