Origin | Northeast Africa, possibly Meroë (current Sudan), c. 800 BCE – c. 350 CE[ citation needed ] |
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Earliest reference | 163 BCE |
Concentration | Africa, Middle East, Indonesia, Malaysia |
Religions | Shafi and Dawoodi Bohra, but also some Animist, Christian and one Jewish group |
Required by any religion | Shafi'i version of Sunni Islam, Dawoodi Bohras and many Hanbalis who require removal of the prepuce or a small nick on the prepuce. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] |
Definition | "Female genital mutilation comprises all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons" (WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, 1997). [8] |
There is a widespread view among practitioners of female genital mutilation (FGM) that it is a religious requirement, [2] [3] [4] [9] although prevalence rates often vary according to geography and ethnic group. [10] There is an ongoing debate about the extent to which the practice's continuation is influenced by custom, social pressure, lack of health-care information, and the position of women in society. [a] The procedures confer no health benefits and can lead to serious health problems. [8] [12]
FGM is practised predominantly within certain Muslim societies, [13] but it also exists within some adjacent Christian and animist groups. [14] The practice is not required by most forms of Islam and fatwas have been issued forbidding FGM, [15] favouring it, [16] or leaving the decision to parents but advising against it. [17] [18] However, FGM was introduced in Southeast Asia by the spread of Shafi'i version of Islamic jurisprudence, which considers the practice obligatory. [2] [3] [4] [6] [19] There is mention of it on a Greek papyrus from 163 BCE and a possible indirect reference to it on a coffin from Egypt's Middle Kingdom (c. 1991–1786 BCE). [20] It has been found among Skoptsy Christians in Europe, [21] Coptic Christians in Egypt, Orthodox Christians in Ethiopia, Protestants and Catholics in Sudan and Kenya. [22] The only Jewish group known to have practiced it are the Beta Israel of Ethiopia. [b]
Until the 1980s FGM was widely known as female circumcision, which gave the erroneous impression that it was equivalent in severity and health effects to male circumcision. In fact, FGM has only adverse health effects and is almost always more extensive than male circumcision. [24] [8] In 1990 the IAC began referring to it as female genital mutilation, as did the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1991. [25] The WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA defined FGM in 1997 as "all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons". [8] There are four WHO categories:
FGM is concentrated in what Gerry Mackie called an "intriguingly contiguous" zone in Africa—east to west from Somalia to Senegal, and north to south from Egypt to Tanzania. [29] The practice is both "contiguously distributed and contagious", he writes: "It spreads across groups as more resource-endowed males encounter less resource-endowed females in circumstances of inequality." Marriageability is its "main engine of continuation". [30] The practice's distribution in Africa meets in Nubia in the Sudan, leading Mackie to suggest that Type III FGM began there with the Meroite civilization (c. 800 BCE – c. 350 CE) to increase confidence in paternity. [31] [32]
The proposed circumcision of an Egyptian girl is mentioned on a Greek papyrus from 163 BCE. [33] Spell 1117 of the Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts may refer to an uncircumcised girl ('m't), although there is disagreement about the word's meaning. Found on the sarcophagus of Sit-Hedj-Hotep, the spell dates to Egypt's Middle Kingdom (c. 1991–1786 BCE). [34] [35] The examination of mummies has shown no evidence of FGM. [36]
Strabo (c. 64 BCE – c. 23 CE) wrote about FGM after visiting Egypt around 25 BCE, [37] as did Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 BCE – 50 CE): "the Egyptians by the custom of their country circumcise the marriageable youth and maid in the fourteenth (year) of their age, when the male begins to get seed, and the female to have a menstrual flow." [38] Type III FGM became linked to slavery. João dos Santos wrote in 1609 of a group near Mogadishu who had a "custome to sew up their Females, especially their slaves being young to make them unable for conception, which makes these slaves sell dearer, both for their chastitie, and for better confidence which their Masters put in them". [39]
The Bible does not mention FGM. [c] Christian authorities agree that the practice has no foundation in Christianity's religious texts, and Christian missionaries in Africa were at the forefront of efforts to stop it. Indeed, they led the way in referring to it as mutilation; from 1929 the Kenya Missionary Council called it the "sexual mutilation of women", following the lead of Marion Scott Stevenson, a Church of Scotland missionary. [43] When, in the 1930s, Christian missionaries tried to make the abandonment of FGM a condition of church membership in colonial Kenya, they provoked a far-reaching campaign in defence of the practice. [44]
Despite the absence of scriptural support, women and girls within Christian communities, including in Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania, do undergo FGM. [18] It has been found among Coptic Christians in Egypt, Orthodox Christians in Ethiopia, and Protestants and Catholics in Sudan and Kenya. [22] A 2013 UNICEF report identified 17 African countries in which at least 10 percent of Christian women and girls aged 15–49 had undergone it. In Niger, for example, 55 percent of Christian women and girls had experienced it, against two percent of Muslim women and girls. [25]
The Skoptsy Christian sect in Europe practices FGM as part of redemption from sin and to remain chaste. [21]
FGM is found largely within and adjacent to Muslim communities. Prevalence rates among various Muslim nations depend on the ethnicity and location. [45] In Arabic, the practice is referred to as khafḍ (Arabic : خفض) or khifaḍ (Arabic : خِفَض). Khitan (Arabic : خِتان) means male circumcision, but it can also encompass FGM. [46] [47] Less severe forms of FGM, or what the World Health Organization calls Type I (removal of the clitoral hood and/or the clitoral glans), may be referred to as sunna (recommended). [48]
Islamic scholars Abū Dāwūd and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal reported that Muhammad said circumcision was a "law for men and a preservation of honor for women" however these narrations or Hadith are regarded as daʻīf (weak). [49] [50] In a reported narration Muhammad made female genital cutting optional, but he warned against harming women. [51] The above narration is designated as "weak"; according to the Islamic criteria of authenticity, it is missing a link in the chain of narrators and it is found in only one of the six undisputed hadith collections. According to Sayyid Sabiq, the author of Fiqh-us-Sunnah, all hadiths concerning female circumcision are non-authentic. [52]
Senior Muslim religious authorities agree that FGM is neither required nor prohibited by Islam. [13] The Quran does not mention FGM or male circumcision. [53] [54] FGM is praised in a few hadith (sayings attributed to Muhammad) as noble but not required, [55] though the authenticity of these hadith has been questioned. [16] In addition to Sharia, the Ijtihad have been one of the four sources of Muslim law through the centuries. Ijtihad include fatwas (opinions of Muslim religious scholars), which are often widely distributed and describe behaviour that conforms to religious requirements. Fatwas have been issued forbidding FGM, [15] favouring it, [16] and leaving the decision to parents but advising against it. [17]
Several Muslim leaders have called for an end to the practice. In 2004, after CNN broadcast images of a girl in Cairo undergoing FGM, then Grand Mufti of Egypt Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi declared that hadiths on FGM were unreliable. [16] [56] [57] A conference at Al-Azhar University in Cairo in 2006 saw prominent Muslim clergy declare it unnecessary. [58] After a 12-year-old Egyptian girl died during an FGM procedure in 2007, the Al-Azhar Supreme Council of Islamic Research in Cairo ruled, according to UNICEF, that FGM had "no basis in core Islamic law or any of its partial provisions and that it is harmful and should not be practiced". [59] [60] Ali Gomaa, then Grand Mufti of Egypt, stated: "It's prohibited, prohibited, prohibited." [60] Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation said in 2012 that FGM was "a ritual that has survived over centuries and must be stopped as Islam does not support it". [61]
The various schools of Islamic jurisprudence have expressed differing views on FGM. [62] The Hanafi and Hanbali schools of Islamic jurisprudence view it as makrumā for women ("noble", as opposed to obligatory). [3] The Maliki and Shafi'i schools do not differentiate its ruling from that of male circumcision; the former considering it recommended and not obligatory (mandūb), whilst for the latter, it is obligatory (wājib). [2] [3] [4] Other scholars say it has no justification at all. [63] Egyptian scholars such as Mohammed Emara and Mohammad Salim Al-Awa argue that FGM is not an Islamic practice and is not endorsed by Islamic jurisprudence. [64]
In May 2012, it was reported that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt was working to decriminalize FGM. According to reporter Mariz Tadros, they "offered to circumcise women for a nominal fee as part of their community services, a move that threatens to reverse decades of local struggle against the harmful practice. ... Many of the Brothers (and Salafis) argue that while it is not mandatory, it is nevertheless makrumā (noble, preferable, pleasing in the eyes of God). [65]
One hadith from the Sunan Abu Dawood collection states: "A woman used to perform circumcision in Medina. The Prophet said to her: Do not cut severely as that is better for a woman and more desirable for a husband." Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani describes this hadith as poor in authenticity, and quotes Ahmad Bayhaqi's opinion that it is "poor, with a broken chain of transmission". Yusuf ibn Abd-al-Barr commented: "Those who consider (female) circumcision a sunna, use as evidence this hadith of Abu al-Malih, which is based solely on the evidence of Hajjaj ibn Artaa, who cannot be admitted as an authority when he is the sole transmitter." [66]
Another hadith used in support is in Sahih Muslim: "The Messenger of Allah said: When anyone sits amidst four parts (of the woman) and the circumcised parts touch each other a bath becomes obligatory." Mohammad Salim al-Awa states that, while the hadith is authentic, it is not evidence of support for FGM. He states that the Arabic for "the two circumcision organs" is a single word used to connote two forms of circumcision. While the female form is used to denote both male and female genitalia, it should be considered to refer only to the male circumcised organ. [67] A hadith in Sahih Bukhari says: "I heard the Prophet saying. "Five practices are characteristics of the Fitra: circumcision, shaving the pubic hair, cutting the moustaches short, clipping the nails, and depilating the hair of the armpits." [68] Mohamed Salim Al-Awwa writes that it is unclear whether these requirements were meant for females. [69]
External images | |
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FGM ceremony in Indonesia | |
Preparations | |
Girl before procedure | |
Nine-month-old afterwards — Stephanie Sinclair (The New York Times Magazine, April 2006) [70] |
According to William Clarence-Smith, Islamic Southeast Asia "overwhelmingly" follows the Shafi`i school of law, the only one to make FGM obligatory. The greatest opposition in the area, he writes, is from syncretic Muslims in Java; some practitioners use the root of the turmeric plant to perform an alternative symbolic procedure. [71]
Islam introduced FGM into Indonesia and Malaysia from the 13th century on. [72] [73] Over 80 percent of Malaysian women claim religious obligation as the primary reason for practising FGM, along with hygiene (41 percent) and cultural practice (32 percent). [74] The practice is widespread among Muslim women in Indonesia. [75] In 2013 the Indonesian Ulema Council, Indonesia's top Muslim clerical body, ruled that it favours FGM, stating that although it is not mandatory, it is "morally recommended". [76] The Ulema has been pushing the Indonesian government to circumcise girls, arguing that it is part of Islamic teachings. [77] In 2014, Indonesia criminalized all forms of FGM after it repealed exceptions to the laws. [78]
Shiite religious texts, such as the hadith transmitted by Al-Sadiq, indicate circumcision is only required for men. [79] Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the highest-ranking Shia (Marja’) in Iraq and the leader of the Hawza (Islamic University) of Najaf, forbids FGM on his website: [ This quote needs a citation ]
Question: Is female circumcision obligatory or is tradition and merely recommended?
Answer: If the purpose of female genital circumcision is cutting clitoris this operation is not right and is not a religious tradition. If the girl is hurt, it is prohibited. Female genital (sexual) mutilation or cutting off a part of her genital is certainly a crime against girls and there is no permission and justification for parents to do this operation.
FGM as a practice is nearly universally unknown among the orthodox Shia Muslims.[ citation needed ] In Iraq and Iran, it is carried out only among the Sunni minorities.[ citation needed ]
FGM is performed within the Dawoodi Bohra community in India, Pakistan, Yemen and East Africa. [80] According to a 2015–2016 survey, over 80 percent of 365 Dawoodi Bohra women surveyed wanted the practice to end. [81] In 2017 two doctors and a third woman connected to the Dawoodi Bohra in Detroit, Michigan, were arrested on charges of conducting FGM on two seven-year-old girls in the United States. [82]
In Pakistan and India female genital mutilation is practiced by Muslims of the Dawoodi Bohra and Sheedi communities, who believe that it leads to purity. [83] [84] [85] [86]
Most forms of Judaism require male circumcision, but they do not allow FGM and the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) does not mention it.
The only Jewish group known to have practised FGM is the Beta Israel of Ethiopia. [23] [87] The Beta Israel were not familiar with the Talmud, the Mishnah, and other rabbinical literature, and read and spoke little or no Hebrew. A majority of the community was flown to Israel between 1984 and 1991 in the covert Operation Moses and Operation Solomon, and upon arrival in Israel they immediately abandoned FGM. [18] A study in 1997 found that one third of the 113 Beta Israel women examined in Israel had experienced any form of FGM; 27 percent had undergone partial or total clitoridectomy. [88]
Several animist groups in Africa, particularly Guinea and Mali, practise it. [89]
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is the cutting or removal of some or all of the vulva for non-medical reasons. FGM prevalence varies worldwide, but is majorly present in some countries of Africa, Asia and Middle East, and within their diasporas. As of 2024, UNICEF estimates that worldwide 230 million girls and women had been subjected to one or more types of FGM.
Genital modifications are forms of body modifications applied to the human sexual organs. When there's cutting involved, genital cutting or surgery can be used. The term genital enhancement seem to be generally used for genital modifications that modify the external aspect, the way the patient wants it. The term genital mutilation is used for genital modifications that drastically diminish the recipient's quality of life and result in adverse health outcomes, whether physical or mental.
Infibulation is the ritual removal of the vulva and its suturing, a practice found mainly in northeastern Africa, particularly in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan. The World Health Organization refers to the procedure as Type III female genital mutilation.
Gender roles in Islam are based on scriptures, cultural traditions, and jurisprudence.
Khitan or Khatna is the Arabic term for circumcision, and the Islamic term for the practice of religious male circumcision in Islamic culture. Male circumcision is widespread in the Muslim world, and accepted as an established practice by all Islamic schools of jurisprudence. It is considered a sign of belonging to the wider Muslim community (Ummah).
Clitoral hood reduction, also termed clitoral hoodectomy, clitoral unhooding, clitoridotomy, or (partial) hoodectomy, is a plastic surgery procedure for reducing the size and the area of the clitoral hood in order to further expose the glans of the clitoris.
Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting (FGC), female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is practiced in 30 countries in western, eastern, and north-eastern Africa, in parts of the Middle East and Asia, and within some immigrant communities in Europe, North America and Australia, as well as in specific minority enclaves in areas such as South Asia and Russia. The WHO defines the practice as "all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons."
The campaign against female genital mutilation in colonial Kenya (1929–1932), also known as the female circumcision controversy, was a period within Kenyan historiography known for efforts by British missionaries, particularly from the Church of Scotland, to stop the practice of female genital mutilation in colonial Kenya. The campaign was met with resistance by the Kikuyu, the country's largest tribe. According to American historian Lynn M. Thomas, female genital mutilation became a focal point of the movement campaigning for independence from British rule, and a test of loyalty, either to the Christian churches or to the Kikuyu Central Association, the largest association of the Kikuyu people.
Fuambai Sia Ahmadu is a Sierra Leonean-American anthropologist. She has worked for UNICEF and the British Medical Research Council in the Gambia.
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Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female circumcision or female genital cutting, includes any procedure involving the removal or injury of part or all of the vulva for non-medical reasons. While the practice is most common in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, FGM is also widespread in immigrant communities and metropolitan areas in the United States, and was performed by doctors regularly until the 1980s.
Female genital mutilation in Sierra Leone is the common practice of removing all or part of the female's genitalia for cultural and religious initiation purposes, or as a custom to prepare them for marriage. Sierra Leone is one of 28 countries in Africa where female genital mutilation (FGM) is known to be practiced and one of few that has not banned it. It is widespread in part due to it being an initiation rite into the "Bondo," though initiation rite-related FGM was criminalised in 2019. The type most commonly practised in Sierra Leone is Type IIb, removal of part or all of the clitoris and the labia minora. As of 2013, it had a prevalence of 89.6%.
Nigeria has the highest rate of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the world in total numbers. It is usually experienced by girls aged 0 to 15 years old. It involves either partial or complete removal of the vulva or other injury to the female genital organs and has no medical benefit.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a cultural practice that occurs in several cultures and is practised in India by some Islamic groups. The Dawoodi Bohra is one sect of Islam in India known for their practice of FGM, with other Bohra sects reported as partaking in practices of FGM as well. The procedure frequently occurs at the age of seven and involves "all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs.". The process is typically performed by a traditional practitioner using a knife or a blade and can range from Type I to Type IV. The consequences of FGM take on a wide range and can span from discomfort to sepsis and have also been correlated with psychological consequences, such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is highly prevalent in Sudan. According to a 2014 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), 86.6 percent of women aged 15–49 in Sudan reported living with FGM, and said that 31.5 percent of their daughters had been cut. The most common FGM procedure in that country is Type III (infibulation); the 2014 survey found that 77 percent of respondents had experienced Type III.
Woman, Why Do You Weep? Circumcision and Its Consequences (1982) is a book by Sudanese physician Asma El Dareer about female genital mutilation in Sudan. Published in London by Zed Press in association with the Babiker Bedri Scientific Association for Women's Studies, the book summarizes research El Dareer conducted on female genital mutilation (FGM) for the medical faculty of the University of Khartoum.
Masooma Ranalvi is an activist for the ending of female genital mutilation (FGM) in India.
Rayehe Mozafarian is an Iranian women and children rights activist, author, and documentary filmmaker. The founder of Stop FGM Iran group and Woman and Zoorkhaneh campaign, she is best known for her researches and raising awareness about female genital mutilation in Iran and challenging the country's Zoorkhaneh Sports Federation to unban women from participating Iranian's ancient sport pahlevani and zoorkhaneh rituals.
The book In the Name of Tradition is the outcome of a comprehensive study on female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) in Iran conducted by Kameel Ahmady, an anthropologist and researcher, and his colleagues. It was published in Persian by Shirazeh in 2015 and followed by an English version by Uncutvoice publishing house in the same year. The study explores why and how FGM is practised in Iran. The researchers aimed to uncover the various dimensions of FGM between 2005 and 2015 in four provinces: West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Kermanshah, and Hormozgan.
Female genital mutilation in the Gambia is the practice of removing all or part of the female's genitalia for cultural reasons, believed by those who practice it to affect sexual purity and obedience and required before marriage in some communities. The Gambia is one of 28 countries in Africa where female genital mutilation (FGM) is known to be practiced.