User:Flynnjed/Sandbox: Difference between revisions

'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)]].

== The Causes of FGM ==

There are two broad categories of causes for FGM: doctrinal causes and social causes. Doctrinal causes operate when people practice FGM because they believe their god or religion requires them to do so (see the sections on [[#hadith|FGM in the Hadith]], [[#quran|FGM in the Qur'an]] and [[#law|FGM in Islamic law]]). However, as the previous section makes clear, FGM existed long before Islam, which suggests that Doctrine is unlikely to completely explain its existence.

Much of what follows in this section is based on the work of Gerry Mackie, who has conducted insightful work into the social origins of FGM, using comparative-historical sociology and game theory. <ref>[http://webarchiv.ethz.ch/soms/teaching/OppFall09/MackieFootbinding.pdf Ending Footbinding and Infibulation: A Convention Account - Gerry Mackie]</ref>  

Mackie sees FGM as having its roots in polygyny, particularly the kind of extreme polygyny that could exist at the heart of empires. In polygynous societies it is only rich and high-status men who are able to afford to keep multiple wives. However, these high-status polygynous men face a problem guaranteeing the fidelity of their many wives - and the more wives they have the greater that problem becomes. In a monogamous marriage, by comparison, a husband and wife can spend much time together (and thus can monitor each others fidelity), become close to one another, and their sexual and emotional needs and capacity are more-or-less proportional. A polygynous man may have two, four, a hundred or some times even a thousand 'concubines' (note that Islamic law, whilst limiting the number of wives a man can have, places no limit on the number of sex-slaves a man can own), whom he must satisfy emotionally and sexually, keep faithful, and whose desire for motherhood he must also satisfy. If one of his wive's needs are not satisfied, she will be tempted be unfaithful, and this may result in the high-status man rearing a child that is not his own. Which, in terms of genetic evolution, is a disaster for the man.  

In order to assure themselves of the chastity and fidelity of their many wives, polygynous men have developed a variety of practices which safeguard and assure a girl or woman's chastity:

*'''harems''' - which keep 'concubines' locked away, guarded by eunuchs;

FGM is a Chastity Assurance practice. It reduces a girl's capacity for sexual pleasure both physically (through the removal of the clitoris and labia) and mentally (through the effects of trauma). Where a girl has been infibulated her chastity is further guaranteed because her vaginal opening is sealed with a covering of skin, the penetration of which is extremely painful and which leads to severe hemorrhaging that is difficult to conceal.

In polygynous societies, marriage to high status men is highly advantageous, to both potential brides and their families, who will benefit from having a high-status male as a relative. The urge for women to marry into higher strata of society is called ''hypergyny''. It is universal to all societies, but is intensified in polygynous societies. This is partly because in monogamous societies, high-status man become unavailable (as husbands) once married, whereas in polygynous societies a married high-status man remains available.

Girls who aspire to marry high status polygynous men must meet their expectations and standards - a family wishing to marry a daughter to a high status man must persuade him that their daughter is 'pure', chaste and will be faithful to him. They demonstrate this by adopting (or having their daughter adopt) Chastity Assurance practices expected by that man, whether it be FGM or other practices in the above list.

The intensely hypergynous nature of polygynous societies means that the marriage practices of high-status polygynous men cascade down through the lower ranks of society, and are rapidly adopted by all families. Only the daughters of the poorest families, who can not afford to engage in such practices, are spared. These girls and their families are stigmatised as 'impure', contaminating and guaranteed to be unchaste, and will be considered as 'untouchables' and suffer from intense discrimination and persecution. Thus the avoidance of stigma becomes an added incentive for families to conform to the community's Chastity Assurance practices.

A Muslim with four wives and ninety-six sex slaves faces the same fidelity-assurance challenges as a non-Muslim with a hundred wives. And four wives are as likely to be a source of anxiety as four sex-slaves. They are therefore are both equally likely to require wives who are mutilated (though a slave-trader may be more disposed to employing the practice on a ''captured'' female than a loving parent on a daughter).