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→Polygyny and the social origins of FGM
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{{Quote|[https://unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/De-linking%20FGM%20from%20Islam%20final%20report.pdf 'Delinking Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting from Islam'] by Ibrahim Lethome Asmani & Maryam Sheikh Abdi (2008)|'Shafi’i view it as wajib (obligatory) for both females and males'}} | {{Quote|[https://unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/De-linking%20FGM%20from%20Islam%20final%20report.pdf 'Delinking Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting from Islam'] by Ibrahim Lethome Asmani & Maryam Sheikh Abdi (2008)|'Shafi’i view it as wajib (obligatory) for both females and males'}} | ||
'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')}} | '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)]]. | ||
===Hanbali Madhab=== | ===Hanbali Madhab=== | ||
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'''Paulus of Aegina''' (Aegina is one of the Saronic islands of Greece), a 7th Century AD urologic surgeon, was something of an expert and gives his version of how to perform the procedure (the word ‘nympha’ usually refers the labia minora, but here seems to be being also used of the clitoris): | '''Paulus of Aegina''' (Aegina is one of the Saronic islands of Greece), a 7th Century AD urologic surgeon, was something of an expert and gives his version of how to perform the procedure (the word ‘nympha’ usually refers the labia minora, but here seems to be being also used of the clitoris): | ||
{{Quote|Paulus of Aegina “De Re Medica” book 7|'In certain women the nympha is excessively large and presents a shameful deformity, insomuch that, as has been related, some women have had erections of this part like men, and also venereal desires of a like kind. Wherefore, having placed the woman in a supine posture, and seizing the redundant portion of the nympha in a forceps we cut it out with a scalpel, taking care not to cut too deep lest we occasion the complaint called rhoeas'}} | {{Quote|Paulus of Aegina “De Re Medica” book 7|'In certain women the nympha is excessively large and presents a shameful deformity, insomuch that, as has been related, some women have had erections of this part like men, and also venereal desires of a like kind. Wherefore, having placed the woman in a supine posture, and seizing the redundant portion of the nympha in a forceps we cut it out with a scalpel, taking care not to cut too deep lest we occasion the complaint called rhoeas'}} | ||
== | ==The social origins of FGM== | ||
The previous section shows that FGM existed before Islam. The fact that FGM can exist without it being justified by religious doctrine suggests that it may also have social causes. In the modern world, the most notable examples of FGM being practiced without religious justification is the FGM practiced by the Emberá people of South America<ref>[https://www.panoramas.pitt.edu/health-and-society/eliminating-fgm-embera-tribes-story Eliminating FGM: The Embera Tribe's Story]</ref> and the initiation rituals of the Liberian Sandé<ref>[https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/54bcdf574.pdf Country Profile: FGM in Liberia, December 2014]</ref> (though both arguably have their roots in the Islamic slave trade). There is also the analogous practice of Chinese footbinding, which was essentially secular. | The previous section shows that FGM existed before Islam. The fact that FGM can exist without it being justified by religious doctrine suggests that it may also have social causes. In the modern world, the most notable examples of FGM being practiced without religious justification is the FGM practiced by the Emberá people of South America<ref>[https://www.panoramas.pitt.edu/health-and-society/eliminating-fgm-embera-tribes-story Eliminating FGM: The Embera Tribe's Story]</ref> and the initiation rituals of the Liberian Sandé<ref>[https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/54bcdf574.pdf Country Profile: FGM in Liberia, December 2014]</ref> (though both arguably have their roots in the Islamic slave trade). There is also the analogous practice of Chinese footbinding, which was essentially secular. | ||
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> | 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 identifies the roots of FGM as lying in polygyny, particularly the kind of extreme polygyny that existed at the heart of empires, where some men could become powerful and wealthy enough to be able to afford harems of hundreds of concubines (the word 'concubine' is a euphemism for sex-slave). Polygyny is the norm with humanity - approximately 85% of societies in the anthropological record permit men to marry multiple wives<ref>'[https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.2011.0290 The puzzle of monogamous marriage' Joseph Henrich et al.]</ref>. Although our first human ancestors were probably monogamous, once the accumulation and displacement of wealth became possible, powerful men started also accumulating wives. | ||
Mackie identifies the roots of FGM as lying in polygyny, particularly the kind of extreme polygyny that existed at the heart of empires, where some men could become powerful and wealthy enough to be able to afford harems of hundreds of concubines (the word 'concubine' is a euphemism for sex-slave). Polygyny is the norm with humanity - approximately 85% of societies in the anthropological record permit men to marry multiple wives<ref>'[https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.2011.0290 The puzzle of monogamous marriage' Joseph Henrich et al.]</ref>. Although our first human ancestors were probably monogamous, once the accumulation and displacement of wealth became possible, powerful men started also accumulating wives. | |||
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 better 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 anything from two to 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 the needs of his wive's are not satisfied, they will be tempted be unfaithful, and this may result in the high-status man rearing children that are not his own. | 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 better 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 anything from two to 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 the needs of his wive's are not satisfied, they will be tempted be unfaithful, and this may result in the high-status man rearing children that are not his own. | ||
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FGM becomes a symbol, a proxy, for chastity and fidelity. And to defy the practice is to declare one’s infidelity, even if a girl’s actual intentions, character and actions are chaste and faithful. Uncut girls are considered as ‘immodest’, little better than prostitutes, girls that no self-respecting man would have anything to do with, let alone marry her. Only the daughters of the poorest families, who can not afford to engage in such practices, remain unmutilated. Uncut girls are teased and persecuted at school, and their families are ostracised by the community. Their example serves as public demonstrations of the ignominy that results from not following modesty practices. The avoidance of stigma becomes an added incentive for families to have their daughters mutilated. | FGM becomes a symbol, a proxy, for chastity and fidelity. And to defy the practice is to declare one’s infidelity, even if a girl’s actual intentions, character and actions are chaste and faithful. Uncut girls are considered as ‘immodest’, little better than prostitutes, girls that no self-respecting man would have anything to do with, let alone marry her. Only the daughters of the poorest families, who can not afford to engage in such practices, remain unmutilated. Uncut girls are teased and persecuted at school, and their families are ostracised by the community. Their example serves as public demonstrations of the ignominy that results from not following modesty practices. The avoidance of stigma becomes an added incentive for families to have their daughters mutilated. | ||
The universality of FGM within a local intramarrying community generates folk beliefs): that women must be excessively lustful by nature for such scrupulous guarding and restraint to be necessary; that the clitoris will grow to the length of a goose’s neck if not removed during childhood; that if the clitoris touches the baby’s head during birth the baby will die; or if it touches a man he will die; that an uncut vulva is ugly; that FGM enhances a woman’s facial beauty; that FGM is more hygienic and healthy for the woman; that a ‘cut’ vulva is more pleasurable to the husband; that FGM enhances fertility. These folk beliefs are self-enforcing in that the believed cost of violating them is so high that the truth of the beliefs are never tested – they are ‘belief traps’. This is the case not only with those folk beliefs which link the uncut vulva with death, but also those which postulate the un-marriageability of the uncut girl. | |||
FGM will persist even if the originating conditions of extreme polygyny are removed and even if the majority of the community wish to abandon the practice. This is because in a community where it is a pre-condition of marriage that a girl should be mutilated, no parent can run the risk of their daughters not getting married and thus has to 'play safe'. A parent who does not have his daughters mutilated will end up having to support those daughters for the rest of his life, and also experience the stigma and persecution that comes with having uncut daughters. Thus, his following his conscience and not having his daughters mutilated merely confirms, in the eyes of the intra-marrying community, the necessity of having one's daughters mutilated. The only way a community can cease practicing FGM is if the whole community, or a significant part of it, in a coordinated manner, pledges to not mutilate their daughters and also, most importantly, pledge that their sons will only marry unmutilated girls. This approach - the Pledge Association method - worked spectacularly well with footbinding in China. However, it has been much less succesful, probably because whilst footbinding was a secular practice, FGM is a religious one. | |||
==Islamic Doctrine that creates social conditions favourable to FGM== | ==Islamic Doctrine that creates social conditions favourable to FGM== | ||