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→Islamic Doctrine that creates social conditions favourable to 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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===Islamic Doctrine that creates social conditions favourable to FGM=== | ===Islamic Doctrine that creates social conditions favourable to FGM=== | ||
A culture's kinship system has far reaching consequences - determining laws, beliefs and institutions that, at first sight, can appear only distantly related. From the the previous section, it might be remarked that Islam, by allowing and encouraging polygyny, not only reproduces the originating conditions for FGM but also enshrines in law and custom some secondary consequences of polygyny - such as bride-price, veiling, gender segregation, and arranged and child marriage, and excessive preoccupation with feminine 'purity'. | |||
Indeed, Islam could be characterised as ''the codification and sacralisation of polygyny, and of the consequences of polygyny''. | |||
Monogamous kinship systems approach a state of equilibrium where every man and woman can expect to find a spouse. This state of equilibrium is impossible in a polygynous system. Females become a commodity with both an inherent value (beauty, the pleasure they give, their reproductive capacity) and also value as a status symbol (the more wives you have the higher your status). This fuels a dynamic where the demand for marriageable females always exceeds the supply, where elite men can never have enough wives and poor men are doomed to systemic bachelorhood. | |||
Marriageable females are disproportionately accumulated by elite men. They become a scarce and valued asset that needs to be protected and exploited, 'bride-famines' develop amongst poor low-status men, that are alleviated by introducing ever more females to the marriage market: children, cousins, and females captured in raids (either to be taken as wives by poor men, or sold as sex-slaves to the elite). | |||
Because of the supposed ‘perfection’ of Islam, Muslims are unable to identify the real causes of the sexual violence endemic to their societies. It is instead attributed to notions that female sexuality is excessive, indiscriminate and dangerous if left unchecked by chastity assurance measures such as FGM. Islam thus creates a perfect storm of dysfunctional marital, sexual and kinship practices. It massively overvalues the chastity and purity of females whilst, at the same time, creating sexually violent societies which put that very chastity and purity at increased risk. The solutions Islam offers to this conundrum exacerbate the problems, and thus creating a social and normative context in which chastity assurance measures such as FGM, become useful or even necessary. | |||
Thus Islam establishes a positive feedback loop: Islamic polygyny deprives poor young men of sexual or affective hope; this generates sexual violence; from which Islam protects girls and women by further segregating and isolating them. | |||
==== sex-slavery ==== | |||
Sex-slavery is a consequence of polygyny and Islam allows both slavery and sex slavery. The scarcity of females creates a sexual, affective and marital famine at the bottom of society which has been traditionally solved either by poor young men forming militias and capturing females from neighbouring tribes, or by them engaging in sexual violence towards girls and women of their own community. | |||
This fosters conditions where girls and women are at a heightened risk of sexual violence, increasing the utility or necessity for Chastity Assurance practices such as FGM. | |||
The introduction of sex-slaves into the polygynous system aggravates the bride-famine. If Islam had limited the number of wives a man can have to four, and also forbidden sex-slavery, the polygynous gradient would have been less steep, and indeed, polygyny would have probably have become increasingly moderate and rare and eventually died out. But by allowign sex-slavery Islam has smuggled unregulated polygyny - if a man is rich enough he can have as many 'concubines' as he likes. A steep polygynny gradient intensifies the communities hyperynous urges and the proportion of young men systemically doomed to bachelerhood. | |||
This explains the observation made by 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. | |||
This | ==== mahr ==== | ||
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). | |||
Islamic law makes mandatory the payment of bride-price by the groom (or his family) to the bride (or her family). | |||
==== child marriage ==== | |||
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 . | |||
==== sexual dysfunction ==== | |||
“''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) | |||
==== Violence against girls and women ==== | |||
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. | |||
Polygyny by increasing the society's anxieties around the 'purity', chastity and reputations of girls and women, gives rise to 'honour culture' – whereby excessive measures and excessive punishments are used to control girls and women, and to stop the family's honour being sullied by any (actual or percieved) unchastity of female members. This honour, once lost, can only be restored by severe and violent punishment and revenge, including murder of the female family member and/or the male that compromised her honour. | |||
Polygynyous societies (including Islam) are pervaded by a generalised violence that normalise practices such as FGM: sexual violence, male circumcision, the licitness of wife-beating, public executions and amputations, the glorification of violence in the Qur'an and the Sunnah, the requirement of Jihad, and animal cruelty, including halal slaughter and the mass public slaughter of animals during Eid, – all act to desensitize the culture to the violent nature of practices such as FGM. | |||
Islamic law permits the beating of wives | |||
==== the polygynous family ==== | |||
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. | |||
Fathers have less involvement with their many wives, and even less involvement with their even more numerous children (Osama bin laden’s father had 54 children by 22 wives). Islam encourages parents, relatives and teachers to treat and discipline children in ways that are considered barbaric and perverted in the non-Muslim world. | |||
All this and the physical violence and wife-beating that is common in polygynous/Islamic families normalises the cruelty of FGM, making it an easier act to contemplate. | |||
==FGM in the modern Islamic world== | ==FGM in the modern Islamic world== | ||