Female Genital Mutilation in Islam: Difference between revisions

UNICEF's 2016 report into FGM estimates that in the 30 countries surveyed at least 200 million girls and women have undergone FGM.<ref>UNICEF [https://web.archive.org/web/20220224134221/https://data.unicef.org/resources/female-genital-mutilationcutting-global-concern/ Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: a Global Concern (2016)]</ref> Assuming a world population of 7.9 billion, this means that about one in twenty girls or women world-wide have undergone FGM.     

About 80% of this FGM is attributable to Muslims.<ref name=":2">[https://web.archive.org/web/20220220090423/https://fgmtruth.wordpress.com/what-percentage-of-global-fgm-are-moslems-responsible-for/ What Percentage of Global FGM is done by Moslems ?]</ref> And assuming a world population of Muslims of 1.7 billion, this means that at least one in five (20%) Muslim women is mutilated.     

FGM is found only in or adjacent to Islamic groups.<ref name=":0" /> The 20% of FGM attributable to non-Muslims occurs in communities living in FGM-practicing Islamic societies (e.g. the Egyptian Copts<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220220090640/https://copticliterature.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/prevalence-of-and-support-for-female-genital-mutilation-within-the-copts-of-egypt-unicef-report-2013/ Prevalence of and Support for Female Genital Mutilation within the Copts of Egypt: Unicef Report (2013)]</ref>), or to non-Islamic societies that have been hubs of the Islamic slave trade (e.g. Ethiopia and Eritrea<ref>[https://data.unicef.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/A-Profile-of-FGM-in-Ethiopia_2020.pdf A Profile of Female Genital Mutilation in Ethiopia]</ref>). About one in eighty (1.28%) non-Muslim women are genitally mutilated world-wide.    [[File:Fgmmuslimmap.jpg|alt=World maps comparing distributions of FGM and of Muslims|thumb|World maps comparing distributions of FGM and of Muslims|left|350x350px]]FGM predates Islam. The [[Banu Qurayza|Banu Quraysh]], Muhammad's native tribe, appear to have engaged in the practice (see [https://wikiislam.net/index.php?title=Female_Genital_Mutilation_in_Islam&stable=0#FGM_before_Islam FGM before Islam]). Muhammad maintained the practice after migrating to Medina and is recorded as approving of the practice in four hadith. Two other hadith record the [[sahabah]] (Companions of Mohammed) engaging in the practice. The Qur'an contains no explicit mention of FGM. However, Qur'an 30:30, by exhorting Muslims to ''<nowiki/>'adhere to the fitrah''' indirectly, but ineluctably exhorts Muslims to engage in FGM. (see [https://wikiislam.net/index.php?title=Female_Genital_Mutilation_in_Islam&stable=0#FGM_in_the_Qur.27an_and_Hadith FGM in the Qur'an and Hadith])   

However, as the section [https://wikiislam.net/index.php?title=Female_Genital_Mutilation_in_Islam&stable=0#FGM_before_Islam FGM before Islam] demonstrates, FGM existed before Islam, and there is no evidence that pre-Islamic FGM was religiously-motivated. Thus it is unlikely that Islamic FGM can be entirely explained by obeisance to religious decrees - there must have been other reasons for its existence in pre-Islamic societies.   

It is all too natural to consider FGM as nothing more than an arbitrarily misogynistic practice. However, it is actually a solution to certain social problems - albeit problems that not all societies suffer from, and that no society ''need'' suffer from. The section [https://wikiislam.net/index.php?title=Female_Genital_Mutilation_in_Islam&stable=0#The_origins_of_FGM the origins of FGM] will consider what these 'problems' are, and why they arise in some societies. A subsequent section ([https://wikiislam.net/index.php?title=Female_Genital_Mutilation_in_Islam&stable=0#Islamic_Doctrine_Creating_Social_Conditions_Favourable_to_FGM Islamic Doctrine Creating Social Conditions Favourable to FGM]) shows how Islamic doctrine reproduces the very factors that ''made'' FGM useful or necessary in some pre-Islamic societies. A final section ([https://wikiislam.net/index.php?title=Female_Genital_Mutilation_in_Islam&stable=0#FGM_and_the_Uses_of_Trauma FGM and the Uses of Trauma]) considers how the social purposes of FGM is realised through the individual experience of the child undergoing FGM.  

There is no explicit reference to Female Genital Mutilation in the Qur'an. However, the {{Quran|30|30}} requires Muslims to ''<nowiki/>'adhere to the fitrah'<nowiki/>''.{{Quote|{{Quran|30|30}}|So direct your face toward the religion, inclining to truth. '''[Adhere to] the fitrah''' (فطرة or فطرت) of Allah upon which He has created (فطر) [all] people. No change should there be in the creation of Allah . That is the correct religion, but most of the people do not know.}}'''''The word ''<nowiki/>'fitrah''' appears only this once in the Qur'an, and is left undefined and unexplained. To know what 'fitrah means, traditional scholars turned to hadith which make use of the word. Note that this hadith uses the Arabic word ''khitan'' (ختان) for 'circumcision'.{{Quote|{{Bukhari|7|72|777}}; See also {{Muslim|2|495}}|Abu Hurayrah said: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) say: “The fitrah is five things – or '''five things are part of the fitrah – circumcision''' [اخْتُتِنَّ - khitan], shaving the pubes, trimming the moustache, cutting the nails and plucking the armpit hairs.”}}Two other hadith use the word ''khitan'' in contexts where the procedure is unquestionably being performed on females (and only on females).  {{Quote|1={{Abu Dawud|41|5251}}|2=Narrated Umm Atiyyah al-Ansariyyah: A woman used to perform '''circumcision''' [الْخِتَانُ - khitan] in Medina. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said to her: "Do not cut severely as that is better for a woman and more desirable for a husband".}}{{Quote|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20220220082328/https://sunnah.com/urn/2212030 Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 53:1247]|2=“Umm ‘Alqama related that when the daughters of ‘A’isha’s brother were '''circumcised''' [اخْتُتِنَّ - khitan], ‘A’isha was asked, “Shall we call someone to amuse them?” “Yes,” she replied. ‘Adi was sent for and he came to them. ‘A’isha passed by the room and saw him singing and shaking his head in rapture – and he had a large head of hair. ‘Uff!’ she exclaimed, ‘A shaytan! Get him out! Get him out!'””}}Other hadith use the word 'khitan to refer to ''both'' FGM and Male Circumcision.{{Quote|1={{Bukhari|7|72|777}}; See also {{Muslim|2|495}}|2=Abu Hurayrah said: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) say: “The fitrah is five things – or five things are part of the fitrah – '''circumcision''' [الْخِتَانُ - khitan], shaving the pubes, trimming the moustache, cutting the nails and plucking the armpit hairs.”}}{{Quote|Ahmad Ibn Hanbal 20:719; Al-Baihaqqy 8:324|Abu al- Malih ibn `Usama's father relates that the Prophet said: "'''Circumcision''' [الْخِتَانُ - khitan] is a law for men and a preservation of honour for women'."}}{{Quote|1={{Muslim|3|684}}; see also {{Bukhari|1|5|289}}|2=Abu Musa reported: There cropped up a difference of opinion between a group of Muhajirs (Emigrants and a group of Ansar (Helpers) (and the point of dispute was) that the Ansar said: The bath (because of sexual intercourse) becomes obligatory only-when the semen spurts out or ejaculates. But the Muhajirs said: When a man has sexual intercourse (with the woman), a bath becomes obligatory (no matter whether or not there is seminal emission or ejaculation). Abu Musa said: Well, I satisfy you on this (issue). He (Abu Musa, the narrator) said: I got up (and went) to 'A'isha and sought her permission and it was granted, and I said to her: 0 Mother, or Mother of the Faithful, I want to ask you about a matter on which I feel shy. She said: Don't feel shy of asking me about a thing which you can ask your mother, who gave you birth, for I am too your mother. Upon this I said: What makes a bath obligatory for a person? She replied: You have come across one well informed! The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: When anyone sits amidst four parts (of the woman) and the '''circumcised''' [الْخِتَانُ - khitan]  

The remaining hadith includes an exchange of insults between Meccan warriors and Muhammad's companions prior to the [[Battle of Uhud|battle of Uhud]]. It has little import doctrinally, but is of linguistic, historical and sociological interest because it appears to indicate that Muhammad's native tribe, the Banu Qaraysh, practiced FGM.{{Quote|1={{Bukhari|5|59|399}}|2=“[…] I went out with the people for the battle. When the army aligned for the fight, Siba’ came out and said, ‘Is there any (Muslim) to accept my challenge to a duel?’ Hamza bin `Abdul Muttalib came out and said, ‘O Siba’. O Ibn Um Anmar, '''the one who circumcises''' [أَنْمَارٍ مُقَطِّعَةِ الْبُظُورِ - muqaṭwiʿaẗi al-ْbuẓūri] other ladies! Do you challenge Allah and His Apostle?’ […]”}}

{{Main|Female Genital Mutilation in Islamic Law}}

*The Shafi'i school decrees FGM to be obligatory. Shafi'i countries genearlly have +90% FGM-rates. Infibulation, the most severe form of FGM practiced under Islam, is almost entirely attributable to followers of the Shafi'i school.

The hadith 'One Who Circumcises Other Ladies' suggests that FGM was practiced by the Banu Quraysh, Mohammed's native tribe, and that the FGM reported in the Hadith (which therefore took place after Mohammed's migration to Medina) was a practice carried over from pre-Islamic Mecca.{{Quote|{{Bukhari|5|59|399}}|“[…] I went out with the people for the battle. When the army aligned for the fight, Siba’ came out and said, ‘Is there any (Muslim) to accept my challenge to a duel?’ Hamza bin `Abdul Muttalib came out and said, ‘O Siba’. O Ibn Um Anmar, '''the one who circumcises other ladies!''' Do you challenge Allah and His Apostle?’ […]”}}The Hadith tells how, prior to the battle of Uhud, Hamza, one of Mohammed’s companions, taunts the Meccan warrior, Siba. Hamza implies that Siba is like ‘Ibn Um Anmar’ – a woman who was a known circumciser of women. The more descriptive phrase ''muqteh al-basr'' – ‘one who cuts clitorises‘ – is used rather than the usual ''khitan''.

{{Quote|[https://web.archive.org/web/20220220083117/https://www.scribd.com/document/317447900/Female-Genital-Mutilation-Cutting Salima Ikram, professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, told to Discovery News.]|“This was not common practice in ancient Egypt. There is no physical evidence in mummies, neither there is anything in the art or literature. It probably originated in sub-saharan Africa, and was adopted here later on,”}}

{{Quote|[https://web.archive.org/web/20220220083240/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3080631?seq& Mary Knight - 'Curing Cut or Ritual Mutilation?: Some remarks on the Practice of Female and Male Circumcision in Graeco-Roman Egypt' (2001)]|“But if a man wants to know how to live, he should recite it [a magical spell] every day, after his flesh has been rubbed with the b3d [unknown substance] of an uncircumcised girl [‘m’t] and the flakes of skin of an uncircumcised bald man.”}}

{{Quote|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20220220083240/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3080631?seq& Mary Knight - 'Curing Cut or Ritual Mutilation?: Some remarks on the Practice of Female and Male Circumcision in Graeco-Roman Egypt' (2001)]|2='The Lydians arrived at such a state of delicacy that they were even the first to “castrate” their women … Thus Xanthos says in his second book on the Lydians that Adramytes, the king of the Lydians, castrating the women, used them instead of male eunuchs…. In the second book, he reports that Gyges, the king of the Lydians, was the first who “castrated” women, so that he might use them while they would remain forever youthful.'}}

'''The Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria''' (c. 20 BC – 50 AD) reports in his ''‘Questions on Genesis’''<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220220091148/https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674994188 Questions on Genesis - Philo]</ref>:

James Bruce also reports that the Catholic missionairies in Egypt thought Copts practiced excision ''“upon Judaic principles”'', therefore, they ''“forbade, upon pain of excommunication, that excision should be performed upon the children of parents who had become Catholics”.''

The roots of FGM as lie 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 afford harems of hundreds of concubines (the word 'concubine' is a euphemism for sex-slave).<ref name=":0">'[http://webarchiv.ethz.ch/soms/teaching/OppFall09/MackieFootbinding.pdf Ending Footbinding and Infibulation: A Convention Account' Gerry Mackie (1996)]</ref><ref>[https://pages.ucsd.edu/~gmackie/documents/BeginningOfEndMackie2000.pdf 'Female Genital Cutting: the Beginning of the End' Gerry Mackie (2000)]</ref><ref>[http://pages.ucsd.edu/~gmackie/documents/UNICEF.pdf 'Social Dynamics of Abandonment of Harmful Practices: A New Look at the Theory' - John Lejeune and Gerry Mackie (2008)]</ref>

{{Quote|[https://web.archive.org/web/20220220083729/https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/female-genital-mutilation Female genital mutilation, WHO (2020]|Where FGM is a social convention (social norm), the social pressure to conform to what others do and have been doing, as well as the need to be accepted socially and the fear of being rejected by the community, are strong motivations to perpetuate the practice. In some communities, FGM is almost universally performed and unquestioned.}}

Debates concerning FGM and Islam are generally conducted in terms of what Islamic doctrine explicitly decrees concerning FGM. But moral entities (which can be institutions, groups, individuals and ideologies) are responsible not just for what they explicitly command or forbid, but also for what they allow, what they encourage, and what they indirectly bring about: a mother does not need to ''compel'' her toddler to play with a loaded gun for her to be responsible for any harm that results from it doing so; she merely has to ''allow'' her toddler to play with the loaded gun - or not take reasonable measures to prevent it from doing so. Likewise, few 19^th century industrialists ''intended'' their factories to produce pollution. But pollution was a consequence of their choices, actions and failures to act. Thus a religion's responsibilities (and identity) do not stop with doctrine, but also include the c''onsequences'' of doctrine, including consequences that may be unintended, or that some may consider undesirable.   

 

A society's kinship system has far-reaching implications for the rest of the culture, determining laws, beliefs and institutions that, at first sight, can appear unrelated to kinship and reproduction. Islam, in allowing and encouraging polygyny, reproduces the originating conditions for FGM. As this section will make clear, Islam also enshrines in doctrine, custom and law ''other consequences'' of polygyny, such as bride-price, veiling, gender segregation, arranged marriage, child marriage, and obsession with feminine 'purity'. Indeed, Islam could be characterised as ''the codification and sacralisation of polygyny and of the consequences of polygyny''.

Thus, even if Islamic doctrine ''didn't'' explicitly mandate/allow FGM, it would still be associated with Islam, since it also sacralises the ''causes of FGM,'' and also sacrailises the ''consequences'' of FGM, which erect round the practice an institutional and normative armature that rewards, justifies and normalises FGM, and make it 'useful'.

Monogamous kinship systems approach a state of equilibrium where every man and woman can expect to find a spouse. This state of equilibrium cannot occur in a polygynous system since - assuming an equal number of females and males in the society - every extra wife one man takes will deprive another man of the possibility of finding a bride (imagine a desert island with five men and five women and what happens if one man takes two wives...). Females in polygynous communities thus become become a rare commodity with both inherent value (their attractiveness, their reproductive and home-making capacities) and status value (the more you have, the higher a husband's 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/celibacy.

The 'bride-famine' that develops amongst poor low-status men is addressed by introducing ever more females to the marriage system. One way of doing this it to make marriageable ever-younger girls and of ever-closer relatives - hence the legitimacy of child and first-cousin marriages in polygynous societies. Females can also be captured from outside the community in raids and wars, either to be taken as wives, or sold as sex-slaves to the elite. But even these measures do not alleviate the Bride Famine. And where raids are not an option - celibate young men direct their sexual frustration towards females closer to home: the girls and women of their community. Thus Polygynous societies are inherently violent, and particularly sexually violent<ref name=":3">[https://henrich.fas.harvard.edu/files/henrich/files/henrich_boyd_richerson_2012.pdf The puzzle of monogamous marriage] by Joseph Henrich et al. (2012)</ref>.

This endemic sexual violence further amplifies the society's anxieties with regard to the chastity and purity of their females - leading them to sequester and protect their females even more from young men. This is a positive feedback dynamic whose endpoint is the complete absence and invisibility of non-familial females from the lives of the low-status young men, who are doomed to systemic and chronic bachelorhood. {{Quote|[https://www.amazon.com/Marriage-Civilization-Monogamy-Made-Human/dp/1621572013 'Marriage and Civilization' by William Tucker (2014)]|'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.'}}

The case of Liberia seems to confirm that an Islamic-style kinship system alone is sufficient to cause FGM, without doctrine explicitly mandating/recommending FGM. In Liberia FGM is practiced as an initiation rite into women's secret societies. A 2020 survey found that 38.2% of Liberian girls and women have been subject to FGM<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220220091727/https://www.28toomany.org/country/liberia/ Liberia - 28 Too Many]</ref>, yet only 12% of Liberia's population is Muslim. However, Liberia's marriage and kinship practices are essentially Islamic: men can have up to 4 wives, a third of all Liberian marriages are polygamous, a third of married women aged between 15-49 are in polygamous marriages, and married woman's rights to inherit property from her spouse are restricted.<ref>https://www.genderindex.org/wp-content/uploads/files/datasheets/LR.pdf</ref> Liberia suffers from the sexual violence that is a characteristic of polygynous societies, and to which chastity assurance practices such as FGM are a response (it should be taken into account that Islamic polygyny and FGM were probably introduced to the region by Islamic immigration from Sudan, from empires based in today's Mali, starting from the 13th or 14th century, and later by the influx of infibulated women escaping the slave trade).{{Quote|[https://odi.org/en/publications/the-fallout-of-rape-as-a-weapon-of-war/ The fallout of rape as a weapon of war]|[Liberia] has one of the highest incidences of sexual violence against women in the world. Rape is the most frequently reported crime, accounting for more than one-third of sexual violence cases.}}The supposed perfection of Islam, makes it hard for Muslims to identify the social 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 favours a plethora of dysfunctional marital, sexual and kinship practices. It 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 create a social and normative context in which chastity assurance measures such as FGM, become useful or even necessary.

Gerry Mackie suggests that it is ''extreme polygyny'' that gives rise to chastity assurance measures such as FGM. In a closed system (where females are not imported), the extent of polygyny is limited by the number of females in the system and the number of of systemically agamous young men (which, being a cause of crime, conflict and unrest, is a destabilizing force).<ref name=":0" /> Extreme polygyny is therefore only possible if sex-slaves are introduced into the system. We can note that the famously large harems of the Sultans, Shahs and Sheiks scrupulously respected Islamic law (e.g. the Sultan Moulay Ismail Ibn Sharif of Morocco<ref>'[https://web.archive.org/web/20220220092006/https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/locus-control/201008/all-my-888-children All my 888 children' by Nando Pelusi Ph.D. in Psychology Today]</ref> had four wives and at least 500 'concubines', and Fat′h Ali Shah Qajar, the second Shah of Iran, also had 4 wives, but also a harem of 800-1000 'concubines'). Extreme polygyny without sex-slavery (i.e. females forcibly imported into the system) creates correspondingly extreme bride-famines at the bottom of society, and also deprives the affected men of a means whereby to relieve that famine. This makes for unstable societies - where the interdiction on capturing sex-slaves would not, anyway, be respected. [[File:Infibexzisionplus.jpg|thumb|Maps comparing distribution of FGM and Infibulation and main centes and routes of the Islamic Slave Trade]]Furthermore polygyny that is strictly restricted to a maximum of four wives (with no sex-slavery permitted) loses its power as a status symbol and becomes less desirable to elite men, and likewise diminishes the community's hypergynous drive. Thus in the absence of sex-slavery polygyny tends to diminish and die out.  

Historians estimate that two thirds of slaves under Islam were girls or women.<ref>'[https://web.archive.org/web/20220220092149/http://bernardlugan.blogspot.com/2020/08/nouveau-livre-de-bernard-lugan.html Esclavage, l’histoire à l’endroit'] by Bernard Lugan</ref> Whilst ''local'' raids on neighbors fuel ''tribal'' polygyny, Islamic polygyny (due to religious fervour, a preference for exotic women and a reluctance to take fellow Muslims as slaves) drew on sources of slaves from far afield - especially Africa. This involved captured women and children in long treks across the continent, often to Ethiopia or Zanzibar for transportation to Arabia. These treks were risky and took a heavy toll on the captives. After eunuchs, virgins (i.e. prepubescent or adolescent girls) were the most valuable commodity. Infibulation (the sealing up of the vagina) developed as a verifiable (by potential customers) protection and guarantee of the virginity of these girls over these long hazardous treks (four out of five slaves died during the forced march to the slave trading post at Zanzibar). There appears to be a correlation between the historical centres of the Islamic slave trade and the distribution of infibulation today, and the influence of the Islamic slave trade could explain the pervasiveness of FGM in Islamic Africa today.   

Rites of Passage are marked by three stages:   

*'''Incorporation''' - the initiand is re-incorporated into society with a new identity, as a “new” being with a higher social status. <ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220220092608/https://www.liquisearch.com/liminality/rites_of_passage/arnold_van_gennep Liminality - Rites of Passage - Arnold Van Gennep]</ref>'''<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220220092852/https://courses.lumenlearning.com/culturalanthropology/chapter/rite-of-passage/ Rite of Passage]</ref>'''

Islamic FGM lacks the element of 'severance' as it generally occurs at home or hospital<ref>'[https://web.archive.org/web/20220220085627/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/nov/18/female-genital-mutilation-circumcision-indonesia The day I saw 248 girls suffering genital mutilation' by Abigail Haworth, The Guardian (2012)]</ref> with family members present and often participating<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220220093120/https://www.nowtolove.com.au/health/diet-nutrition/the-final-cut-can-we-end-female-genital-mutilation-12912 I was 7 when I was mutilated while my aunt held me down]</ref>; FGM does not involve a 'transitional' phase, not even prayers; and there is no 'incorporation' - a girl's status after FGM being largely the same as before (however - 'uncut' girls are frequently bullied, shunned and stigmatized by their 'cut' peers<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220220093312/https://plan-international.org/case-studies/uncut-girls-club THE UNCUT GIRLS’ CLUB]</ref>. The fact that this bullying stops after the girls have undergone FGM suggests the procedure does confer ''some'' increased status).   

Rites of passage are public or semi-public, with either the whole community or initiates as witnesses. Islamic FGM is generally a private and secretive affair occurring within the family. With rites of Passage a Master of Ceremonies imparts secret or occult knowledge to the initiand. No such thing occurs with Islamic FGM. Rites of Passage occur at important transitional life events (such as birth, puberty, marriage, death); Islamic FGM can occur any time between birth and puberty, and its timing may depend on quite practical factors: for example, families and isolated villages, rather than having to pay for a ‘cutter’ to visit as each daughter reaches a certain age, will have ''all'' their daughters cut during a single visit of the ‘cutter’, girls from a wide range of ages therefore being cut at the same time.   

This is reflected in the fact that anaesthetics are generally not used, even when available.  [[File:Fgm-in-the-middle-east.jpg|thumb|Iraqi Kurdish four-year-old Shwen screams during her circumcision in Suleimaniyah on April 14, 2009]]{{Quote|[https://www.amazon.com/Infidel-Ayaan-Hirsi-Ali/dp/0743289692 p32 'Infidel' - by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2007)]|Then the scissors went down between my legs and the man cut off my inner labia and clitoris. I heard it, like a butcher snipping the fat off a piece of meat. '''A piercing pain shot up between my legs, indescribable,''' and I howled. Then came the sewing: the long blunt needle clumsily pushed into my bleeding outer labia, my loud and anguished protests...}}{{Quote|[https://web.archive.org/web/20220220084006/https://www.unfpa.org/resources/female-genital-mutilation-fgm-frequently-asked-questions Female genital mutilation (FGM) frequently asked questions, UNFPA (2020)]|'''Anaesthetic and antiseptics are generally not used''' unless the procedure is carried out by medical practitioners.}}[[File:Endfgm-campaign-video-016.jpg|thumb|August, 25, 2008. Tuz Khurmatu, northern Iraq, a midwife (who also delivered Omer and is a trusted and valued member of the neighborhood) slices part of seven year-old Sheelan Anwar Omer's genitals (Photographer: Andrea Bruce).<ref>Image cropped from larger photo - for original see https://web.archive.org/web/20220220093630/https://i0.wp.com/freethoughtblogs.com/taslima/files/2012/06/Kurdish-girl.jpg?ssl=1</ref>|alt=]]{{Quote|[https://web.archive.org/web/20220220084138/https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13131835.i-screaming-mother/ 'I was screaming for my mother' (2013)]|I remember I was screaming for my grandmother and my mother to help me but no-one did. I wasn't given any medication before or after - '''not anaesthetic, nothing'''.}}{{Quote|Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Survivor Tells Her Story (2016) - youtu.be/jlyj9hgdbrQ|My aunt was a doctor, so when she led me downstairs for a clinic and instructed me to lie flat on my back on her operating table I didn't think to question her authority. '''With no anesthetic''' and very little warning she performed a ritualized cut.}}{{Quote|{{cite web

  | archiveurl  = https://web.archive.org/web/20220220084745/https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.3784062/a-horrific-nightmare-female-genital-mutilation-survivor-shares-her-story-in-ottawa-1.3784067

  | date        = 2022-02-20

  | archiveurl  = https://web.archive.org/web/20220220084634/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sri-lanka-women-fgm-idUSKBN1DM023

  | archivedate = 2022-02-20 }}|The room where a doctor, his wife and an assistant were waiting; her legs spread and held down as the doctor approached with a blade, '''inflicting agonizing pain with no anesthetic'''.}}{{Quote|[https://web.archive.org/web/20220220085213/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/female-genital-mutilation-no-anaesthetic-before-she-cut-me-1.2093014 Mehret Yemane describing how, as a nine or 10-year-old in Sudan, she underwent FGM for the fourth time in her short life. Irish Times (2015)]|My brothers held my legs, the elder held the blade. '''There was no anaesthetic before she cut me'''.}}{{Quote|{{cite web

  | date        = 2022-02-20

  | archiveurl  = https://web.archive.org/web/20220220085441/https://glam4good.com/female-genital-mutilation-at-nine-years-old-a-survivor-speaks-out/

  | archivedate = 2022-02-20 }}|In Burkina Faso, we did not have proper clinics for these procedures. We didn’t have doctors in white jackets and gloves. '''We didn’t even have anesthesia to numb the pain'''.}}{{Quote|<nowiki>Breakout Session 3: Female Genital Mutilation - The Facts (2017) - youtu.be/nuaZ_QIx-3U?t=31m44s</nowiki>

|Remember, '''there were no anesthetics''' because for we you have to walk the walk, you have to dance the dance. It's what makes you a woman. When you feel that pain it shows you that pain is all you know as a woman.}}Why are anaesthetics not used? [[File:Indonesia - susanfemalecircumcision-1.jpg|thumb|Medicalised FGM in Indonesia - note the apparent lack of anaesthesia (see also [https://web.archive.org/web/20220220085627/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/nov/18/female-genital-mutilation-circumcision-indonesia The day I saw 248 girls suffering genital mutilation] The Guardian 2012) |alt=|350x350px]]There are several possible reasons. It may be that mothers and other older females in the family expect their daughters to undergo the same procedure (and suffering) that they did; anaesthetics may be unavailable or too expensive for poor families; the illegality of FGM in many countries may make anaesthetics hard to obtain for 'cutters' - or discourage those who can legitimately obtain and use anaesthetics (such as doctors, midwives and nurses) from practicing FGM. The non-use of anaesthetics may also be to some extent due to the fact that cultures that practice FGM do not perceive it as a medical matter but a religious or technical matter and the concerns, priorities and paraphernalia of medical procedures don't apply. This may also explain why it is so often performed with crude instruments, with no regard to asepsis.   

 

Ordeal, pain and fear are used in rites of passage to alter the identity and personality of the initiand and it appears that FGM makes use of pain to the same ends.      

PTSD is almost universal in girls who have undergone FGM.<ref>[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28164288/ Cognitive behavioral therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, or anxiety disorders in women and girls living with female genital mutilation: A systematic review - Adegoke Adelufosi et al (2017)]</ref><ref>[https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-018-1757-0 Psychopathological sequelae of female genital mutilation and their neuroendocrinological associations - Anke Köbach et al]</ref><ref>[https://www.taskforcefgm.de/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/FGM__Trauma.pdf 'Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Memory Problems After Female Genital Mutilation' -  Alice Behrendt, Dipl.-Psych. Steffen Moritz, Ph.D.]</ref> This is the psychological state produced by the 'ordeals' of in Rites of Passage, which are designed to break the person down in order that the 'new person' be reconstructed. In an act analogous to slave-branding - whereby arbitrary violence and pain was used to render the slave manipulable and submissive to his/her master, the child learns that people she loves and trusts are capable of betraying her, and of inflicting great violence and pain. This makes her submissive not just to her family, but also to her community, her religion, her god and to her future husband.       {{Quote|[p365  ‘Male and female circumcision: Religious, medical, social and legal debate‘ by Sami A. Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh]|One of [FGM's] disastrous effects is deterioration of the relation between the girl and her parents. The girls has the feeling that these last betrayed her.}}

{{Quote|[https://www.amazon.com/Infidel-Ayaan-Hirsi-Ali/dp/0743289692 p33 'Infidel' - by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2007)]|Haweya was never the same [after being subjected to FGM]. She had horrible nightmares, and during the day began stomping off to be alone. My once cheerful, playful little sister changed. Sometimes she just stared vacantly at nothing for hours.}}FGM is usually written about in terms of it being a crime against ''women'', that it is women who suffer from FGM and its consequences. However, it should be remembered that the victims of FGM are children, that FGM is a crime against the child long before it is a crime against the woman. FGM makes it probable that the child's first and most intense experience of her sexuality is one of cruelty, betrayal, pain and prolonged suffering. This is likely to generate anxieties considerable anxieties around her body, her sense of self, her sexuality, and of sexuality in general - and implant in the the child (and the woman she will eventually grow up to be) a dysfunctional relationship to her body, to her sexuality and the sexuality of others. This will manifest itself socially in her being more chaste, modest, pure and asexual - which is the ultimate goal of FGM.                {{Quote|[https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1016/S0020-7292(00)00237-X 'Female genital mutilation (FGM) management during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period' H Rushwan (2000)]|The psychological and social consequences of FGM include acute anxiety, frigidity, depression and neurosis which may result in marital disharmony.}}

{{Quote|[https://web.archive.org/web/20220220085932/https://www.memri.org/tv/egyptian-cleric-supports-fgm-cites-protocols-elders-zion 'Egyptian Cleric: Female Circumcision Has Economic Benefits; Jews Fight It in Keeping with Protocols of the Elders of Zion' (Mar 27, 2017)]|”The discussion about female circumcision goes back to the past century. The first time that this subject was debated extensively was in the past century. Who were the first to talk about it? The Jews. They do not want Islam or the Muslims to be pure, developed, and civilized, so they started talking about it.”}}As the above quote suggests, the idea that FGM might be un-Islamic appears to be relatively new. The earliest fatwa clearly critical of FGM appears to be from 1984<ref name=":1">p54 [https://books.google.fr/books?id=qof6J4n1860C&pg=PA54&lpg=PA54&dq=Sheikh+Abu-Sabib+1984&source=bl&ots=-apLOOha6B&sig=dpINFFLI-N9KO8_FmEET-MDFKbI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiXh5Gi5OfcAhVOyoUKHeSgDWUQ6AEwC3oECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=Sheikh%20Abu-Sabib%201984&f=false "Sexual Mutilations: A Human Tragedy" By International Symposium On Sexual Mutiliations 1996]</ref> and since then there have been fatwas critical of FGM. However, most are favourable towards the practice. (see [[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Female Genital Mutilation#Modern Fatwas|Modern Fatwas]])[[File:Fgmwordsearches.jpg|thumb|NGram for terms: 'FGM', 'Female Genital Mutilation' and 'Female Circumcision'|link=]]An Ngram for the terms ‘fgm’, ‘female genital mutilation’ and ‘female circumcision’ shows an increased use of ‘mutilation’ and 'FGM' as against the more anodyne 'circumcision' starting around 1990. This coincides with the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, which first identified female genital mutilation as a harmful traditional practice, and mandated that governments abolish it as one of several ''<nowiki/>'traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children'''.<ref>[http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx Convention on the Rights of the Child]</ref> Soon afterwards organisations such as the World Health Organisation (1995),<ref>[https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/63602/WHO_FRH_WHD_96.10.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Female genital mutilation : report of a WHO technical working group, Geneva, 17-19 July 1995]</ref> the Council of Europe (1995), and UNICEF & UNFPA (1997)<ref>[https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/41903/9241561866.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Female Genital Mutilation - A Joint WHO/UNICEF/UNFPA Statement]</ref> also issued reports critical of FGM.

The 'FGM as un-Islamic' narrative is reinforced by the fact that it is a minority of Muslims that practice FGM. Immigration to the West has till recently come countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey, or the Maghreb that are either Hanafi (the school of fiqh which least favours FGM, merely ruling it as 'optional') or (as in the case of the Maghreb countries) practices a Maliki Islam that appears to eschew FGM. These immigrant populations have effectively imported the 'FGM is un-Islamic' narrative to the West. This narrative is challenged by the rise in immigration from countries such as Indonesia and Somalia, and the Kurdish Middle East<ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305745749_Effect_of_female_genital_mutilationcutting_on_sexual_functions Effect of female genital mutilation/cutting on sexual functions] - Mohammad-Hossein Biglu et al</ref>, where FGM-rates are high and the practice is accepted as compatible with Islam.

The 'FGM is un-Islamic' narrative is further reinforced because the practice gives rise to a dilemma whereby telling the truth (or even just making known facts and evidence) is likely to aggravate the problem. In recent decades many agencies and charities have engaged themselves in the fight against FGM<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220220094320/https://www.humanrightscareers.com/issues/organizations-fighting-female-genital-mutilation/ 20 Organizations Fighting Female Genital Mutilation]</ref>. These agencies face a particular challenge when interacting with individuals and populations who practice FGM: how, for example, does an anti-FGM charity respond to a Somali mother who asks whether FGM is Islamic? If the charity worker tells her about the FGM in the hadith, and how FGM is part of the ''fitrah'' (which Qur'an 30:30 exhorts Muslims to adhere to - see [https://wikiislam.net/wiki/User:Flynnjed/Sandbox#FGM_in_the_Qur.27an_and_Hadith FGM in the Qur'an]), and how the school of fiqh which the Somali woman follows, the Shafi'i, makes FGM mandatory - then that mother will come away from that interaction ''more'' likely to have her daughter mutilated, not ''less''. This dilemma is faced not just by on-the-ground charity workers, but the whole hierarchy of institutions devoted to combating FGM, including politicians, the media and academia.