Female genital mutilation: ritual or worship? [Archives:2007/1058/Health]
June 11 2007
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At a wedding party in one coastal area, a Yemeni bride was carried to her husband's home in a traditional procession. Upon reaching her husband, he discovered that she wasn't circumcised, so he asked her to return to her home.
To correct their mistake, as they hadn't circumcised her before this moment, her family requested a women's specialist to circumcise her.
Out of her pain, the bride cut her hair and clothes, opened the door and began running unconsciously, seeking to forget the pain. She ran until the only thing in her way was the sea, which might be the only thing to wipe away her tears and decrease her pain. So she disappeared into the sea to end the pain and her life as well.
In an effort to find a solution to the violation of women's human rights, a two-day regional conference was held in Yemen last Wednesday and Thursday involving many individuals and activists from Sudan, Egypt, Djibouti and Somalia, as well as Yemen's governorates.
Aboudou Karimou Adjibade, UNICEF country representative in Yemen, stated, “Studies indicate that 3 million African women and children are subjected to female genital mutilation, 96 percent of which are circum-mutated within the first two weeks of birth.”
Amina Mursal, Minister of Women's Affairs in Somalia, affirmed that Somalia also suffers this problem, saying, “Ninety-eight percent of Somali girls are subjected to circumcision. I don't think this problem is national or regional; rather, it's an international problem, as 140 million women are subjected to circumcision.”
Yemeni Human Rights Minister Huda Al-Ban noted, “Yemeni women's rights, particularly in rural areas, are being violated through bodily injury, early marriage and deprivation from education. Islam forbids oppression, so why do we still oppress each other? The law also prevents circumcision, so it's easy to get rid of such a problem.”
She continued, “We need youths to stand up for this issue because youths are the tools of change. The designers of the curriculum of the schools also must take these issues into account in order to change people's perspective on it.”
Sawsen Al-Refai, gender program officer at the United Nations Population Fund, commented, “These two days are full of work and include many doctors, religious scholars and leaders in order to gain more realistic solutions to put into action.”
Adjibade added, “We came here to agree on strategies to restrict female genital mutilation; thus, we're working to raise awareness among people, build the capacity of partners and come up with effective legislative within a common capacity to protect girls, particularly in these five countries.”
Hurya Al-Eryani, director of organized skills support at the Yemeni Women's Union in Sana'a, remarked, “I don't think this issue is widespread in Yemen. It's more popular in Africa. Here in Yemen, it's well-known in certain governorates, like the Tihama, but it has begun to diminish.”
Najiba Al-Sheikh, director of the Yemeni Women's Union branch in Shabwa, said, “Female genital mutilation is most common on the Yemeni coasts. People use it to diminish female lust and tone down her sexual desire.”
Ramziya Al-Eryani, director of the Yemeni Women's Union in Sana'a, stated, “Ninety-seven percent of Yemenis in Hodeidah mutilate their girls, 96 percent in the Tihama, 98 percent in Al-Mahrah, 82 percent in Aden and 28 percent in Taiz. Additionally, 28 African countries also experience this phenomenon, for a total of 114 million women mutilated annually.”
As the Qur'an and the Sunnah are the source of Muslims' way of life, Islamic preacher Jabri Ibrahim Kamel explained, “Scholars depend on three hadiths, two of which are weak. The first is, 'Circumcision is a law for men and a preservation of honor for women,' and the second is, 'Ashmmi (cut, but only a very little), but do not overdo it.'
“A third is, 'If two circumcised people, meaning a man and a woman, have intercourse, they both must bathe.' In Arabic, it's common to say 'the two circumcised,' but we mean only one. For example, al-nurayn [the two lights] means the sun and the moon, although the moon has no light.”
Kamel further noted that this hadith obliges both the man and woman to bathe after intercourse, not circumcision.
He pointed out that neither the hadith nor the Qur'an obliges women to be circumcised, as even the Prophet Mohammed's (pbuh) daughters weren't circumcised. Clear regulations in the Qur'an and the Sunnah must be followed, but in this matter, no Islamic regulations recommend women or oblige them to be circumcised.
Although female genital mutilation has more negative consequences for women, many still do it, particularly in Sudan, Egypt, Djibouti, Somalia and Yemen. For this reason, activists, lawyers, Islamic scholars and leaders have agreed to fight it and create laws to penalize those who subject girls to it.
They also urge Islamic scholars to issue a fatwa and give lectures about it, as people are more moved and affected by scholars, and further requested the leaders of Arab and Islamic countries to implement the decisions and recommendations from the Sana'a conference.
Female genital mutilation depends on how much genital tissue is cut away. Four major types have been categorized encompassing a wide range of procedures, ranging in severity from a nick on the clitoral hood to cutting off all of the external genitalia and sewing up the vaginal opening.
The World Health Organization, the acknowledged authority on female circumcision, recognizes four types:
The first type is excision of the prepuce with or without excision of part or the entire clitoris. The second type is excision of the prepuce and clitoris, together with partial or total excision of the labia minora. The third type is excision of part or all of the external genitalia and stitching/narrowing of the vaginal opening (infibulation).
The last type is unclassified; it includes pricking, piercing or incision of the clitoris and/or labia; stretching of the clitoris and/or labia; cauterization by burning of the clitoris and surrounding tissues; scraping (angurya cuts) of the vaginal orifice or cutting (gishiri cuts) the vagina; introduction of corrosive substances into the vagina in order to cause bleeding or putting herbs into the vagina with the aim of tightening or narrowing it and any other procedure falling under the above definition for female genital mutilation.
There are many psychological, sexual and social consequences of female circumcision, as sociologist Dhiya'a Fadhl indicated, “The woman feels that she's different from her peers.”
Al-Eryani added, “One university student mutilated as a child is so sad. She's uneasy and feels like an unrespectable wife, if she considers marrying.”
According to Fadhl, circumcised women also lack sexual excitement and arousal during intercourse.
According to WHO criteria, the health consequences of all types of female genital mutilation have been found to pose an increased risk of death to such women's babies. Studies found that immediate complications include severe pain, shock, hemorrhaging, urine retention, ulcerating the genital region and injuring adjacent tissue. Bleeding and infection also can cause death.
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