Muslims and Female Genital Mutilation
It is close to impossible to think of another aspect of muslim life that is as abhorrent as Female Genital Mutilation. Beheadings, maybe. But performing this grotesque abuse of women seems to have achieved a level of acceptance in muslim countries that beheadings have not. Is there any more compelling proof of a mentally ill society?
According to the United Nations, it is estimated tht over 130 million women have had some form of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) performed on them.
This practice is often associated with the religion of Islam, and is most often perfomed in Middle Eastern and North African countries. In both of the African nations of Somalia and Djibouti, 98% of women have had this procedure.
Because of immigration, however, the practice of FGM has recently become more prevelant in Europe and North America. Concerns for the health of women and girls as young as three who are subject to this procedure, have led to legislation making FGM illegal in the United States. In 1994, a bill to ban FGM was introduced in the House of Representatives by Pat Schroeder (D-Colo). This bill, H.R. 3864, was later combined with H.R. 941 and passed into law in September of 1996.
A Practice of Custom or Religion?
Female Genital Mutilation is not a religious practice required by the Islamic faith. It has, however, become a "law by custom." The practice has become important to Islam because it is associated with female sexual purity.
Female Genital Mutilation is intended by its practitioners to both control women's sexual drives and also to cleanse women's genitalia by removing the clitoris which is seen as masculine, a female penis. Because of its association with purity, young women who have not been excised have little chance of marriage in the countries where FGM is practiced
According to the United Nations, it is estimated tht over 130 million women have had some form of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) performed on them.
This practice is often associated with the religion of Islam, and is most often perfomed in Middle Eastern and North African countries. In both of the African nations of Somalia and Djibouti, 98% of women have had this procedure.
Because of immigration, however, the practice of FGM has recently become more prevelant in Europe and North America. Concerns for the health of women and girls as young as three who are subject to this procedure, have led to legislation making FGM illegal in the United States. In 1994, a bill to ban FGM was introduced in the House of Representatives by Pat Schroeder (D-Colo). This bill, H.R. 3864, was later combined with H.R. 941 and passed into law in September of 1996.
A Practice of Custom or Religion?
Female Genital Mutilation is not a religious practice required by the Islamic faith. It has, however, become a "law by custom." The practice has become important to Islam because it is associated with female sexual purity.
Female Genital Mutilation is intended by its practitioners to both control women's sexual drives and also to cleanse women's genitalia by removing the clitoris which is seen as masculine, a female penis. Because of its association with purity, young women who have not been excised have little chance of marriage in the countries where FGM is practiced
Labels: female genital mutilation, muslim madness
posted by no_slappz at 12:02 PM
2 Comments:
I had read that in Europe the governments were going to stop this abusive practice. How could anyone commit such a heinous act?
In the name of Islam - Women are being abused, even mutilated
by Ann Louise Bardach
Readers' Digest, March 1994
In April 1991, a 22-year-old Saudi woman arrived at Montreal's Mirabel Airport and requested asylum on the ground of "gender-related persecution." She told authorities that if Canada forced her to return to Saudi Arabia, her life would be in danger. Her crime? Walking outside her home without being enveloped from head to toe in a black chador.
Initially, the woman's request was rejected. Canadian officials were apparently reluctant to believe that women in Saudi Arabia today live as third-class citizens. In fact, they do: Saudi women are not allowed to drive, to marry whom they want or to travel without written permission from a male guardian, and they are the target of frequent searches by the Mutawwai'in, dreaded religious police.
Following an outcry, Canada finally granted the woman asylum. However, some people feared that the decision would lead to an influx of women asylum-seekers. One official commented, "There are one billion Muslims in the world, so we're talking hypothetically about 500 million who might want out."
As Islamic fundamentalists seize the social agenda of one country after another, women have been the greatest sufferers. By selectively interpreting the Koran, Hadith (the sayings of the Prophet) and Shariah (a code of religious law), regimes in certain Muslim countries have severely restricted the rights of women. Many have legalised polygamy and repudiation - whereby a man divorces his wife simply by announcing, "I divorce you." At the same time they have denied women the right to divorce, child custody and community property.
Under the banner of Islam, (although it is not Islamic in origin) female circumcision, more accurately defined at female genital mutilation (F.G.M.) has flourished in many countries. Algerian Marie-Aimee Helie-Lucas, founder of the French-based advocacy group Women Living Under Islamic Laws, likens the past decade for Muslim women to the Dark Ages. She rattles off some of the most heinous developments regarding women in the Muslim world: -
In 1990, Iraq issued a decree effectively allowing men to kill their wives, daughters or sisters for adultery. -
In Pakistan, current penal laws stipulate stoning to death as the maximum penalty for murder. Unlike man, however, an accused woman is not allowed to testify on her own behalf. Women who claim to have been raped are often imprisoned for committing 'zina', sex outside marriage. In maximum-sentence rape cases, women's testimonies carry no weight. They must produce four adult, pious, male Muslims who actually witnessed the crime. An estimated 2000 women languish in Pakistani jails under ordinances governing such crimes as 'zina'. -
In certain parts of the Muslim world, "honor killings" - in wish a father kills a wife or daughter believed to have dishonoured a family - are not uncommon.
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