SubscribeEgyptians Still Want Female Genital Mutilation
From those defenders of the faith at the New York Times:
Egyptian health care workers and nursing students observe a minute of silence following the death of a 13 year-old girl during an operation to remove her clitoris.
In Egypt, a Rising Push Against Genital Cutting
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
KAFR AL MANSHI ABOU HAMAR, Egypt — The men in this poor farming community were seething. A 13-year-old girl was brought to a doctor’s office to have her clitoris removed, a surgery considered necessary here to preserve chastity and honor.
The girl died, but that was not the source of the outrage. After her death, the government shut down the clinic, and that got everyone stirred up.
“They will not stop us,” shouted Saad Yehia, a tea shop owner along the main street. “We support circumcision!” he shouted over and over.
“Even if the state doesn’t like it, we will circumcise the girls,” shouted Fahmy Ezzeddin Shaweesh, an elder in the village.
Circumcision, as supporters call it, or female genital mutilation, as opponents refer to it, was suddenly a ferocious focus of debate in Egypt this summer. A nationwide campaign to stop the practice has become one of the most powerful social movements in Egypt in decades, uniting an unlikely alliance of government forces, official religious leaders and street-level activists.
Though Egypt’s Health Ministry ordered an end to the practice in 1996, it allowed exceptions in cases of emergency, a loophole critics describe as so wide that it effectively rendered the ban meaningless. But now the government is trying to force a comprehensive ban.
Not only was it unusual for the government to shut down the clinic, but the health minister has also issued a decree banning health care workers— or anyone — from conducting the procedure for any reason.
Beyond that, the Ministry of Religious Affairs also issued a booklet explaining why the practice was not called for in Islam; Egypt’s grand mufti, Ali Gomaa, declared it haram, or prohibited by Islam; Egypt’s highest religious official, Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, called it harmful; television advertisements have been shown on state channels to discourage it; and a national hot line was set up to answer the public’s questions about genital cutting.
But as the men in this village demonstrated, widespread social change in Egypt comes slowly, very slowly. This country is conservative, religious and, for many, guided largely by traditions, even when those traditions do not adhere to the tenets of their faith, be it Christianity or Islam.
For centuries Egyptian girls, usually between the ages of 7 and 13, have been taken to have the procedure done, sometimes by a doctor, sometimes by a barber or whoever else in the village would do it.
As recently as 2005, a government health survey showed that 96 percent of the thousands of married, divorced or widowed women interviewed said they had undergone the procedure — a figure that astounds even many Egyptians.
In the language of the survey, “The practice of female circumcision is virtually universal among women of reproductive age in Egypt.” …
Dr. Nasr el-Sayyid, assistant to the minister of health, said there had already been a drop in urban areas, along with an aggressive effort in more than 100 villages, mostly in the south, to curb the practice. “Our plan and program over the next two years is aiming to take it down 20 percent nationwide,” he said.
The challenge, however, rests in persuading people that their grandparents, parents and they themselves have harmed their daughters. Moreover, advocates must convince a skeptical public that men will marry a woman who has not undergone the procedure and that circumcision is not necessary to preserve family honor. It is a challenge to get men to give up some of their control over women…
But over time, they enlisted the aid of Islamic scholars and health care workers, hoping to disperse misconceptions — like the idea that cutting off the clitoris prevents homosexuality — and relate to people’s lives…
Yes, surely the Islamic scholars are a lot of help. (As any check on any “Ask The Imam” query will reveal.)
But where are the feminists? Where are the professional do-gooders?
How is it possible that this has been allowed to go on for centuries?
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6 Responses to “Egyptians Still Want Female Genital Mutilation”
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September 20th, 2007 at 6:49 am
Because no feminist here has had to undergo the painful procedure who’s ONLY purpose is to deprive women of sexual pleasure.
They’re far more concerned with Catholic women who wear mantillas to church, getting women to have state-funded abortions-on-demand, and making sure women plunk their children in state-run day care. Those are the REAL issues that threaten women’s freedom.
Me?
I’m going to fight for the women who face nightmares every single day, and girls who are mutilated or killed for their gender.
I know what kind of feminism is worthy of being spread around. And it isn’t the feminism the spoiled, snotty, American radical feminists tout.
They’ve lost all credibility with me.
September 20th, 2007 at 9:41 am
Genital mutilation is a barbaric practice that is NOT native to Egypt. It was introduced by the mohammedans back in the 8th Century. It speaks for how brainwashed these people are that the REAL Egyptians, the Copts, had their culture overrun and destroyed by those barbarians.
At one time, Egypt was the most Christian country in that region, and now it’s the home base of the Muslim Brotherhood. If we REALLY wanted to do something to help the women there, we’d fund a black op to destroy islum and promote Christianity in Egypt…but hey, it’s a “religion of peace,” so why would we do something like THAT? Until we grasp the fact that mohammedanism is a dehumanizing, degrading, degenerate cult and TREAT IT AS SUCH, people are going to suffer mutilation and death like women in Egypt have to deal with.
September 20th, 2007 at 10:03 am
96% of women in Egypt have been mutilated? Anybody hear of sublimation? That’s where energy “squandered” in sexual activity is redirected into art, academics, or other all-consuming passion.
Let’s see: no sexual pleasure for Islamic women, they are effectively banned from the arts, prohibited from attending school, kept locked up in the home. Where is all that energy going? These “traditional” abusive practices inflicted on females have only been rigorously enforced during the last half century–prior to that, Islam was not powerful enough to do much other than in isolated cases. Does this sound like a ticking time bomb to anyone?
The number one antidote to slavery is when everybody would rather die than be enslaved. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a symptom of slavery. There are a few ‘do-gooders’ protesting FGM, but I think protesting FGM is treating the symptom and not the cause. There are complaints that American women are “enslaved” by Playboy magazine, by “thin is in,” by the fashion industry, by the glass ceiling and by marriage. FGM is perpetuated by women already indoctrinated into the system, harms fertility (should be popular with the liberals because it reduces surplus population), and promotes adultery by men. FGM is a real symptom of slavery. Coupled with the fact that FGM isn’t obvious in a clothed society, this is going to make it hard to stamp out slavery again.
September 20th, 2007 at 10:57 pm
Here is an example of screaming evil and hatred. I really have nothing to add to the remarks of the others here who put it eloquently; I just can’t read something like this and not voice (because I can) my horror and opposition. But while I’m on the subject, let’s point out that a penis is essentially an enlarged clitoris, so “circumcision” isn’t at all the correct term, unless people start performing penis-ectomies and calling it “circumcision”.
December 18th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Umm… Greek papyrus from 163 B.C. mentions girls in Egypt undergoing circumcision and it is widely accepted to have originated in Egypt and the Nile valley at the time of the Pharaohs. Evidence from mummies have shown evidence of female genital cutting. It predates both Islam and Christianity.
December 18th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
So what are you trying to say Terah….that it’s a good thing? It seems that it doesn’t matter when it started, but only that muslims seem to think it has a place in modern civilization. But how stupid of me to think there is anything resembling civilization in the true muslim world. By the way….are you female? If so where is your outrage? I’ll be waiting for that answer.