Breaking Sex Taboos in Egypt
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In last week’s New York Times there is a great article about the movement gaining momentum in Egypt to end the brutal and senseless practice of female genital mutilation (a.k.a. circumcision). However, it is important to say that circumcision is an inaccurate term for it. Female genital mutilation is the preferred and more accurate term. It is in no way comparable or parallel to circumcision in men.
Genital mutilation is barbaric and no one should care how deeply rooted it is in certain societies. This is a huge issue at least in Egypt, Sudan and many other parts of Africa. It is unfortunate that genital mutilation is considered a cultural heritage in that part of the world, but respecting other cultures does not extend to allowing them to violate the basic rights humans and their bodies.
Having said that, people who justify this are people watched their parents and grandparents do it because it is part of their culture but this does nothing to change the fact that it is an assault on women and a violation of their human rights and bodies. We have to admit that this practice is a sick way to control women and their sexuality. In other words, it is that part of the society which does not respect women as equals, and this is nothing new in Africa in general and majority of Arab world. However, to say these people are backward and they just do not respect women in general is a bit shallow. It is that ignorant part from the uneducated Egyptians - and other societies - that let them do this act with women.
Anyway, it would be a victory for millions of women if the movement continues to gain influence.
Here are some of the key excerpts (full article here):
“Circumcision, or female genital mutilation, as some 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.
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.”
The challenge 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.”
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9 Comments on “Breaking Sex Taboos in Egypt”
male and female genital mutilation is equally barbaric. the only reason the world tolerates mulim male genital mutilation is because jews do it too.
in the age of local anesthesia and outpatient surgery, it’s barbaric to mutilate little powerless children. there is no excuse in this day and age to do forced mutilations.
Let them decide for themselves when they become adults.
gosh this procedure removes much of the clitoris,etc. why would a mother or father wish his beautiful infant baby girl to be cut? and this may be crass, but later, when these female babies grow up, come on, they will have sexual issues from this procedure. why would we want to make sex less pleasurable for our women what kind of crazy nonsense is that?
Sadly enough, people will gladly parrot that this has Islamic roots, because we are a barbaric people adhering to a barbaric religion, yadda yadda blah, so that means it must originate from religious tradition.
In fact it’s all rubbish. There is no connection between the two, and this ban was supported by all high religious authorities in Egypt. Rightfully so.
Do women consent to this procedure in the Western world? Actually, they do. See ‘labiaplasty’ in Wikipedia.
the problem with femalcircumstision or mutilation in egypt is that about this 96% will tell you that it’s in the religion whene they actually don’t know that it is an african habit still existing in the whole of africa, the catastrofy of it is that it’s favored by fathers yet insisted on and done by mothers. my opinion it should be removed by mothers themselves from the egyptian society, it oes meen that men has no hands in it yet the women will be more influencing in this matter as it always was in egypt between men women and there children.
I really appreciate your views about Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), specifically pertaining to control issues over women’s bodies, their lives and their sexuality. I share your views that “respecting other cultures does not extend to allowing them to violate the basic rights humans and their bodies.” I just often wonder, what is the best way to dismantle the notion that FGM is religiously significant and/or that it protects women. In my opinion, it does just the opposite. Is there a way to change societal norms in the Middle East/Africa (or any other places where FGM is practiced) so that FGM is no longer a necessary practice for women and girls?
i wander why almost all arabs waste time and enrgy to discus and debate these kinds of issue, such as Female Genital Mutilation. why egyptian doctors do not make any scientific research and study to proove that Female Genital Mutilation is healthy or unhealthy for an egyptian woman. why the philosophers and culturalists and religious authorities do not do any scietific research and study to see the origin of this practice? and if this practice can be valid for the egyptian society or not?
so i call upon all muslims in arab world and muslims all over the world to unite in all issues and not to seperate, otherwise we can not build an Islamic civilisation.