There are growing movements in the West that are calling for female genital mutilation to be eradicated. While that is good, they are doomed to failure. Why? Because they refuse to address the Islamic justifications of the practice, and even deny that they exist.
FGM is mandated in Islamic law: “Circumcision is obligatory (for every male and female) (by cutting off the piece of skin on the glans of the penis of the male, but circumcision of the female is by cutting out the bazr ‘clitoris’ [this is called khufaadh ‘female circumcision’]).” — ‘Umdat al-Salik e4.3, translated by Mark Durie, The Third Choice, p. 64
Why is it obligatory? Because Muhammad is held to have said so: “Abu al- Malih ibn Usama’s father relates that the Prophet said: ‘Circumcision is a law for men and a preservation of honour for women.’” — Ahmad Ibn Hanbal 5:75
“Narrated Umm Atiyyah al-Ansariyyah: A woman used to perform circumcision 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.’” — Abu Dawud 41:5251
Unless and until its Islamic justifications, which everyone seems to want to cover up and deny, are addressed, FGM will never be eradicated. Anti-FGM movements will tell Muslim women (and men) about the health risks of FGM, and about how barbaric it is to work to deny women sexual pleasure and try to control them, and none of it will stop FGM. All that will wash over believers and what will be left will be the fact that it is justified in Islam — and that is the one thing the anti-FGM campaigners refuse to address. So they will, unfortunately, never succeed.
“30 Per Cent of Young Girls in Paris’s Troubled Suburbs Face FGM Threat,” by Chris Tomlinson, Breitbart, February 13, 2018:
The threat of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the heavily migrant-populated Seine-Saint-Denis area in the suburbs of Paris could affect as many as 30 per cent of the children in the area, according to a French sociologist.
French sociologist and director of the Group for the Abolition of Sexual Mutilation (GAMS), Isabelle Gillette-Faye has claimed that the prevalence of FGM in the suburbs of Paris, often referred to as no-go areas, in the Île-de-France region are concerning.
Gillette-Faye said that the practice often involved much older children than in other regions of the world where FGM occurs in an interview with the region’s official website.
“In general, they undergo mutilations of type 2, that is to say, the removal of the clitoris and labia minora,” Gillette-Faye said.
The sociologist added that in France many victims are forced to go overseas to have the operation, often before they are forced into marriages.
In order to combat the spread of FGM, Gillette-Faye and her group GAMS, have been able to train medical practitioners and social workers to identify cases and work with authorities.
“We will be relieved when we have left circumcision two to three generations behind us. Families living in France are often resistant, as social and traditional pressures are very strong, and it is often the family remaining in the [original] country that decides.”
FGM has become a recognised issue across the Western world in recent years as the number of cases has exploded. In the UK, the number of cases is so high that last year a case was discovered or treated every hour….