Egypt: Fighting for Female Genital Mutilation

Sweet Jesus!

Someone help these poor girls.

Islam is the only religion that endorses female genital mutilation.

70% of Egyptian girls today are estimated to be circumcised.

Circumcision is most often performed on female children at the age of seven or eight (before the girl begins to get menstrual periods). On the scene appears the daya or local midwife. Two women members of the family grasp the child's thighs on either side and pull them apart to expose the external genital organs and to prevent her from struggling like trussing a chicken before it is slain. A sharp razor in the hand of the daya cuts off the clitoris.

And this barbarism is occuring in so-called 'moderate' Egypt where Islamists and Moslem clerics are currently fighting legislation to criminalize female circumcision and raise the minimum marriage age.

The criminal penalties they're trying to enforce? A maximum of two years prison and a 5000 pound fine. Sounds like tiddlywinks to me.

The bill "has been met with a storm of protest" by both the majority party and the opposition Islamists. The Muslim Brotherhood has ranted about it too.

Of course, we haven't heard a peep out of the blow-dried, show dog feminists on the subject.

Read more about "cutting the rose" as it is euphemistically called, down below.


The Sunna

Islam is the only major world religion tolerating FGM (p 283). Over a hundred million women world wide especially in the Horn of Africa suffer circumcision removing the clitoris, or infibulation the literal sewing up of the labia to prevent pregnancy. Up to 75% of Egyptian women, including Nawal el Sadaawi herself are 'circumcised'. Muhammad is reputed to have said "reduce but do not destroy" when faced with this practice, but this has led to the sunna cut of the female becoming as traditional as Sunni faith itself:

"The practice of circumcising girls is still a common procedure in a number of Arab countries such as Egypt, the Sudan, Yeman and some of the Gulf states.

The importance given to virginity and an intact hymen in these societies is the reason why female circumcision still remains a very widespread practice despite a growing tendency, especially in urban Egypt, to do away with it as something outdated and harmful.

Behind circumcision lies the belief that, by removing parts of girls' external genital organs, sexual desire is minimized. This permits a female who has reached the 'dangerous age' of puberty and adolescence to protect her virginity, and therefore her honour, with greater ease.

Chastity was imposed on male attendants in the female harem by castration which turned them into inoffensive eunuchs. Similarly female circumcision is meant to preserve the chastity of young girls by reducing their desire for sexual intercourse.

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