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by A. F. Dawood

The obnoxious custom of female genital mutilation is still practised among many African tribes irrespective of their religious faith. Female circumcision is a denial of fundamental human right to health.

This cruel practice which has no Islamic injunction is imposed on young girls by old customs and erroneous beliefs. In her dissertation for the post-graduate course Raqiyah Hajih Dauleh, an African woman from Somalia, gives a comprehensive account of female circumcision.

She asserts in her book that a global research on female circumcision shows today that the custom is practised mainly in the continent of Africa, in the southern parts of Arab peninsula and along the Persian Gulf, in the Middle East and among the Muslim population of Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Circumcision was practised in AFRICA before the advent of ISLAM but in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Eastern countries circumcision became to be practised with the spread of Islam to these countries.

Origin

Though female circumcision originated in Africa, the Muslims of Chad and some tribes from Western Sudan do not circumcise and contest the fact that it is against the teaching of Islam; nor do the Sheik of Chad approve of this unhealthy custom. Female circumcision is pre-Islamic in origin and Al-Quran does not enjoin the female to undergo this barbarous practice.

Mohamed Ali Tantavi, Sheik of the Al-Azhar University which is widely acclaimed to be the foremost Islamic University in the world, explicitly declares that Al-Quran does not contain an atom of fact on female circumcision and he further asserts that the Hadeez on this subject is weak. However, in a Hadeez narrated by Shaddah Bin Aws, the prophet is reported to have said that circumcision (khitan) is ennobling for women.

Various methods

It is noteworthy to probe into the various kinds of circumcision women are subjected to. What is female circumcision? Dr. Gerard Zwang in his article on "Female Sexual Mutilation, Technique and Results" wrote the following:

"Any definite and irremedial removal of a healthy organ is mutilation".

The normal female external genital organ is constituted by the vulva, which comprises the labia majora, the labia minora or nymph, and the clitoris covered by its prepuce in front of the urinary canal and the vaginal orifice. Dr. Verzia in his article on "Sequelae of Female Circumcision" summarized the medical facts of genital mutilation of girls and women and the resulting complications arising from this practice. He stated that the term "Female Circumcision" includes all operations involving mutilation of the female genitalia.

Most medical authorities distinguish two main mutilations - Excision and Infibulation. Excision or Clitoridectomy means partial or complete removal of the clitoris. Infibulation or Occlusion means excision (Partial or complete removal of clitoris) plus stitching and reducing the size of the orifice of the vulva.

The execution of this dehumanizing process involves in holding back the head, hands and the legs by the female relatives of the girl or woman while the victim cries and shouts in pain. The term 'Infibulation' is derived from the name given to the Roman practice of fastening a "fibula" or "clasp" through the large lips of the woman's genitalia to prevent her from illicit sexual intercourse.

The aim of 'Infibulation' is to encase the clitoris, the labia minora and the inner walls of the labia majora. The two sides of the vulva are finally attached to each other by stitching with silk or catgut sutures in Sudan or by thorns in Somalia. In the African Continent if a girl does not surrender to this inhuman form of circumcision, she is considered improper and unmarriageable. Dr. Shandad (1967) followed by Dr. Verza (1975) and Dr. Cook (1976) have classified three types of female circumcisions.

Type One: This is a mild type of circumcision which involves the removal of the prepuce of the clitoris only, preserving the clitoris. This type of circumcision is known as Sunnah, which means tradition in Arabic.

Type Two: Excision or Clitoridectomy is a severe form of circumcision commonly practised in Africa. This entails the ablation of the clitoris partially or totally, altogether with the adjacent tissue of the labia minora (small lips) and sometimes the whole of it, except the labia majora (large lips) and without closure of the vulva.

Type Three: Infibulation or Occlusion, commonly practised in Somalia and Sudan, is the most severe and drastic form of female genital mutilation according to medical description.

This cruel and vicious form involves excision and infibulation. Dr. Verzia has recorded that circumcision is performed on the females at the following stages.

(i) 8th day after birth - (Ethiopia) (ii) 10 weeks after birth - (Arabia) (iii) 3-4 years (type 1&2) - (Somalia) (iv) 5-8 years - (Egypt) (v) 8-10 years (type 3) - (Somalia) (vi) Shortly after marriage - (masai tribes (vii) After child birth - (Some tribes in Guinea).

It is important to note here that prophet Mohamed recommended the mild form of circumcision (Type one). That is to remove the prepuce of the clitoris. This type of circumcision is performed in SriLanka when the female child is forty days old.

Suffering

The ancient Arabs practised infibulation (type three circumcision), the most severe form of female circumcision, long before the advent of Islam to protect the shepherd girls from male attacks. In some societies in South East Africa where some women lived in seclusion and where girls often had to live together with men, infibulation was performed. In mild type of circumcision (type one), some tribes in Africa apply a heated piece of stone or pearl to the prepuce of the clitoris.

The suffering and pain caused by this barbaric form of female genital mutilation (type two & type three circumcision) is so severe and results in several complications such as burning sensation, urine dribbling, excessive swelling and infestation of the wound, as it is recorded that most female circumcision is performed by traditional practitioners without anaesthetic experience. Asma El-Dareer, a Sudanese woman, recounts her horrible experience of circumcision in the introduction to her research work on "Circumcision and Its Consequence" (1982).

"I was circumcised in 1960, at the age of 11 years. I remember every detail of that operation, and the worse part was when the wound became infected, and I had to be given five injections of penicillin by the operator, a qualified nurse... when I was eighteen it was the turn of my younger sister to be circumcised... eventually, my sister had the extreme stage of the intermediate type... I still remember how for seven days she cried and complained of painful and burning micturition (urine problem)".

It was reported recently in an English weekly that an Egyptian girl 11 years by the name of Amal Sayyed Bayyoumi, under anaesthesia for circumcision, went into a coma and died shortly afterwards, and that in 1996 three Egyptian girls had died during circumcision. This disgraceful and inhuman practice still continues despite the government's effort to stamp it out. Doctors including WHO are totally opposed to this barbarous practice.

Myth

Some of the mythological reasons adduced to support the importance of circumcision are as follows: religious sacrifice, for hygienic reason, as an initiation rite, rendering a woman less vulnerable to sexual temptation, to safeguard virginity till marriage and to uphold the tradition of the prophet. Some people commit incredible acts to the female sexual organ.

In Southern Yemen and along the Persian Gulf and Oman bordering Southern Yemen, salt is put into the vagina after child birth as these people believe this induces the narrowing of the vagina, but the women subjected to such an action believe that it restores the vagina to its former shape and size to enable sexual intercourse pleasurable for the husband. The people of Upper Volta believe that the clitoris is a dangerous organ which can cause impotence in men and hence all women are subjected to circumcision. In ancient Egypt girls could not marry or inherit property if not circumcised.

Cure by circumcision

From Africa circumcision spread to Western countries. In England and America a large number of Clitoridectomy operations (type two) were performed, especially in the second half of the 19th century, on women suffering from "nymphomania' (excessive or uncontrollable sexual desire in women), hysteria (emotional disturbance), masturbation (self abuse) and other non-conforming behaviour.

There is recorded evidence to show that excision of clitoris could cure sex-related problems in women.

In 1858 Dr. Isaac Baker, an English gynaecologist, first performed Clitoridectomy (type two circumcision) on women to check mental disorders and remarked that nervous disorder was a result of peripheral excitement of the pubic nerve (ie. masturbation of the clitoris).

In 1866 Professor Dubois cured a young woman who was addicted to masturbation by removing the clitoris. In the 19th century Europe and later in the United States, some doctors developed the thesis that the excision of the female clitoris cures various psycho-sexual problems such as insanity, epilepsy and hysteria.

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