To Mutilate in the Name of Jehovah or Allah: Legitimization of Male and Female Circumcision

[Guest guest]

>

> , " jagbir singh "

> <adishakti_org@> wrote:

>

> The theme of blaming women for men's lust

>

> Except for religious fanatics, most humans do not view " women being

> seen as dirty and impure and a temptation for men " . The worst of

> the religious fanatics are those who slice off their clitorises so

> that not only will these women in future not tempt them, but also

> not tempt husbands in coitus with moans of their own pleasure.

> These religious men want to feel all the power and pleasure of

> penetrating dominated women at will, and thus take inhuman steps to

> deny them the same. After all, their women were originally created

> from a man's rib. How much respect do you think those indoctrinated

> with this belief have for women?...

>

> We all revere the Divine Feminine and regard a wife, daughter,

> mother or sister as sacred too. The patriarchal religious fanatics

> will too if they realize the Divine Feminine (Shekinah/Holy Spirit/

> Ruh/) within .......... or want to take part in the Last Judgment

> and Al-Qiyamah. So do you see Her triumphing and leaving them no

> choice? Why do you think some Muslim nations have begun blocking

> the http://al-qiyamah.org/ site? Maybe you do not have the power to

> force change but She definitely has.

>

>

 

 

Medicine and Law, Volume 13, Number 7-8: Pages 575-622, July 1994.

 

To Mutilate in the Name of Jehovah or Allah:

Legitimization of Male and Female Circumcision

by Sami A. ALDEEB ABU-SAHLIEH

 

New enlarged edition, July 1994

By the author

Rue du Centre 74

1025 St-Sulpice

Suisse

 

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I. DEFINITIONS AND DISTINCTIONS

I. Terminology

II. Male and female circumcision

III. Practice of male and female circumcision

CHAPTER II. RELIGIOUS ARGUMENTS

I. Religious arguments in favour of circumcision

II. Religious arguments against circumcision

III. Qualification of circumcision in Muslim law

IV. Modality of circumcision according to Muslim law

CHAPTER III. REASON IN AID OF RELIGION

I. Male circumcision

II. Female circumcision

III. Mitigated position of religious circles confronted with Reason

CHAPTER IV. LEGAL PROHIBITION OF FEMALE CIRCUMCISION

I. To judge others' customs

II. Right to difference or indifference

III. Distinction between different forms of circumcision

IV. Temporary and preventive measures

CHAPTER V. THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON CIRCUMCISION

I. Organizers and participants

II. Reasons of the symposium

III. Combating Male circumcision by identifying the responsible

parties

IV. How to restore the foreskin

V. Demonstration in Washington

CONCLUSION

Footnotes

Biography

 

 

INTRODUCTION

Article 24, paragraph 3 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child,

of 20 Nov. 1989, stipulates:

States Parties shall take all effective and appropriate measures with

a view to abolishing traditional practices prejudicial to the health

of children1.

 

In 1984, the President of the Inter-African Committee stated:

 

An erroneous idea of Religion has played a key role in maintaining

the practice of excision and other practices which tend to relegate

the woman to a lower status in relation to the man 2.

 

In April 1987, the Vice-President of the Inter-African Committee

reiterated:

 

I request more aggressive tactics to put an end to the practice of

infibulation. I call for more active support especially from the

religious leaders of Islam after it has been confirmed many times

that this practice is contrary to the precept of Islam 3.

 

In this Committee's opinion, religion and Muslim religious leaders

play an important role in the matter of female circumcision. The goal

of this study is to define this role in male circumcision as well as

in female circumcision. We shall on purpose avoid any use of the word

Islam, as too abstract a notion, and we shall concentrate on the

written sources of Muslim law and the opinions of contemporary Arab

authors, mostly of Egyptian origin.

 

 

CHAPTER I. DEFINITIONS AND DISTINCTIONS

I. TERMINOLOGY

 

The English language uses different terms to designate sexual

mutilations. Generally, one speaks of circumcision for boys, and of

circumcision, excision or infibulation (depending of the case) for

girls. In this study, we shall use the terms male circumcision and

female circumcision 4.

 

The legal Arabic jargon uses the word khitan for male circumcision

and the term khafd or khifad for female circumcision. But the

everyday language uses the term khitan for both mutilations. There is

also taharah, meaning purification, these mutilations being said to

be purificatory to their victims 5.

 

 

II. MALE AND FEMALE CIRCUMCISION

Female circumcision has triggered a passionate public debate in the

West. Many national, non governmental, and international

organizations are showing their concern 6. This debate has found

somewhat of an echo in the Arab world. The feminist circles demand

its abolition, while at the same time, the Muslim religious circles

try as often as they can to justify female circumcision, only in the

form called sunnah, which is said to be the one conforming to the

tradition of Mohammed 7. But the Arabic juridical literature shows

very little interest for this issue 8. The Arabic medical profession

does not seem to be much interested either: constituted of a majority

of men, its responsibility is to perpetuate social and moral values

which are predominant in its society, thus blindfolding its members 9.

 

Contrary to female circumcision, male circumcision does not really

interest anyone10. The debate on the topic is still taboo. This

attitude can be observed in the previously mentioned article 24,

paragraph 3 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In spite of

a general wording, the preparatory studies prove that its authors had

only female circumcision in mind and not male circumcision at all 11.

 

The distinction made between male circumcision and female

circumcision might be justified for medical and cultural reasons.

According to Wedad Zenie-Ziegler, an Egyptian woman:

 

There is no similarity between male circumcision, a prophylactic

measure recommended for boys in almost every society and female

circumcision, the goal of which is to diminish, if not suppress

sexual desire in women 12.

 

During the UN Seminar in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), the majority of

participants agreed that the justifications of female circumcision

based on cosmogony and those based on religion " must be assimilated

to superstition and denounced as such " since " neither the Bible, nor

the Koran recommend that women be excised " . They recommend ensuring

that, in the minds of people, male circumcision and female

circumcision be dissociated, the former as a procedure for hygienic

purposes, the latter, excision, as a serious form of assault on the

women's physical integrity 13. This reasoning is groundless and

extremely dangerous. If female circumcision was in the Bible or the

Koran, would it be allowed no matter what? And if one decided to put

into practice everything that is said in the Bible and the Koran,

starting with the law of retaliation?!

 

Another opinion came from Ghita El-Khayat-Bennai, a Moroccan woman:

 

Women are not alone in being subjected to sexual mutilations. Every

Jew all over the world for example is circumcised on the 7th day

without much concern on the part of his parents. They keep

circumcising their male offspring, even knowing this to be an

extremely traumatic event, preferring to subject the little boy to

pain rather than face their own fear and cultural taboos as adults

14. Geneviëve Guidicelli-Delage writes:

 

No doubt the consequences are of lesser importance in male

circumcision than they are in female excision (although some

practices of minimal excision could be seen as identical to male

circumcision). But nevertheless, to take a position in view of

consequences alone would be a mistake. Custom justifies the most

serious actions, even death: the essential here is not action, but

culture. If a family from Mali may in France have a son circumcised,

but may not have a daughter excised, it is because male circumcision

belongs to a cultural order which is more or less ours, male

circumcision belongs to this Judeo-Christian ideology which is the

melting pot of our culture and this ideology does not know excision

and never did15.

 

For Doctor Gerard Zwang, the reason for making a distinction between

the two types of circumcision is simple: most sexologists and most

men in charge of information about it are circumcised [Jews]. They

oppose any debate on the subject of male circumcision16.

 

Juridical logic cannot acknowledge the distinction between male and

female circumcision, both being the mutilation of healthy organs and

consequently damaging the physical integrity of the child, whatever

the religious motivations lying underneath17.

 

 

III. PRACTICE OF MALE AND FEMALE CIRCUMCISION

Male circumcision is practiced by all Muslims and Jews and also by

some Christians, as is the case for Christians in Egypt. It is also

practiced by animist tribes in Africa.

 

As for female circumcision, it is neither practiced by all Muslims,

nor by all Arabs. In fact, many if not most of the Maghreb countries

as well as Turkey and Iran ignore this custom 18. On the other hand,

one can find it among the Egyptian Christians19 and the Ethiopian

Jews (Falachas) 20 who in all probability keep practicing it in

Israel today, as do Africans living in France. Sudan (98%), Somalia

(98%) and Egypt (75%) are among the largest Arabic countries

practicing it. In Egypt, 97.5% of uneducated families impose

circumcision upon their daughters compared to 66.2% of educated

families 21. Other Arabic countries practice it too: Yemen, the

United Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, some areas of Saudi Arabia,

Mauritania. It appears to be done also in some Muslim countries of

Asia such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and India under the name

of sunnah circumcision, here with a reference to religion. But

precise data on the subject are not available. In Africa, 28

countries appear to practice it, among them many animist tribes. It

seems to affect about 75 million women 22.

 

Often, male or female circumcision is performed without anaesthesia

in a barbaric manner, by persons without any medical training, such

as barbers or midwives, using rudimentary instruments causing

complications sometimes leading to death. We have many tragic

testimonies on female circumcision but none on male circumcision as

obviously nobody is interested. Still today, I can recall my youth

and hear the screams coming from my young Muslim neighbours while

they were being circumcised. Let us quote here the briefest and least

shocking of the women's testimony, that of Samia, a Muslim girl born

in a small Egyptian village close to the Sudanese border, who now

lives in Cairo:

 

I was seven years old when I was excised. I recall the stories from

women of my village who spoke of this operation as if their whole

life had stopped there and then. The atrocity of their descriptions

and at the same time a feeling of inescapable doom had triggered such

a panic in me that when the terror-laden day came, I began to vomit.

What happened then is still excruciatingly burning my flesh, so much

so that I often wake up in the middle of the night screaming and

calling for my mother 23.

 

Generally the victim is mutilated without anaesthesia, lying on her

back, legs kept wide apart by helpers or by one only lying under the

young girl, her ankles being hooked in the helper's feet. To

immobilize a 7 years old, you sometimes need the help of 5 persons to

restrain her head, arms and legs. When the girl is a toddler, one

assistant alone can manage body and thighs at the same time, while

holding her in a sitting position.

 

There are many different kinds of male circumcisions: The

circumcision per se consisting of total or partial excision of the

foreskin; phallectomy; castration; emasculation. Only the first kind

is of interest to us due to its frequency and its ritual

characteristics. The other three seem to be less common and we do not

have enough information on them 24.

 

There are as well many different kinds of female circumcision:

 

- The female circumcision called sunnah or according to the tradition

of Mohammed. The religious circles in favour of this type of female

circumcision do not always give details on what is done. According to

a classical author, Al-Mawardi, " it is limited to cutting off the

skin in the shape of a kernel located above the genitalia. One must

cut the protruding epidermis without performing a complete ablation "

25. For Doctor Hamid Al-Ghawabi, it is the ablation of the clitoris

as well as labia minora 26. According to Doctor Mahran, the hood of

the clitoris is excised as well as the most important parts of the

labia minora 27.

 

- Clitoridectomy or excision. It consists of the ablation of the

clitoris as well as labia minora. It is the operation of choice in

Egypt.

 

- Infibulation or pharaonic circumcision. It is practiced in Sudan

and Somalia and involves the complete ablation of clitoris, labia

minora and part of labia majora. The two sides of the vulva are then

sewn together with silk or catgut stitches (Sudan) or with thorns

(Somalia) in order to close the vulva, except a very small opening

for the passage of urine and menstrual flow 28. On the wedding night,

the groom will have to open his bride, more often than not with a

double edged dagger. In some tribes, the woman is sewn back each time

her husband goes travelling and is opened again each time he comes

back. In case of divorce, the woman is sewn up to forbid her any

possibility of intercourse 29.

 

Let us mention that in the West, female circumcision and especially

infibulation were performed in the past. One of those chastity belts

was made by passing rings in the labia and vulva, wiring them shut or

closing them with a lock, the key of which was kept by the husband

especially when going away 30. In Russia, the Skopotzy (circumcisers)

who are Christians, have practiced infibulation to insure perpetual

virginity: they call upon Matthew 19:12: " ... and there be eunuchs,

which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake "

31. A particular type of female circumcision practiced by the Kikuyu

tribes in Kenya is said to be performed today in some of the

hospitals in Paris to accentuate the pleasure potential in some women

of the upper class of society. The clitoris is disengaged and pulled

back inside the vagina. Such a practice is said to add to women's

sexual pleasure 32.

 

 

CHAPTER II. RELIGIOUS ARGUMENTS

I. RELIGIOUS ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR OF CIRCUMCISION

 

1. The sources of Muslim law

Muslim law has two main sources: the Koran and the Sunnah (tradition:

words and actions) of Mohammed, to which one must add the igtihad,

tenets of the schools of Muslim law through the centuries.

 

Nowadays a specific part of igtihad is getting more and more

important: namely the fatwas (opinions of Muslim religious scholars),

which are often worded in a language accessible to the masses,

defining which behaviour conforms to the Divine Will 33. Though

juridically non binding, the fatwas are nonetheless morally

obligatory for the believer and at times the first step toward the

promulgation or the modification of laws. They are given in writing

or orally and are often published and sold on a wide scale34. Many

pertain to male and female circumcision.

 

We confine our study here to the works and anthologies of modern

fatwas, mostly Egyptian ones, referring to classical books of Muslim

law. This choice is justified by the fact that the public at large

seldom has access to the classical books.

 

2. The Koran

The Koran mentions neither male nor female circumcision. An extensive

interpretation of verse 2:124 shows some barely traceable indication

of it:

 

When Abraham was put to the test by his Lord, through certain

commandments, he carried them out. God then said: " I am appointing

you a guide for the people " .

 

One of the commands given to Abraham, as a test, was circumcision, as

mentioned in some of the sayings of Mohammed. Abraham is a model for

the Muslim faithful by virtue of verse 16:123:

 

Then we inspired you (Mohammed) to follow the religion (millat) of

Abraham, a true believer...35.

It is relevant to note the rule of the Muslim law according to which

norms that were revealed to the prophets prior to Mohammed are valid

until unmistakably nullified. Thus the Bible, by a process of

referral, becomes a source of law for the Muslims. One can read:

 

God told Abraham: " ...Here is our alliance which shall be observed

between me and you, i.e. thy race after thee, may all your males be

circumcised. You shall have the flesh of your foreskin cut off and it

shall be a sign of alliance between me and you...When they reach

their 8th day all your males shall be circumcised from generation to

generation... My alliance shall be branded in your flesh as a

perpetual alliance. The uncircumcised, the male whose foreskin has

not been cut off, this very life shall be cut off. He violated my

alliance " 36

 

Circumcision as a sign of alliance can only be found in two other

passages of the Bible 37. Elsewhere, it is more narrative: King Saul

demanded one hundred Philistine foreskins from David, before he gave

his consent to David marrying his daughter Mikal:

 

" David... thought it was a good deal in order to become the king's

son in law... He went to war...He killed 200 Philistine men, brought

back their foreskins, counted them in front of the king....So Saul...

had to admit that Jehovah was on David's side " 38.

 

This interpretation of the Koranic verses with reference to the Bible

is considered abusive by Imam Mahmud Shaltut (israf fil-istidlal) 39.

What is more, this textual argument based on Jewish law concerns male

circumcision only, not female circumcision that the Bible does not

mention and that the Jews do not practice (Falachas excepted). Al-

Sukkari answers that, according to Ibn Hagar, the Jews used to

circumcise both sexes, which is why he rejects male and female

circumcision on the 7th day, so as not to look like them. Even the

authentic Bible - today's one is considered falsified - does not

contain any text related to female circumcision. Nonetheless, the

Muslims must practice it, if the Muslim law makes provision for it 40.

 

3. The Sunnah

We will try here to glean, from the works of contemporary Arab

authors, the different sayings of Mohammed related to male and female

circumcision.

 

- The most often mentioned narration reports a debate between

Mohammed and Um Habibah (or Um 'Atiyyah). This woman, known as an

exciser of female slaves, was one of a group of women who had

immigrated with Mohammed. Having seen her, Mohammed asked her if she

kept practicing her profession. She answered affirmatively

adding: " unless it is forbidden and you order me to stop doing it " .

Mohammed replied: " Yes, it is allowed. Come closer so I can teach

you: if you cut, do not overdo it (la tanhaki), because it brings

more radiance to the face (ashraq) and it is more pleasant (ahza) for

the husband " . According to others, he said: " Cut slightly and do not

overdo it (ashimmi wa-la tanhaki), because it is more pleasant (ahza)

for the woman and better (ahab, from other sources abha) for the

husband " . We shall hereinafter refer to this narration as the

exciser's narration.

 

- Mohammed said: " Circumcision is a sunnah for the men and makrumah

for the women " . The term sunnah here means that it is conform to the

tradition of Mohammed himself, or simply a custom at the time of

Mohammed. The term makrumah is far from clear but we can translate it

into a honorable deed.

 

- Speaking to the Ansars' wives, Mohammed said: " Cut slightly without

exaggeration (ikhtafidna wa-la tanhikna), because it is more pleasant

(ahza) for your husbands " .

 

- Someone came to Mohammed and became a convert before him. Mohammed

told him: " Shave off your unbeliever's hair and be circumcised " .

 

- Mohammed said: " Let him who becomes a Muslim be circumcised, even

if he is old " .

 

- One asked Mohammed if an uncircumcised man could go to pilgrimage.

He answered: " Not as long as he is not circumcised " .

 

- Mohammed said: " Five norms define fitrah: shaving of the pubis,

circumcision, moustache trimming, armpit depilation and nail

clipping " . Other narrations name ten norms amongst which circumcision

is always mentioned. The norms of fitrah are believed to be those

taught by God to His creation. The man in pursuit of perfection must

conform to those norms. They are not compulsory, but simply advisable

(mandubah), except for circumcision which is mandatory. Based on

these premises, Al-Sukkari believes Adam to have been the first

circumcised man. His descendants having neglected their obligation,

it was reconfirmed to Abraham and his descendants. Thus circumcision

would be the sign which would differentiate the believer from the non-

believer. Therefore, circumcision is the sign of Islam 41.

 

- Mohammed has stipulated: " If both circumcised parts (khitanan) meet

or if they touch each other, it is necessary to wash before prayer " .

From this, it may be deduced that men and women were circumcised in

Mohammed's time.

 

The Shiites add a narration by Imam Al-Sadiq stating: " Female

circumcision is a makrumah, and is there anything better than a

makrumah? " They cite Al-Sadiq as the reporter of the exciser's

narration 42.

 

The supporters of circumcision themselves (male or female)

acknowledge that those narrations attributed to Mohammed offer little

credibility 43. Mahmud Shaltut states that they are neither clear nor

authentic44. Sheikh Abbas, Rector of the Muslim Institute at the

Mosque of Paris, is even more adamant:

 

If circumcision for the man (though not compulsory) has an aesthetic

and hygienic purpose, there is no existing religious Islamic text of

value to be considered in favour of female excision, as proven by the

fact that this practice is totally non-existent in most of the

Islamic countries. And if unfortunately some people keep practicing

excision, to the great prejudice of women, it is probably due to

customs practised prior to the conversion of these people to Islam 45.

 

4. Custom and silence of the law

Female circumcision having fragile foundations in the Koran and the

Sunnah, Al-Sukkari tries to strengthen those foundations in calling

upon custom, which constitutes a source of Muslim law. For him,

female circumcision has become the norm in as much as it is general,

it has been practiced for a long time and it is not contrary to any

text of religious law.

 

He refers to the rule according to which what is not forbidden is

allowed. Thus female circumcision, not being expressly forbidden,

remains permitted46. Even if narrations related to female

circumcision are not credible, none has shown up to forbid it or

declare it blameworthy. One of the principles of Muslim law is that

it is better to apply the norm that to give it up 47.

 

However, this author forgets that the Muslim law allows a custom

based on ignorance to be abolished. In effect, the Koran states:

 

When they are told: " Come to what God has revealed and to the

Messenger " . they say: " Sufficient for us is what we found our parents

doing " . What if their parents lacked the knowledge? And the guidance?

(5:104).

 

Indeed, he reverses the rule. Instead of supporting physical

integrity, indirectly he speaks in favour of the principle of

mutilation.

 

 

II. RELIGIOUS ARGUMENTS AGAINST CIRCUMCISION

 

1. God does not mutilate

This argument can be summed up as follows: Can we imagine a God who

demands that his believers be mutilated and branded on their genitals

the same as cattle? Doctor Nawal El-Saadawi, an Egyptian woman,

herself excised, writes:

 

If religion comes from God, how can it order man to cut off an organ

created by Him as long as that organ is not deceased or deformed? God

does not create the organs of the body haphazardly without a plan. It

is not possible that He should have created the clitoris in a woman's

body only in order that it be cut off at an early stage in life. This

is a contradiction into which neither true religion nor the Creator

could possibly fall. If God has created the clitoris as a sexually

sensitive organ, whose sole function seems to be the procurement of

sexual pleasure for women, it follows that He also considers such

pleasure for women as normal and legitimate, and therefore as an

integral part of mental health 48.

 

It has very often been proclaimed that Islam is at the root of female

circumcision, and is also responsible for the under-privileged and

backward situation of women in Egypt and the Arab countries. Such a

contention is not true... Religion, if authentic in the principles it

stands for, aims at truth, equality, justice, love and a healthy

wholesome life for all people, whether men or women. There can be no

true religion that aims at disease, mutilation of the bodies of

female children, and amputation of an essential part of their

reproductive organs 49.

 

Renée Saurel goes over the argument again. She writes:

 

The Koran, contrary to Christianism and Judaism, permits and

recommends that the woman be given physical and psychological

pleasure, pleasure found by both partners during the act of love.

Forcibly split, torn, and severed tissues are neither conducive to

sensuality nor to the blessed feeling given and shared when

participating in the quest for pleasure and the escape from pain 50.

 

Both sources mentioned above refer to religion, Islam, Christianity

and Judaism. Those abstract notions contain the most conflicting

components. It is better to refer to written sources than to abstract

notions. It must also be pointed out that this argument is as valid

against male circumcision as it is against female circumcision.

However, both authors use it against female circumcision only.

 

2. Banning alteration of the human being

It is not difficult to find support for the above argument in the

Koran itself. Indeed, verse 4:119 does not allow man to change God's

creature:

 

[The devil said]: " I will mislead them, and I will create in them

false desires; I will order them to slit the ears of cattles, and to

deface the fair nature created by God " .

 

This verse appears to condemn any change of God's creation. It is

referred to by Islamists to oppose permanent birth control, be it by

measures affecting the man or the woman 51. Oddly, male and female

circumcision enthusiasts forget this verse completely. They also

forget the following one:

 

" He perfected everything He created " (32:7). Aziza Kamel, adversary

of female circumcision, refers to this verse and adds: " Excision is a

distortion of what God created because God is satisfied with His

creation " 52.

 

3. Man knows best

Mohammed had told some farmers not to pollinate their date trees.

That very year, the trees did not bear any dates. Having returned to

Mohammed for explanations, they were told: " You know your worldly

business better [than I do] " .

 

The last passage of the narration was quoted by Sheikh Hassan Ahmed

Abu-Sabib from Sudan in his presentation to the Seminar on

Traditional Practices having consequences on the Health of Women and

Children (affecting Women's and Children's Health) in Africa (Dakar,

Feb. 6-10, 1984). Strengthened by this narration, he comes to the

conclusion that female circumcision must be banned because medical

science has proved it to be harmful. Then, he says, the Koran forbids

man to harm himself by virtue of verse 2:195: " Do not throw

yourselves with your own hands into disaster " . Elsewhere, Mohammed

said: " Who harms a believer, harms me and who harms me, harms God " .

 

This Sudanese Sheikh did not pursue his reasoning to its end. In the

narration about the date trees, Mohammed did not want to consider

himself as infallible in botany and so admitted that the farmers knew

more than he did on the subject in spite of his quality as a prophet.

By analogy with female and male circumcision, this narration means

that Mohammed indeed could not be infallible on the subject and could

be contradicted by medical science. Our Sheikh does not go so far. He

separates Mohammed's answer from the whole narration about the date

trees and just states that Mohammed's narrations on female

circumcision are not reliable, calling on the authority of his

counterpart, Imam Shaltut. He concludes that the issue of male and

female circumcision must be judged according to its disadvantages and

advantages 53.

 

In spite of this minor inconsistency, his advice against female

circumcision is the most explicit known to us on the part of a

contemporary religious Muslim leader.

 

4. The Al-Mahdawi case

All of the aforementioned religious arguments are written solely and

exclusively against female circumcision. Though they could very well

be used against male circumcision, their authors never do so and not

without purpose.

 

Indeed, the only Muslim author to have cast doubts on male

circumcision has had legal action brought against him and might be

sentenced to death for apostasy. I am speaking of (retired) Judge

Mustafa Kamal Al-Mahdawi, a personal friend of mine, who is today

under a ferocious attack lead by Libyan religious circles in the

mosques as well in the press. The preacher of the Mosque of the

Prophet, in Medina, Saudi Arabia, published in July 1992 a pamphlet

handed out free of charge in Libya. In this pamphlet, he asks the

Muslim Arab League and the Islamic Conference to set up a collective

fatwa of all Muslim scholars against this judge and to execute him as

an apostate if he does not retract. As for his book, the preacher

asks that it be removed from the shelves, burned and forbidden to any

reader. He blames the judge for having, among other things, denied

that male circumcision is compulsory when there is unanimity in

favour of it and when Mohammed was Himself circumcised 54.

 

In fact, this Libyan judge insists that male circumcision is a Jewish

custom; the Jews believe that God would only see them if they had

distinctive marks such as circumcision or blood stained doors. He

refers here to God's command given to the Jews that the blood from

sacrificed cattle be put on jambs and lintel of houses at the time of

Passover because He intended to kill all firstborn in Egypt. God said

to Moses and Aaron: " The blood shall be a sign on the houses where

you live. Seeing this sign, I shall pass over those doorways and you

shall escape the destructive calamity when I strike down the people

of Egypt " 55. The Libyan judge adds that the Koran does not mention

this " peculiar logic " . For him, God does not devote Himself to such

banter no more than He created the foreskin as a superfluous object

destined only to be cut off56. He quotes verse 3:191 which states:

 

Our Lord, You did not create all this in vain! Glory be to You! So

spare us the agony of hell 57.

 

 

III. QUALIFICATION OF CIRCUMCISION IN MUSLIM LAW

To define an act means to declare it forbidden, reprehensible,

permitted, advisable or mandatory. Those are the five categories into

which a Muslim believer classifies any act.

 

The adversaries of circumcision regard it as forbidden when it

concerns girls. On the other hand, they do not oppose male

circumcision and even consider it mandatory.

 

As for the supporters of male and female circumcision, they are

divided on the qualification that should be attached to it. Three

opinions have been expressed:

 

1. Mandatory for boys and girls

Imam Ahmad deems only the prayer and pilgrimage of the circumcised to

be worthy of acceptance. Imam Malik refuses access to public office

to, and testimony from, a non-circumcised person. Others go as far as

forbidding that meat killed by a non-circumcised person be eaten58.

This school puts forward the following justifications:

 

- Verse 16:120 requests that Mohammed follow the path of Abraham.

Abraham was circumcised at a very old age, when he was 80 years old,

according to others 120, in spite of the suffering that circumcision

could cause him. Had it not been mandatory in Abraham's opinion, he

would not have subjected himself to it.

 

- Different sayings of Mohammed related to circumcision and mentioned

earlier.

 

- During the era of the Companions of Mohammed, male and female

circumcision was carried out.

 

- The condition of being non circumcised keeps impurity in the body

and renders prayer null and void, the same way as an unclean mouth

does.

 

- Circumcision (male and female) causes pain. Pain is permissible

only for benefit, punishment and obligation. Since benefit and

punishment are inapplicable, circumcision (male and female) is an

obligation 59.

 

2. Sunnah for both sexes

According to this school of thought, male and female circumcision

falls under sunnah, the meaning of which jurists disagree upon. It

can have two meanings: the tradition of Mohammed himself, or simply a

custom at the time of Mohammed60. Considered as sunnah, it would be

advisable and not mandatory 61.

 

Those in favour of this qualification call upon the narration which

compares circumcision (male and female) to a norm of the above

mentioned fitrah. As such, it has man's perfection as a purpose.

Though it is desirable, the Muslim believer is under no obligation to

have it done. They add that many persons joined Islam without

Mohammed ever searching [under their clothes] to see if they were

circumcised or not 62.

 

3. Compulsory for the boys, sunnah or makrumah for the girls

The modern authors opt for this opinion. Al-Sukkari states that male

circumcision is mandatory because of the smell and the repugnant,

greasy substances secreted and kept under the foreskin. This

uncleanness renders prayer invalid. But as purity is necessary for

prayer, circumcision becomes compulsory according to the legal rule

which states: what is necessary to fulfil an obligation becomes in

turn mandatory.

 

On the other hand, the female having no foreskin and therefore no

source of impurity " down there " , female circumcision is only

advisable. Two reasons underlie the recommendation of female

circumcision:

 

- to fulfil makrumah granted by Mohammed.

- to avoid falling into a taboo 63.

 

For Professor 'Abd-al-Wahhab Khallaf, the term makrumah means that

female circumcision adds to the man's pleasure 64. Shaltut states

that female circumcision is a makrumah for the men who are not used

to feeling this protruding piece (za'idah) piece of flesh 65.

 

The majority leans toward the meaning of a commendable or meritorious

act on the part of the woman. It is Professor Zakariyya Al-Birri's

opinion that it is better to carry out female circumcision. Anyone

who does not do it does not sin if he is convinced in the light of

religious texts and doctor's advice that he is under no obligation to

conform (to it) 66. Al-Qaradawi leaves the choice to parents

according to their beliefs, in spite of the fact that he favours

female circumcision, because it protects girls' morality " especially

nowadays " 67.

 

A fatwa from the Egyptian Fatwa Committee dated May 28, 1949, has

declared that abandoning female circumcision does not constitute a

sin68. Another fatwa from the same body dated June 23, 1951, is more

rigid. Not only does this fatwa not recognise the abandonment of

female circumcision as an option, but is further of the opinion that

it is advisable to carry it out because it curbs " nature " . Moreover,

this fatwa considers doctors' opinions on the disadvantages of female

circumcision irrelevant (see Chapter III, Paragraph 3, point 2) 69. A

third much more detailed fatwa from the same institution dated

January 29, 1981, is adamantly opposed to giving up female

circumcision. The author of this fatwa is the present Great Sheikh of

Al-Azhar, the most famous University of the Islamic World in Cairo.

He insists that it is impossible to abandon the lessons of Mohammed

in favour of the teaching of others, be they doctors, because medical

science evolves and does not remain constant. The responsibility of

female circumcision lies with the parents and with those in charge of

the girl's welfare. Those who do not abide by it do not do their duty

70.

 

4. Motives for the difference between boy and girl

Al-Sukkari tries to explain the difference between boy and girl vis-à-

vis the religious norm:

 

- Abraham circumcised himself and he would not have done it, had it

not been a duty. But there is no evidence that Abraham ordered female

circumcision 71. This is instead a command from Mohammed according to

the above mentioned exciser's narration.

 

- Male circumcision is a sign which separates Muslim men from the non-

Muslim ones. As for the woman, one should adopt a respectful attitude

toward her and not impose a physical examination to see if she is

circumcised or not.

 

- Male circumcision helps prevent many diseases, cancer among them,

and reduces having to resort to masturbation. This opinion is also

put forward by Imam Mahmud Shaltut for whom the boy's foreskin hides

germs harmful to his health, which is not the case for the girls 72.

 

5. Consequences of the qualification

Jurists have asked themselves if public authority can force a Muslim

to submit to circumcision, especially if he is getting on years. The

Zaydites and the Shafiites answer affirmatively. According to the

Hanafite School, if a group rejects male circumcision, the Head of

State must declare war (against this group). However, some say that a

man may be spared circumcision if it endangers his health. Al-

Sukkari, a modern author, is of the opinion that health nowadays is

not a problem. The Muslim man who fears for his health can ask a

doctor to carry out the operation under anaesthesia and with the help

of modern equipment.

 

The Hanbalites say that male and female circumcision is an Islamic

ritual; the man can force his wife to be excised as well as to force

her to pray. The Ibadites consider as invalid the marriage of a non-

circumcised Muslim even if it was consummated. The woman may ask for

legal separation. If the husband gets circumcised after its

consummation, the marriage remains invalid; he must go through

another ceremony in order to get his wife back. For the Hanbalites,

the non-circumcision of the husband is a breach of contract giving

the woman the choice of asking for divorce or continuing the

marriage. For some, the non-circumcised man has no right of

guardianship of a Muslim and no right to give his consent to the

marriage of a Muslim relative. In this case, the marriage is

dissolved, except if it was consummated.

 

Al-Sukkari, a modern author, grants the woman the right to dissolve

the marriage if the husband is not circumcised, because his foreskin

can be a vector of diseases. It can also be a source of repulsion,

thus preventing the realization of the objectives of marriage, id est

love and understanding between partners. The woman has a right to be

married to someone handsome and clean, Islam being the religion of

cleanness and purity 73. Ahmad Amin emphasizes the importance of

circumcision in the Egyptian's mind by telling this anecdote: a

Sudanese tribe wanted to join Islam. The chief wrote to a scholar of

the Al-Azhar to ask him what was to be done. The scholar sent him a

list of demands, putting circumcision in first place. The tribe then

refused to become Muslim 74.

 

For the majority of believers, to belong to Islam implies de facto

male circumcision. In Java, to circumcise a boy is translated by: to

welcome someone in the bosom of Islam; in Algiers, during the

colonial era, the printed invitation to the religious ceremony named

it in French: baptîme (baptism). In Muslim life, it is an important

cause for family celebration, which is not the case for female

circumcision, always carried out secretly 75. According to the Saudi

religious authorities, a man who converts to Islam must get

circumcised, but in case he refuses to join Islam for fear of the

procedure, this demand may be postponed until the faith is stronger

in his heart 76.

 

On a social level, the non-circumcision of a female has serious

consequences. In some countries, the non-circumcised girls do not get

married and people then start talking about them, as if they were

guilty of misbehaviour, possessed by the devil. In the Egyptian

countryside, the matron practicing female circumcision delivers a

certificate which is used for the marriage 77. Wedad Zenie-Ziegler

writes that the Egyptian country women are surprised to learn that

their sisters in Cairo are not excised. They burst into laughter,

interrupted by scandalized comments: " Really it is not done? Girls

remain like that uncut? And they don't become wild? " 78. El-Masry

reports the statement of an Egyptian midwife who had circumcised more

than 1000 girls. To her, " one should lynch the fathers who were

opposed to excision of their daughters, because these fathers were in

fact willing to see their girls become whores " 79. In Sudan, where

infibulation is practiced, brothers have tried to protect their young

sisters from this torture. Most of them were evicted from the

paternal home after terrible quarrels, the parents accusing them of

being depraved and of trying to transform their sisters into

shameless creatures. Very few succeeded: but, to put an end to the

neighbours' gossip, they had to bring their sisters to live under

their own rooves in Khartoum or Atbara. " Because in Sudan, it is as

unusual not to sew girls' genitals as in the West, it is unusual not

to bath the children. It sets the tongues wagging " 80.

 

 

IV. MODALITY OF CIRCUMCISION ACCORDING TO MUSLIM LAW

 

1. Male circumcision

According to classical Muslim jurists, male circumcision involves the

cutting of the foreskin, preferably the whole foreskin. If the man

has two penises, some say that both should be circumcised, others say

that only the one passing urine should be circumcised. If the child

was born circumcised, some are of the opinion he should be left as

such, while for others, the knife should be passed over the

emplacement of the foreskin to fulfil the Commandment. If the

circumcision is incomplete, it should be completed 81.

 

2. Female circumcision

Al-Sukkari, a modern author, describes female circumcision as

follows: " For a start, God should be called upon by saying the

opening statement: in the name of God, most gracious, most merciful,

followed by praise to God and prayer to the Prophet, the author of

this supreme makrumah " . Female circumcision must be carried out by

one male or female surgeon of Muslim faith and devout appearance,

knowledgeable of the teaching of Mohammed. The best medical means

must be used to reduce pain. Female circumcision must be done by day

to allow the physician to perform in full day light, but also in full

secrecy; only her mother or her tutor must be present, or the one who

feels the most compassion for the girl 82. He does not clarify what

female circumcision consists of. For Gad-al-Haq, female circumcision

consists of " cutting the skin which is located above the urinary

orifice without exaggeration and without rooting it out " 83. Al-

Sha'rawi stipulates that if the girl does not have any flesh

protruding, circumcision should not be done 84.

 

What is described above as in compliance with sunnah remains

theoretical. In fact, it is rather clitoridectomy (performed in

Egypt) or infibulation (performed in Sudan and Somalia). In Sudan, a

study has brought to light that 64% of female circumcisions are done

by the traditional matrons, 35% by midwives and 0.7% by physicians 85.

 

3. Circumcision of the hermaphrodite

Classical authors' opinions have differed regarding hermaphrodites,

persons with both male and female genitalia. Some say that both must

be circumcised, while others say that only the organ passing urine

should be cut because it implies rights of inheritance 86. Finally,

for others, one must delay circumcision until it is possible to tell

which one of the two is predominant. Cautiously, Al-Sukkari, a modern

author, chooses the first opinion, meaning circumcision of both

sexes, to minimize the chances of mistake 87.

 

4. Age for male and female circumcision

Jurists are not unanimous regarding the age at which circumcision

should be carried out. Different opinions are presented: any time; at

puberty; before 10 years of age (the age when one has often to hit

the child to force him to pray); at about 7 years for the boy; on the

seventh day (some take the day of birth into consideration, others

not); especially not on the seventh day or before (because it is a

Jewish custom and one does not want to be put in the same category

with them). Al-Mawardi suggests that circumcision be done at 7 years

of age at the latest, but preferably at 7 days or at 40 days, except

in case of inconvenience. That is Al-Sukkari's opinion for the boys.

For the girls, he suggests the age of 7 to 10 years, to help them

cope with the procedure 88.

 

According to testimony gathered by Wedad Zenie-Ziegler, female

circumcision in Egypt is done in principle one week after birth, but

it can be done at 2 months, sometimes at 7 months or even 7 years89.

Nawal El-Saadawi says that in Egypt it takes place at the age of 7 or

8, before the girl starts menstruating 90.

 

Jurists have asked themselves if persons who died without

circumcision should be circumcised. The majority of legists reject

such an idea because it affects the deceased's physical integrity

(hurmah) and exhibits his private part ('awrah); moreover, it is

useless, the goal of circumcision being to fulfil an act of worship

and to be clean for prayer, which is of no use to the deceased. For

others, circumcision of the deceased is necessary; his foreskin is

placed in the shroud. They call on a narration by Mohammed, according

to which one must do to the dead what is done to those getting

married. Al-Sukkari, a modern author, leans toward the first opinion

91.

 

 

CHAPTER III. REASON IN AID OF RELIGION

The Koran says: " No one questions Him about anything He does, but men

are questioned " (21:23). God does not have to justify his norms even

if Muslim jurists are of the opinion that divine norms are intended

to bring good to Man. The criteria of goodness elude Man most of the

time.

 

However, there is a tendency among the Muslims as well as the Jews

today, to try to justify religious norms a posteriori, conferring

beneficial results upon them, real or fictitious. It is a recourse to

reason to justify religion. Cases in point are circumcision and

dietary taboos. It proves that the idea of God hurting human beings

simply in order to brand them like cattle is not accepted anymore.

 

The supporters of male and female circumcision, after proving the

existence of a related religious norm, will buckle down to

demonstrate the advantages of circumcision as well as the

disadvantages of non-circumcision, in order to comfort the believer,

while answering back to those opposed to it. As for the opponents of

female circumcision, they, unless they are unbelievers, rejecting any

religious justification, also fight on two fronts: after denying the

existence of a religious norm prescribing female circumcision (the

only one they are interested in), they try to prove its harmful

characteristics in order to ban it.

 

And if reason does not succeed in proving that religion is correct?

Then, let it be challenged, as will be seen further on.

 

 

I. MALE CIRCUMCISION

 

1. Advantages of male circumcision

Muslim authors skim over male circumcision. They only see advantages

and, most of all, the subject does not trigger any debate in the

West. According to Al-Hadidi (an opponent of female circumcision),

male non-circumcision can cause penile infections arising from urine

droplets. It can develop into cancer, requiring the penis to be

amputated entirely 92. Circumcision is even believed to prevent

cancer in the circumcised man's partner, as mentioned by Doctor Al-

Fangari, who goes on to state that it helps to extend the length of

copulation, thanks to the liberation of the glans 93. Their Jewish

counterparts make the same type of arguments. It is enough to have

the Christians, to whom Saint-Paul suggests circumcision in their

heart rather than in their flesh, turn green with envy 94! If only

Saint Paul could have heard our Jewish and Muslim medical experts

before rejecting the obligation to circumcise!

 

Imam Shaltut does not find any basis for male and female

circumcision, be it in the Koran or in the Sunnah from Mohammed.

Therefore it must be judged according to the general Islamic

consensus which forbids hurting anyone, unless advantages outnumber

disadvantages. For the boys, he states that circumcision is

beneficial because it cuts off the foreskin which harbours filth and

promotes cancer and other diseases. As such, it is a protective and

preventive measure. Thus its mandatory quality in Muslim law 95.

 

Logically, if male circumcision were beneficial, it should be

generalized. Male circumcision cannot however be justified solely on

the basis of its usefulness in certain pathological conditions. A

foot may be amputated under medical imperative if it is gangrenous

and amputation will then certainly be beneficial. Nevertheless,

nobody would call for generalized foot amputation among the followers

of any given religion96. The argument is compelling, unless it can be

shown that the relevant religious adepts have penises noticeably

different from those of their fellow humans.

 

Let us point out here that circumcision has its enthusiasts among

Christians who believe the Bible to be a scientific book. This is

especially the case in the U.S.A. where obstetricians " sever at birth

the foreskins of future Methodists, Adventists, Catholics, Sectarians

of Love, if not good brave Atheists " . To them, uncircumcised

males " can only be country people and half-witted " 97. In that

country, the number of new-born who are circumcised is estimated at

50%. But in 1975, the American health commission stated that

circumcision was not a good hygienic measure. Since then,

circumcision has been reduced considerably 98. The pro-circumcision

people then launched a campaign to persuade the commission to reverse

its decision, claiming that circumcision prevents infantile urinary

tract infections and even AIDS transmission, a claim denied by

Swedish experts 99.

 

2. Disadvantages of male circumcision

As noted above, male circumcision is of no interest to most people.

Doctor Gérard Zwang, quoted above, stands out as one of the very few

opponents of male circumcision in France. Not only does he not see

any advantages, but he notices disadvantages. He writes:

 

One must be extremely suspicious when magicians and shamans try to

irrefutably legitimate ritual sexual mutilations (unless one belongs

to the clan of those incurably naive ethnographers). As heirs of the

only extra-European culture touched by some sort of scientific

thinking and often contributing to its development, it is the

Judaizers who provide the so-called " logical " arguments in favour of

circumcision100.

 

He names the five " reasonable " reasons produced by the Western

partisans of circumcision, reasons which support those given by the

Muslims:

 

Circumcision testifies to the legitimate concern of lifting the

sexuality of the individual to perfection;

Circumcision is a good hygienic precaution;

Circumcision prevents masturbation;

Circumcision prevents cancer;

Circumcision allows better control at the " plateau " stage.

 

After taking apart those reasons one by one 101, he points out that

the foreskin of the infant acts as a sheath preventing the glans from

soaking permanently in urine and protecting it from irritations and

inflammations due to contact with clothing, soaked swaddling clothes

and diapers. He insists that circumcision at birth is " practically

always responsible for inflamed stricture of the urinary meatus " . The

protective function of the foreskin for the glans and the penis

retains its usefulness during erotic activities, thus the importance

of the foreskin at the affective level during childhood, youth and

adulthood 102.

 

He concludes that " there is no [medical] reason to systematically

deprive all new-born, little boys or men of an integral part of the

normal human anatomy " . Even for foreskins with problems, he advises

against circumcision and prefers those simple, surgical procedures

which retain the foreskin. He recommends that plastic surgeons apply

themselves to mastering the technique of possible preputial

reconstruction for circumcised patients suffering from " balanic

peeling " , one of the consequences of circumcision 103.

 

As for surgeons requested to perform circumcision, he asks them to

refuse to comply. If it is an adult who makes the request, the

surgeon has the right to raise the matter of conscience, as some do,

based on liberalism, to avoid carrying out abortions. If it is a

normal child brought in by his parents, " the surgeon is entitled to

call upon the impossibility of committing an assault and battery on a

minor and advise them to wait until their offspring reaches his

majority " 104.

 

It might be necessary to add to the doctors' advice, the

psychologists' answer to these questions: what is the influence of

circumcision on the victims of paranoia105 On the conscious or

unconscious male rage and violence in the American culture? On the

conflicts between Muslims themselves or between Jews and Muslims? It

would be also useful to know what is the relation between

circumcision and situational homosexuality (by opposition to

constitutional homosexuality).

 

 

II. FEMALE CIRCUMCISION

1. Advantages of female circumcision in compliance with the sunnah

Circumcision not carried out according to the sunnah is forbidden by

all Muslim religious circles. For some, " the practice of female

circumcision as it is carried out on their daughters by some women

from backward countries, is an offence punishable by law " 106. Nobody

comes to its defense even if it is the most practiced form of

circumcision in Muslim countries. This condemnation is based mostly

on the exciser's narration, mentioned earlier. What is strange in

this case is that those very religious circles do not try to use this

narration in a positive way to fight the practice. As an example, it

is estimated that 89.2% of the women in North Sudan are circumcised:

82.3% by infibulation; only 19.2% of Christian women are circumcised

that way. More Christians (57.7%) than Muslims (20.8%) appear to

favour abolition of this practice for their daughters107.

 

If these religious scholars, all male chauvinists, are opposed to

female circumcision not in compliance with the sunnah, they

nevertheless do approve of it when it is sunnah-conform. This type of

female circumcision, by the way, is not described fully: for some, it

is only removal of a minimal amount of clitoris skin in application

of the exciser's narration; for others, it involves the whole

clitoris and labia minora.

 

The goal of defending female circumcision in compliance with the

sunnah is expressed in no uncertain terms by Al-I'tissam, an Islamic

magazine from Cairo. This magazine protests against the WHO, accusing

the organization of " distorting the truth of Islam " ; Al-I'tissam

requests Al-Azhar and all religious scholars to " open their eyes and

be on the alert for those ideas coming to us from outside, so we can

fight them, prove their foolishness and save Islamic customs " 108.

Here are the advantages of female circumcision according to its male

supporters:

 

A) It maintains cleanliness

Doctor Hamid Al-Ghawabi states that bad smells in women, cleanliness

notwithstanding, can only be eliminated by cutting off the clitoris

and labia minora109.

 

B) It prevents diseases

The number of nymphomaniacs is less among circumcised women. The

husband may catch this disease and even die of it 110. Female

circumcision prevents vaginal cancer 111 and swelling of the clitoris

which could drive the woman to masturbation or homosexual relations

112.

 

C) It brings calm and gives radiance to the face

Female circumcision shields the girl from nervousness at an early age

and prevents her from getting a yellow face. This statement is based

on a narration by Mohammed: " Circumcision is makrumah for women "

and " give them a glowing face " 113. The exciser's narration is also

quoted to say that circumcision makes a woman's face more beauutiful

and makes her more attractive for her husband 114. According to a

supporter of female circumcision, the latter brings good health and

feminine grace to the girl and protects her morality, chastity and

honour, maintaining within reason, of course, the necessary sexual

sensitivity 115.

 

D) It keeps the couple together and prevents drug use

Doctor Hamid Al-Ghawabi admits that female circumcision does reduce

the sexual instinct in women, but he sees this as a positive effect.

With age, the male sexual instinct lessens. His circumcised wife will

then be at the same level as him. If she was not, her husband would

be unable to satisfy her, which then would lead him to drug-use in

order to succeed 116.

 

E) It prevents her falling into what is forbidden

This is the most frequently cited reason. Professor Al-'Adawi from Al-

Azhar says that female circumcision is makrumah, that is helps (the

woman) " to remain shy and virtuous. In the Orient, where the climate

is hot, a girl gets easily aroused if she is not circumcised. It

makes her shameless and prey to her sexual instincts, except those to

whom God shows compassion " 117.

 

Judge 'Arnus says that female circumcision diminishes sexual instinct

which, if not kept in control, reduces the person to the condition of

an animal, but if this sexual instinct does not exist, then

circumcision reduces her to a lifeless state. He favours moderation

and notes that intact men and women have, more often than not, a " one

track mind " 118. Salim, Chairman of the Muslim Supreme Court

(abolished in 1955), reiterates that female circumcision is a

makrumah, a meritorious action, that the woman is under no obligation

to submit to, but preferably she should. He adds that circumcision

protects girls from infection, swelling of her external genitalia and

from strong psychic reactions and sexual excitement which, if

repressed, lead to neurosis or, if unleashed, lead to the path of

vice. This happens especially during youth, when hormones of

reproduction are at their peak. Salim goes on to describe this

circumcision. The procedure consists of cutting off the bulging part

of the clitoris which is out of the hood " so as not to become a cause

of arousal while the girl is moving, rubbing against her clothing,

riding animals, etc... Thus its name khafd: to lower the level " 119.

Gad-al-Haq, Great Sheikh of Al-Azhar, adds that our times call for

female circumcision " because of mixing of the sexes at public

gatherings. If the girl is not circumcised, she subjects herself to

multiple causes of excitation leading her to vice and perdition in a

depraved society " 120.

 

2. Disastrous consequences of any kind of female circumcision

Opponents of female circumcision reject it because of the seriousness

of the complications which depend on the method adopted.

 

A) Physical and mental damage

Many complications may occur after female circumcision. Doctor Mahran

classifies them as follows:

Immediate complications: post-operative shock, pain, haemorrhages,

infections, urinary complications and accidental injuries to

surrounding organs.

Later physical complications: painful scars, keloid formation, labial

adherences, clitoridal cysts, vulva mutilation, kidney stones,

sterility.

Psychosexual complications: in the woman: a sense of loss of her

femininity, lack of libido, less frequent coitus, absence of orgasm,

depression and psychosis, high rate of divorce; in the man: premature

ejaculation, polygamy.

Obstetric complications 121.

 

There is no surgical technique which will ever repair this

mutilation, which will ever bring back the erogenous sensitivity of

the amputated receptors. The erotic function in an excised woman is

destroyed for ever. The surgeon can only correct the complications;

if the mutilated woman's genitalia will never again give her

pleasure, at least it should not cause her undue suffering 122.

 

The Muslim enthusiasts of female circumcision do not deny those

complications, but state that they arise out of the manner in which

the surgery is performed, mostly because nobody pays attention to the

conditions laid down by Muslim law. Al-Sukkari writes: if one goes to

a barber for an appendectomy, must we conclude that this form of

surgery has never been provided for in an Islamic book and thus

should be banned because the way it is performed is wrong? He adds

that female circumcision has been a practice for centuries and is a

custom accepted by Muslim law. The so-called consequences never

occurred in the past. And if we hear of them today, the

responsibility lies with those who perform it 123.

 

B) Drug use

We saw earlier that the enthusiasts of female circumcision called

sunnah plead in favour of it because it prevents the use of drugs.

The opponents use the reverse argument 124. The link between female

circumcision and the hashish plague in Egypt has been widely exposed

by El-Masry. Female circumcision distorts sexual relations: " Very few

healthy males can fully succeed in bringing a circumcised woman to

orgasm. She has lost her capacity for pleasure. The man will soon

have to admit that he alone cannot do it. There is only one solution:

hashish " . He quotes many references, including Police Chief Safwat

for whom:

 

" narcotics are widely used in Egypt, because they are linked in

people's minds to sexual activities, themselves linked to excision,

unknown in Europe "

 

Doctor Hanna adds:

" The man will resort to narcotics to satisfy his wife sexually.

Excision is responsible for her lack of arousal and the husband has

to take drugs to be able to hold his erection as long as necessary " .

He states that women are the ones to request that their husbands use

drugs before sex: " They know from experience that it is their only

chance of reaching orgasm, for hashish is the only cure for their

mutilated clitoris " 125. The Cairo magazine Al-Tahrir draws the

following conclusion in its issue of August 20, 1957: " If you want to

fight against narcotics, ban excision " . 126

 

The same link is observed between female circumcision and narcotics

in Yemen where the plague of qat is widespread. An attempt to ban it

in the British Colony of Aden, in April 1957, almost triggered a

revolt. Yemenis saw in this measure " an infringement upon their basic

rights " . Women themselves showed their reprobation, claiming it was

an attack on their conjugal lives. Since June 24, 1958, the use of

qat has been legal in Aden 127.

 

C) Familial problems

The woman, having no sexual release, becomes rebellious and neurotic.

Instead of protecting her morality, female circumcision leads her

elsewhere looking for sexual satisfaction at any cost. Thus the

obsessive belief in djinn (zar), which does not exist anywhere else

but in Egypt " as if genies (djinns) could only live in Egypt " 128.

 

D) Ineffectiveness in preventing diseases

For Doctor Al-Hadidi, there is no medical value in female

circumcision, contrary to male circumcision, since the woman does not

have a foreskin retaining germs 129. Doctor Nawal El-Saadawi denies

also that female circumcision will reduce the incidence of genital

cancer 130.

 

 

III. MITIGATED POSITION OF RELIGIOUS CIRCLES CONFRONTED WITH REASON

The arguments on costs and benefits of male and female circumcision

might be of some value if one accepts an absolute parameter to begin

with: respect for physical integrity. Any infringement upon the

latter must be forbidden or permitted only on the basis of the costs

and benefits of circumcision. At present, this seems to be the case

neither among Muslims, nor among others, especially where male

circumcision is concerned.

 

As for female circumcision, as we said earlier, Muslim religious

circles are opposed to it, if it is not conform to sunnah, mostly

because of the exciser's narration. As far as sunnah itself is

concerned, those circles refuse to condemn it on principle and the

criteria mentioned above, even if differences of opinion can be

noticed among them.

 

1. To apply the norm for the norm's sake

Hamrush, Chairman of the fatwa Committee at Al-Azhar, rejects the

idea that female circumcision prevents diseases or keeps girls

healthy since, contrary to boys, they do not have a foreskin to

harbour filth. He also rejects the idea that it is a protection of

the woman's honour and morality, keeping her from throwing caution to

the winds. If it were the case, then one would assume that

circumcision is an obligation, and not just a makrumah. However, the

Sheikh holds the opinion that female circumcision should be performed

to fulfil the teaching of Mohammed 131.

 

2. The norm has benefits unknown to reason

Professor Al-Laban says that simple scientific observation must not

be used to destroy the norms established by God (including male and

female circumcision) and announced by Mohammed, but rather confirm

them132. If we do not understand the wisdom of those norms, the

deficiency is to be found in our reasoning, not with God. The Islamic

law is the final law and is to rule at all times. Our human brains

cannot possibly find fault with it. Mohammed does not speak from the

heat of passion 133. He explains how science confirms the religious

norm. Sunnah circumcision lets the blood vessels heal (what other

types of circumcision do not) and makes purification easy once the

excrescence is cut off because it is this part which retains urine

and menstrual fluid. This wisdom of the Islamic norm was subsequently

acknowledged by science 134.

 

In an Egyptian fatwa of June 23, 1951, it is said:

 

Medical theories relative to diseases and to their cure are not

constant; they are subjected to changes with time and research.

Therefore, it is impossible to use them as grounds to criticize

female circumcision. The Lawmaker, wise, expert and knowledgeable,

uses his wisdom to rectify the human creation. Experience has taught

us that, given time, the true meaning of the Lawmaker's wisdom, which

was hidden, is unveiled to us135.

 

3. Neither misdeed nor interdiction

Al-Sukkari states that Mohammed never indicated any reservations

regarding the harmfulness of female circumcision. How, in these

conditions, could any ordinary man forbid it under this pretense? Can

we imagine the Prophet keeping silent about something hurtful to the

girl136? Man has no power to allow or to forbid, only God does, and

his wishes are set out in the Koran or by His Prophet137. If in spite

of that, some countries forbid female circumcision, it is a State

decision and does not make any difference: the religious law allows

it 138.

 

4. To maintain the custom in the absence of misdeeds

Imam Shaltut, as mentioned above, does not see any reason for male or

female circumcision, either in the Koran or in the Sunnah of

Mohammed. To him, female circumcision has no medical value, the girl

having no foreskin to hold filth. He packs into one sack those for

and those against female circumcision: both groups go too far. He

comes to the conclusion that female circumcision could be a makrumah

for men who are not used to feeling the clitoris protruding; for the

girl, it comes to the same as taking care of her beauty, dabbing

perfume or removing axillary hair 139. Elsewhere, Imam Shaltut is in

favour of keeping the tradition of female circumcision until proven

harmful 140.

 

Sheikh Al-Nawawi comes to another result through the same reasoning.

For him, the narrations of Mohammed regarding female circumcision are

weak and do not have a raison d'être. Islam aimed to moderate this

practice among Arabs and it is still performed in this moderate form,

without ever becoming the rule, apart from exceptional cases. One

cannot make a rule out of one exception 141.

 

A less clear stand-point is taken by Al-Banna, Egyptian Deputy

Minister for Religious Affairs. To him, female circumcision cannot be

separated from the benefit criterion: God does not burden us, if

there is no benefit. So, if there is any value to circumcision, one

must abide by it. If not, one must give it up. Competent physicians

must take a stand, having considered all girls from different

climates, because the problem might not be the same in every country,

or even with every girl. If a girl is in peculiar circumstances, she

must be circumcised; if not, let Nature take its course, as God

intended it. As long as no study has been done, Muslims are free to

go either way 142.

 

According to Professor Khallaf, physicians may not condemn female

circumcision based on isolated cases alone, but compare excised and

uncircumcised girls and then give their opinion. If they conclude

that female circumcision is harmful and as such, they decide to

forbid it, the prohibition will neither be contrary to a religious

text, nor to the unanimous position of religious scholars 143.

 

5. Permitted but soon to be forbidden because of adverse consequences

Doctor 'Abd-al-Wahid presents a strange reasoning, to say the least.

After stating that female circumcision is forbidden the same way as

it is forbidden to chop off one's finger, he admits that the Lawmaker

(God) gave permission for the sunnah, any excess being forbidden.

However, he adds that this form of circumcision is allowed, but not

mandatory and suggests that it be forbidden due to its medical and

psychological consequences, which he recounts in detail 144.

 

6. It must be forbidden

The most daring and most coherent opinion coming from a religious

leader against female circumcision is that of Sheikh Abu-Sabib, a

Sudanese, whom we mentioned earlier. He spoke at the Seminar on

Traditional Practices (Dakar, 1984). The narrations of Mohammed about

female circumcision are not reliable. They and the Koran do not

require anyone to suffer, when science proves the harm done by this

mutilation 145.

 

Only the two last-mentioned opinions urge the banning of female

circumcision and opt in favour of physical integrity. Others take

great care to saying nothing about prohibition, even if some leave

the choice up to the believer. Let us study this prohibition at the

State level.

 

 

CHAPTER IV. LEGAL PROHIBITION OF FEMALE CIRCUMCISION

Female circumcision brings up many questions:

Do we have the right to judge the customs of other societies and if

so, on which criteria?

Can we remain indifferent, in the name of " difference " , to

mutilations inflicted upon young children?

Must we make a distinction between the different kinds of

circumcision?

Must we forbid circumcision immediately and completely or

progressively?

May the practice be allowed in hospitals on a temporary basis?

 

I. TO JUDGE OTHERS' CUSTOMS

The Muslim circles in favour of female circumcision see an

imperialistic action in the Western campaign against it. Al-Sukkari

writes that, if some are trying to forbid it, " it is because the West

has succeeded in imposing secular materialistic views on our

sciences, our tradition, our artistic culture " 146. Imam Shaltut who

accepts the idea of forbidding female circumcision if proven harmful,

underlines the fact that it should not be prohibited under pressure

from others - a polite nod toward the West - , but only if proven

harmful 147.

 

Jomo Kenyatta, late President of Kenya, used to say: " Excision and

infibulation unite us tightly; they prove our fecundity " 148. To

which Pierre Leulliette replies:

 

Millions of children between the age of 2 and 14 are horribly

tortured in an atmosphere of collective hysteria, in contempt of

their genitalia, in scorn of their bodies, in defiance of their

lives... That barbarian culture! Is it not the lowest manifestation

of the unlimited, omnipresent phallocracy? Those mutilations! Aren't

they first and foremost an example of man acting out his most secret

hatred and deepest fear of woman 149?

 

This problem is now on the agenda of international organizations. On

July 10, 1958, the Economic and Social Committee of the United

Nations invited the WHO " to undertake a study on the persistence of

customs involving ritual practices on girls and on the measures in

effect or planned to put an end to those practices " 150. The answer

was clear: " [The World Health Assembly] believes that the ritual

practices in question, resulting from social and cultural

conceptions, are not within the WHO's jurisdiction " 151. And this, in

spite of an overwhelming report prepared by the WHO's very own

Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office 152.

 

In a communication on excision dated September 23, 1980, UNICEF

explained that its approach to eradicating a 2000 year old cultural

and traditional practice " is based on the belief that the best way to

handle the problem is to trigger awareness through education of the

public, members of the medical profession and practitioners of

traditional health care with the help of local collectivities and

their leaders " 153.

 

In 1984, the Inter-African Committee stipulated that " for

understandable psychological reasons, it is the black women who

should have the say in the matter " . This committee asked for

restraint, in order that the project might be successful, claiming

that " the wave of uncontrollable and violent denunciations of those

mutilations on the part of Western countries " was doing more harm

than good154. On the subject of legal prohibition, this same

committee, in 1984, warned against " untimely haste which would result

in rash legal measures that would never be enforced " 155. As for the

health professionals, they were quite satisfied with themselves in

condemning " the medicalisation and modernisation of the female

circumcision procedure, as non-conform to medical ethics " and to

advise that " no medical or paramedical personnel be allowed to

practice it " , for the same reason 156.

 

This problem is puzzling for the Western countries. Dominique Vernier

writes:

 

As soon as the first preliminary investigations of cases on excision

started [in France] (the Press mentions them as early as 1982-83),

the Justice Department was put in an awkward position and has been

ever since157.

 

This perplexity is due to the principles of the French penal code.

Indeed, the parents have no intention to do violence to their

children or to batter them, but rather intend to respect a custom,

without the application of which their daughters, once adults, would

not be able to integrate into their country of origin 158. On the

other hand, in practice, it is easy for a couple who want their

daughter excised to take her back to her country of origin,

paralysing the law of the adopted country. Last, but not least, even

if the countries of origin adopt some laws against those practices,

those laws would not be able to defeat a massively accepted practice,

which has become an integral part of that society 159.

 

 

II. RIGHT TO DIFFERENCE OR INDIFFERENCE

This debate about the right to be different was settled in favour of

the girl's right to physical integrity (but not the boy's).

The WHO gave up its above mentioned reservations of 1959. It became

involved in 1977 in the creation of the first Workshop on female

excision. In February 1979, its Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office

organized in Khartoum the first International Seminar on Traditional

Practices affecting Women's and Children's Health. This Seminar

recommended that specific national policies be adopted in order to

abolish female circumcision 160. In June 1982, the WHO made a formal

declaration of its position on excision to the Committee of Human

Rights of the United Nations. The WHO approved the recommendations

made at the Seminar in Khartoum and added: " It has always been the

WHO's opinion that female circumcision should never be performed by

health professionals in any situation under any conditions, be it in

hospitals or other specialized settings " 161. The most recent stand

was taken in 1989: the Regional Committee of the WHO for Africa

passed a resolution urging the participating governments:

 

to adopt appropriate policies and strategies in order to eradicate

female circumcision;

to forbid medicalisation of female circumcision and to discourage

health professionals from performing such surgery 162.

A turnaround was also made by the Inter-African Committee. Whereas in

1984, it had warned against promulgating laws against female

circumcision, it requested such laws in 1987, because " neither the

efforts nor the research nor the campaigns ever had any real impact "

163. Three years later, it reinforced its position, requesting

promulgation of specific laws " forbidding the practice of female

genital mutilations and other sexual abuses and making provision for

sentencing anyone guilty of such practices " . This law should

provide " an especially severe punishment for health professionals "

164.

 

Some Western countries have timidly followed in the footsteps of the

two above-mentioned organizations.

 

For instance, in 1981, France adopted article 312, paragraph 3 of the

Penal Code, stating:

 

When acts of violence or privation have been habitually inflicted,

the sentence to be imposed upon the guilty party shall be: life

imprisonment if there is mutilation, amputation, deprivation of the

use of a limb, blindness, loss of an eye and other permanent

disabilities or death, even if the guilty party did not intend such a

result.

 

This article is invoked against female circumcision even though the

word is not mentioned in the text. In Sweden, a 1982 law forbids any

operation on an external organ aiming at mutilating it or altering it

definitely, whether or not consent is given165. Great Britain did the

same in 1985 166.

 

In Switzerland, article 122 of the Penal Code stipulates:

 

Anyone who has mutilated a person's body, one of the limbs or one of

the important organs, or rendered the limb or the organ unfit to

function, will be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years reclusion or to

between 6 months and 5 years of imprisonment.

 

Moreover, in 1983, the Central Committee for Medical Ethics of the

Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences took a very firm position against

female circumcision and its practice by medical professionals 167.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child is not clear about it.

Article 24, paragraph 3 states:

 

States Parties shall take all effective and appropriate measures with

a view to abolishing traditional practices prejudicial to the health

of children.

 

No definition is given of the expression " traditional practices

detrimental to the health of children " . The travaux préparatoires are

of no help either. The definition therefore is left up to the Member

States. Those States will surely not hesitate to quote article 29

paragraph 1.c of this Convention:

 

The development of respect for the child's parents, his or her own

cultural identity, language and values, for the national values of

the country in which the child is living, the country from which he

or she may originate, and for civilizations different from his or her

own.

 

Lastly, let us point out the London Declaration born out of the First

Study Conference on Genital Mutilation of Girls in Europe/Western

world (London, July 6-8, 1992). This Declaration states: " Any form of

genital mutilation or genital injury to the girl child is a violation

of her basic human rights, and must be abolished " . It asks national

groups and individuals to " promote a framework for legal action,

based on either specific anti-FGM [female genital mutilation] or on

general laws against the injury to the body of the child " . This

Declaration " urges all governments and all health authorities to

stand firm against any attempt to medicalise the genital mutilation

of or genital injury to the girl child " 168.

 

 

III. DISTINCTION BETWEEN DIFFERENT FORMS OF CIRCUMCISION

One must reiterate here that a distinction is wrongfully made at the

medical and intellectual level between male circumcision, which is

generally accepted, and female circumcision. Neither the WHO nor the

Inter-African Committee, nor UNICEF, nor the London Declaration, nor

the Western laws forbidding female circumcision make any mention of

male circumcision. It is not mentioned in the travaux préparatoires

to article 24, paragraph 3 of the Convention for the Rights of the

Child either. Female circumcision is sometimes mentioned, but never

male circumcision169.

 

One might have logically expected that those Western organizations

and laws would draw a distinction between the different forms of

female circumcision, in as much as minimal female circumcision can be

compared to male circumcision. But this is not the case as already

seen. During the above mentioned Conference of European Studies on

Female Genital Mutilation, the Netherlands tried to have such a

distinction made, to no avail; the WHO vetoed it. Doctor Mehra,

representing the WHO, explained to me that this organization fears it

would be impossible to control the practice if one permitted one

particular form 170.

 

This firm attitude opposed to all forms of female circumcision is not

shared by Muslim law. The latter makes a distinction between the

permitted female circumcision called sunnah, while other forms,

though widely practiced, are condemned by religious circles. This

distinction seems also to apply in Muslim countries.

 

In Sudan, a law of 1946 classified infibulation as an infraction

punishable by a fine and imprisonment. It was abrogated under public

pressure and replaced by an authorization for professional midwives

to practice sunnah 171.

 

On an undated flyer, written in Arabic, the Sudanese Association of

Struggle against Traditional Practices states:

 

Female circumcision (khafd) is an attack on the physical integrity

and an alteration of the human being created by God in the very best

way and in the very best form.

Female circumcision is a savage butchery that divine religions do not

allow.

Female circumcision is neither a duty nor a sunnah, but a practice of

the pre-Islamic era (al-gahiliyyah: the era of ignorance) against

which the Prophet warned us in his narration: " Cut lightly and do not

overdo it as it is more pleasant for the woman and better for the

husband " .

Female circumcision does not protect chastity which is better guarded

by education promoting good morality and healthy teaching of Islam.

Female circumcision preceded religions and is practiced by many

peoples of different religions and beliefs of which only the Sudan,

Egypt and Somalia are Muslim.

Therefore, stop circumcising girls.

This organization, while rejecting female circumcision in general,

seems, in the 3rd paragraph, to propose the sunnah, instead of the

pharaonic circumcision now prevalent in Sudan. A document prepared by

the National Committee of Social Assistance in collaboration with

UNICEF-Khartoum is doing the same. This document explains that the

light form of circumcision is named sunnah which means it is conform

with the tradition of Mohammed: it is a way of legitimating it rather

that eradicating it 172.

A similar attitude is adopted in Egypt. This country has promoted a

governmental decree (No. 74-1959) regarding female circumcision. The

text is far from clear. It states:

 

1. It is forbidden for physicians to perform the surgical procedure

of female circumcision. If one wishes it, then only partial

circumcision may be carried, but not total circumcision.

2. Female circumcisions are forbidden in the clinics of the Ministry

of Health.

3. Certified midwives have no right to perform any surgical procedure

whatsoever including female circumcision 173.

This text is taken from a recent collective report on the woman's

life and her health. The authors state that this text is not good as

it does not forbid female circumcision. A law should be promulgated

to abolish once and for all any kind of female circumcision 174.

 

Egyptian juridical works and anthologies of law pertaining to public

health never mention this decree. One never finds any judgements on

it. On the other hand, the Egyptian courts have convicted a barber

for having practiced circumcision on a boy who consequently died.

Contrary to the physician, the judgement states, the barber is not

protected by law if the result of his action is death or disability.

The judge refused to consider laudable or charitable intentions or

the absence of criminal intent. In this case, the Court applied

article 200 of the Penal Code which makes provision for 3 to 7 years

of forced labour or imprisonment in cases of voluntary injury without

intention to kill, but in fact causing death 175. In another

judgement, the Court of Cassation stated that a midwife has no right

to practice circumcision, the right to perform surgery being reserved

to physicians only, in pursuance of the first article of law

415/1954. The Court added that any attack on physical integrity,

except in cases of necessity authorized by law, is punishable, unless

the acts are performed by a physician. The midwife had circumcised a

boy and mistakenly amputated his glans, causing permanent disability

that the Court estimated at 25%. The midwife was sentenced to 6

months forced labour, suspended on condition of good behaviour during

3 years176.

 

 

IV. TEMPORARY AND PREVENTIVE MEASURES

Everybody agrees that legal measures will never be enough to stop

female circumcision. A conscious awareness must be raised among the

victims themselves. First, one must try to understand the reasons for

those practices. In the meantime, in order to avoid the worst,

shouldn't they be permitted to be performed in hospitals, in a less

severe form?

 

1. Provision of medical care

As we have noted above, the WHO, the Inter-African Committee, the

Declaration of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences and the London

Declaration all dismiss this possibility as ethically wrong. They

even ask for strict sanctions against members of the medical

profession who perform female circumcision.

 

This attitude may be open to criticism. A radical legal prohibition

will only encourage female circumcision to go underground. It will

then be performed by persons without proper knowledge of the possible

complications, thus endangering the woman's health. The Senegalese

representative raised the issue while the Convention on the Rights of

the Child was being drawn up. Thus the actual phrasing of article 24,

paragraph 3177.

 

Dominique Vernier is of the opinion that the medicalisation of

circumcision as is practised among the urban intellectual elite of

some African countries and in some Italian hospitals, in spite of the

physicians' hostility, should be accepted. She suggests that symbolic

excision be substituted for de facto excision as it is done in

Guinea, where the blacksmith's wife performs a light cut sufficient

to draw a few drops of blood. This is a way to respect the ritual

without mutilating the child178.

 

Medical care implies the risk of legalising and perpetuating female

circumcision especially because of the economic repercussions. During

the U.N. Seminar in Ouagadougou, some mentioned that the medical

profession takes the place of the traditional matrons and excises in

hospitals in order to make a financial profit and, by reducing health

risks, they perpetuate the practice: a guarantee of making money.

Their greed, having no limit, leads them to ignore the horror behind

each sexual mutilation. Well aware of the trust and respect given to

them by the masses, they abuse the naive parents and reassure them

that the custom is well grounded. According to those at the Seminar,

one must fight against such a tendency which is only going to add a

new legitimacy to excision 179.

 

2. Comprehension

A. Gaudio and R. Pelletier see in female circumcision " an expression

of male power " 180, " a demonic desire to control female sexuality, an

endless tyranny of the dominating male behind the alibi of culture "

181.

Nawal El-Saadawi, a victim of excision, explains why female

circumcision still goes on in Arab society under the male iron will:

 

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 genitals 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 182.

 

She adds that female circumcision is a means of dominating women in a

patriarchal society where a man can have more than one wife. The

society uses various means to sexually bind her to one man and to

control who is the father of her children 183.

 

For Doctor Gérard Zwang, the motive behind circumcision

is " metaphysical guilt " . It is the motivation " for all the sexual

mutilations which human beings have inflicted upon themselves since

they discovered the stone knife and the metal blade, a motivation

which renders any non-religious, non-metaphysical consideration null

and void " :

 

As a result of metaphysical culpabilization, men present sacrifices

to gods, divinities, spirits: any earthy pleasures, carnal desires,

organs destined to provide pleasure. In order to be among the " chosen

ones " in another life, be it extra-, or supra-, or infra-terrestrial,

which follows automatically (!) upon death. That is the origin of

fasts, Lent, Ramadan, prohibited foods; that is the origin of

ordinances restricting sexual life: chastity, abstinence, continency,

reshaping of genitalia (circumcision, excision, infibulation,

subincision, hemicastration, etc...)184.

 

Economics can also explain why circumcision is still going on, to

take an example mentioned above, when it is performed in hospitals.

It is also evident among traditional circles where midwives are not

about to give up so lucrative a practice 185. In some areas, the

profession of exciser is inherited from mother to daughter and the

economic survival of the family depends upon it. If the practice were

to be eradicated, it would remove the family's only source of income.

Accordingly, some have recommended retraining women who practise

excision; as matrons, they can give up practicing excision and still

earn a living 186. Economics plays a role in male circumcision as

well. In Canada, where medical insurers in some Provinces refuse to

reimburse the costs of circumcision, it appears to be becoming less

common 187.

 

Also, the dowry is higher if the girl is a virgin at the time of her

marriage. Virginity is a money-making asset. That is why some nations

are so keen on infibulation188.

 

3. Education

Nawal El-Saadawi states that the girls with whom she talked were not

aware of the prejudice caused by their circumcision. Some even

thought it was good for health and hygiene, especially because, in

their language, the word taharah means purification.

 

Girls believed that the purpose of the surgery was just that:

purification. People would not speak ill of them, they would behave

and their husbands would not be disgusted. After healing had taken

place, they had the inner satisfaction of being purified. Nawal El-

Saadawi got the same type of response from her medical students who

had never been taught, be it by teachers or by textbooks, the sexual

function of the clitoris. No question was ever put in exams on the

role of the clitoris. The clitoris was considered unimportant 189.

 

According to the testimonies gathered by Wedad Zenie-Ziegler from

Egyptian women, peasants practice female circumcision because " it has

always been done " : they do not know why 190. " The idea that it could

be a mutilation is foreign to them " 191.

 

Wedad Zenie-Ziegler adds that women will " make efforts to perpetuate

this ritual as long as they do not understand the uselessness of the

sacrifice and that it is part of an immense conspiracy aimed at

subjecting them to male domination " 192.

 

 

CHAPTER V. THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON CIRCUMCISION

The Third International Symposium on Circumcision was held from May

22-25, 1994, at the University of Maryland, College Park, Washington

DC. I was invited to the symposium to speak of the attitudes of

Muslims regarding male and female circumcision 193. The following

report on the symposium gives an idea about the problem of male

circumcision in the United States.

 

I. ORGANIZERS AND PARTICIPANTS

The symposium was organized by NOCIRC 194, and was attended by a

hundred or so people belonging to the three great monotheistic

religions (Christians, Jews and Muslims), coming from the United

States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, England, France, Switzerland,

Somalia and Egypt.

 

About forty of the symposium attendees delivered speeches, which were

followed by open debates. We also viewed two films, one on male

circumcision in the United States, and the other on female

circumcision in Somalia.

 

Every aspect of circumcision was considered: medical, psychological,

economic, religious and legal. My own speech concerned circumcision

within Islamic law. It was preceded and followed by speeches on

circumcision within Christianity and Judaism.

 

An exposition of photographs and art work was arranged in a room

where one could also purchase or receive gratis numerous materials

and publications produced primarily by the conference attendees and

other groups that attended the symposium.

 

The symposium concluded on May 25th with a banquet during which

awards were presented to individuals who had contributed to the fight

against male and female circumcision. On May 26th there was a

demonstration in Washington DC against circumcision (see below).

 

II. REASONS OF THE SYMPOSIUM

As its title indicates, this symposium was the third of its kind.

Although female circumcision was discussed, this symposium

principally dealt with male circumcision, which demonstrates in

itself that this form of circumcision is a real problem, especially

in the United States. What is the nature of this problem?

 

Infant circumcision in the United States began not for medical or

religious reasons, but for social reasons. It began in the 1870s as a

Victorian attempt to prevent or cure masturbation, which at the time

was believed to cause bedwetting, alcoholism, insanity, curvature of

the spine and other physical and mental disorders. The practice

spread from England concurrently to other English-speaking countries

(Canada, Australia and the United States).

 

When the masturbation theory was dispelled and declared false in 1948

by the British National Health Service, the rate of circumcision was

reduced to less than 0.5% in England. The rate of circumcision in

Canada and in Australia also was lowered, but remains still around

20%.

 

In the United States, with the development of hospitalized births,

male infant circumcision remains a common practice. The American

medical community has tried to find " medical " justifications for the

continuation of circumcision. Even today, the United States remains

the only country on earth where the majority of male infants are

circumcised for non-religious reasons. This rate is today 60% with

differences from one region to another. Approximately 3'300 babies

each day are submitted to circumcision in American hospitals. This

represents more than 1'25 million children circumcised each year.

Several babies die as a consequence of the operation, which is

performed without anaesthesia, and which results in numerous medical

complications. Circumcision is considered today as one of the reasons

for the violence which rages in American society, where the crime

rate is six times larger than that in Europe: That which society does

to its children, its children do to society. In effect, circumcision

injures the brain of the child. It also impairs the normal

functioning of the adult sexuality. On average one forth of the skin

of the baby's penis is amputated. This has forced many Americans to

seek restoration of their foreskin (see below). Many authorities

estimate that the violence done to the infant during circumcision

plays a role in the fatal conflicts in the Middle East between

Muslims and Jews, two groups that practice circumcision.

 

In the United States, the American Academy of Pediatrics has adopted

a neutral position towards male circumcision, leaving the decision to

parents. One cannot say, however, that they are properly informed of

the implication of their decision. Circumcision takes place in

hospitals in the first days of life. Doctors rarely give information

on the benefits or risks of the surgery. They even exert

psychological pressure by expressing disapproval when parents refuse

to consent to the operation. The operation has become a sort of

routine, notably in the lower and middle classes. It is performed in

a barbarous (this word is not too strong) manner by doctors with

clear financial motivations, at the request of ignorant parents, and

in any case, it is forced upon infants who cannot express their

wishes in the matter. Certainly, in rare instances, circumcision can

be useful in the treatment of certain diseases like phimosis (but

even in this case, there are medical means of treatment without

resorting to circumcision). But the real practice of male

circumcision in the United States, like everywhere else in the world,

denotes a trivialization responsible for a contemptuous regard for

the physical integrity of the child.

 

III. COMBATING MALE CIRCUMCISION BY IDENTIFYING THE RESPONSIBLE

PARTIES

During the symposium, the participants tried to see how one could put

an end to male circumcision. In order to do this, it is necessary to

consider the roles of those responsible for the practice of

circumcision.

 

1. The doctors

Doctors form an imposing body that is very difficult to confront. The

participants of the symposium expressed little confidence in them.

One participant indicated that it was pointless to try to convince

doctors, for like all lobbies, they are against society. Doctors

profit by the operation of circumcision and one can hardly expect

them to willingly reduce their income. Circumcision and the commerce

of the foreskin constitutes a lucrative industry in the United

States, amounting to several hundred million dollars a year. Despite

this, some doctors have been converted and have become opponents of

circumcision, especially those at the end of their careers who have

less to lose. Some came to bring their testimony and to argue against

circumcision. One of these gave to NOCIRC the Circumstraint tray 195

on which he used to perform circumcisions and delivered an address

entitled, " Leave it alone! "

 

2. The nurses

Nurses also participate in circumcision. These nurses can be easily

mobilized against circumcision by reason of the atrocious suffering

they have witnessed during the circumcision of babies. Circumcision

is performed without anaesthesia. We viewed a film of the operation

and heard repeatedly the screams of the infant being operated upon.

It was truly unbearable. It is not an accident that circumcision is

always performed behind closed doors, the parents not being permitted

to watch. The baby is strapped by its hands and feet and immobilized

on a molded plastic tray which conforms to its body. The foreskin is

pulled to its maximum length and crushed by a metal clamp before it

is sliced off with a scalpel. We saw one of these plastic trays: a

veritable instrument of torture.

 

Nurses, however, fear that they will be relieved of their duties and

dismissed if as conscientious objectors they refuse to participate in

the operation. The founder of NOCIRC, for example, was a nurse. She

lost her job because of her opposition to circumcision. Actually, it

would seem that opposition is now becoming easier to assert. A dozen

nurses from St. Vincent Hospital in Santa Fe, New Mexico (of which

several were Jewish) 196, were present at the symposium and gave us

their reasons for taking their decision. These reasons are:

 

Neonatal circumcision is a violation of a new-born male's right to a

whole (intact) body.

There are no compelling medical reasons for amputation of the penile

foreskin. Amputating the foreskin deprives the infant of a protective

and sexually functional part of his body.

Circumcision is a surgical procedure with risks of complications,

including bleeding, infection and mutilation.

Neonatal circumcision is painful. Often, inadequate or no anaesthesia

is used. Post-operative pain management is rare.

Parental information on this subject is all too often incomplete or

based on myths.

The infant is unable at this vulnerable age to state his own wishes

or to protect himself.

The nurses moved everyone in the auditorium to tears.

 

3. The insurance companies

Insurance companies could play an important role in the abolition of

male circumcision. In Canada, where insurance companies refuse to pay

the cost of circumcision, the rate of circumcision is falling

dramatically. This is also the case in certain American states. The

organizers and participants of the symposium would like to convince

the insurance companies to cease covering the expense of male

circumcision.

 

4. The religions

Male circumcision is practiced by the adherents of the three

monotheistic religions: Jews, Muslims, and Christians.

Concerning Jews, the mandate for male circumcision comes from the

Bible. There one reads:

 

God told Abraham: " ...Here is our alliance which shall be observed

between me and you, i.e. thy race after thee, may all your males be

circumcised. You shall have the flesh of your foreskin cut off and it

shall be a sign of alliance between me and you...When they reach

their 8th day all your males shall be circumcised from generation to

generation... My alliance shall be branded in your flesh as a

perpetual alliance. The uncircumcised, the male whose foreskin has

not been cut off, this very life shall be cut off. He violated my

alliance " (Genesis 17:9-14).

 

It is in fact from this community that the fiercest opposition to the

abolition of circumcision is mounted. The so-called " medical "

justifications for circumcision were formulated principally by Jewish

doctors. It would seem even that the development of male circumcision

among Christians in the United States was a premeditated action on

the part of the Jewish medical community after the second World War.

By circumcising as many Christians as possible, they sought to make

it more difficult to distinguish between Jews and non-Jews in the

event of a future persecution of the Jews. It would seem also that

there is a hint of Jewish proselytising behind circumcision : A

circumcised Christian is more easily converted to Judaism than an

uncircumcised one because he will not fear having to submit to

circumcision as an adult. Notice here that the Western world has

passed laws prohibiting female circumcision, but dares not to do the

same for male circumcision for fear that they will be considered anti-

Semitic by the Jews. One must note, however, that even the voice of

American Jews is being added to the cry against the practice of

circumcision (see below).

 

Muslims systematically practice male circumcision. However, the Koran

makes no mention of circumcision. On the contrary, one can find

verses which can be interpreted as being against circumcision:

 

Our Lord, You did not create all this in vain (3:191).

He perfected everything He created (32:7).

[The devil said]: " I will mislead them, and I will create in them

false desires; I will order them to slit the ears of cattles, and to

deface the fair nature created by God " (4:119).

One can deduce from the first verses that the foreskin is an integral

part of the human body created by God, and that one should not

imagine that by cutting it one is perfecting the work of God. The

third verse considers the alteration of Nature as obedience to the

Devil.

The practice of male circumcision among Muslims derives from the

practice of the Jews: Each Muslim must be circumcised like Abraham,

who is considered a model man. One invokes also the recitations

attributed to Mohammed. These recitations, however, were collected

200 years after the death of Mohammed.

 

Concerning Christians, Saint Paul advocates circumcision of the heart

instead of circumcision of the flesh (Epistle to the Romans 2:29).

Despite this, there is a trend among evangelical Christians in the

United States, who follow the Bible to the letter and who believe

that this book contains principles of medical science which the

believer must follow, such as circumcision. According to them, " what

is good enough for the Chosen People, is good enough for all

mankind " . Mormons too practice circumcision even though their holy

book considers the dictates of the Bible concerning circumcision to

be obsolete.

 

5. International organizations

International organizations refuse to involve themselves in this

issue. They are afraid of being considered anti-Semitic. This is the

case notably with the World Health Organization, The Population

Council of the UN, the Inter-African Committee, UNICEF, and Amnesty

International. These organizations, responsible for overseeing the

respect of human rights, are always ready to criticize -correctly so -

female circumcision, but have become accomplices in the violation of

the rights of male infants to an intact body. The fear of anti-

Semitism paralyzes them.

 

6. National legislature: Towards a criminalization of Male

circumcision

Is it necessary to pass a law criminalizing male circumcision? This

was the question that arose frequently at the symposium. Although

numerous Jews who are opposed to circumcision attended the symposium,

they were generally against the adoption of such a law. The majority

of participants, however, were of the opinion that a law should be

enacted which criminalizes male circumcision along with female

circumcision. There is no reason to distinguish between the two forms

of circumcision: both are mutilations of healthy sexual organs of non-

consenting children. There is no justification for such mutilations.

If the foreskin were useless, Nature would not have make it. It is

imperative in any case to leave the child intact until the age of 18

when he will have the freedom to decide for himself whether he wants

to be circumcised or not. He is then even free to have his ears

amputated if he chooses, but one does not have the right for forcibly

remove his body parts when he is a baby.

 

I was the only lawyer present at the symposium. I requested that next

time the organizers should invite other lawyers and professors of law

in order to be able to begin a law project with the aim of condemning

male and female circumcision. I also proposed:

 

To identify those professors of law who might be interested in

presenting this subject in their lectures and to make available to

them the necessary materials;

to provide law libraries documents to enable researchers to make

further studies in this area.

Certainly, the adoption of a law criminalizing male circumcision

would provoke the anger and opposition of the Jews. But if a law were

adopted, the United States would be the first to be able to do so

because of its unconditional support of Israel. This is the only

country which need have no fear of being considered anti-Semitic, and

it is in this country that opposition to circumcision is the best

organized.

 

 

IV. HOW TO RESTORE THE FORESKIN

This title may cause laughter. It is actually a technique known in

the past, notably in the Hellenistic Period (323-30 B.C.) and the

Roman Empire (27 B.C. to 140 A.D.). It is being revived in the United

States.

This technique starts with the viewpoint that male circumcision is an

affront to the physical integrity and an impairment of the normal

functioning of the male organ, especially when a large part of the

foreskin is amputated. This technique consists in stretching the skin

of the penis in order to compensate for the parts removed in

circumcision. One must pull the skin of the penis and tape it in

place in the first stage before suspending metallic objects of a

certain fixed weight using surgical tape. The process takes about 15

months before the skin of the penis returns to the length it would

have had had it not been circumcised.

 

This technique was used by Jim Bigelow on himself and on others 197.

Jim Bigelow is not a physician, but a psychologist. He earned his

doctorate in psychology at Claremont Graduate School and served as a

Professor of Psychology at Whittier College. He also pastored several

Evangelical churches. He has explained this technique in a book 198.

I bought this book, which is full of observations not only about

restoration of the foreskin, but also about circumcision in general,

notably as it is practised in the United States. It is a scientific

publication, 239 pages long, very serious and heavily documented. It

is probably the most vibrant attack on male circumcision ever written.

 

Jim Bigelow is a charming man, full of humor. He was present at the

symposium. He delivered a speech using many slides. He did not

hesitate to mention his history of success and confessed to me at the

end that he wrote the book in the spirit of Christian charity. The

restoration of the foreskin using his method was successfully

achieved by hundreds of circumcised men, not only Christians, but

also Jews (a fact which has not failed to provoke the anger of

Rabbis). Received at first with skepticism by the medical community,

his publication and his technique has ended by being recognized.

Several Europeans have tried it. Two doctors even came to the

symposium from Australia. Testimony from numerous Christians and Jews

in the auditorium offered support to Jim Bigelow, and confessed that

they experienced an enormous increase in sexual pleasure after

restoration. Furthermore, many support groups for circumcised men

wishing to restore their foreskin exist all over the United States,

and even in Europe with the mission of providing free advice and

moral support 199.

 

 

V. DEMONSTRATION IN WASHINGTON

On the 26 of May the organizers of the symposium and the participants

made a demonstration in Washington in front of the Physicians

Committee for responsible medicine (P.O.Box 6322, Washington DC

20015). Many participants brought with them copies of their birth

certificates, signed by the doctor who circumcised them. In front of

this organization they burned their birth certificates along with

copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which does not

protect the rights of children against sexual mutilation. As this

organization is situated across the street from a national television

station, several photographers and cameramen were present at the

demonstration.

 

The director of the organization (Mr. Neal Barnard, M. D.) asked that

the demonstrators form a committee to meet him. The president of

NOCIRC, the president of NOHARMM 200, two other members of NOCIRC, a

Jewish nurse, who is a conscientious objector who refuses to

participate in circumcision, and myself (a Christian of Palestinian

origin) were selected. The discussion lasted about 45 minutes.

 

The director was very nice and allowed each a chance to speak. I

introduced myself as a Swiss Lawyer, a Christian of Palestinian

origin, and the nurse introduced herself as an American Jew, proud to

be in my company as a Palestinian. This served to relax the director.

He said that there were so many medical problems to regulate in the

United States that he could not take up the problem of circumcision

without ignoring some other problem. He also mentioned the budget

problem, to which we replied, that by beginning with respect for the

child, he would have less to bother with and at the same time would

save a lot of money. As for our goals, we told him that it was

necessary to educate parents and to make a law forbidding male as

well as female circumcision. The child does not give his consent, and

in the case of circumcision the parents cannot give such consent. In

any case, in order for the parents to give valid consent, it is

necessary that they be informed, which is never the case in the

United States. I expressed my indignation at the high and unjustified

rate of circumcision performed in the United States; a practice which

violates the same human rights which the United States pretend to

defend.

 

After leaving the meeting with the director, the Jewish nurse and I

declared before the cameras that this marked the very first time in

human history that a Jew and a Palestinian stood united to protect

each others children instead of killing them as in the Middle East.

We were very proud indeed.

 

This feeling of pride was shared by all the participants of the

symposium. All had the sense of being pioneers and that taking this

position had historic significance. It is the first time in history

that a group has decided to fight to put an end to a practice

unanimously considered to be barbaric and degrading.

 

The various speeches of the symposium are being published. I

fervently hope that the European medical community will take an

interest in this research and will take a position against both male

and female circumcision. I especially hope that European nurses will

follow the example of the courageous Santa Fe nurses and will refuse

to assist in any more circumcisions.

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

In our opinion, a God who demands that his believers be mutilated and

branded on their genitals the same as cattle, is a God of

questionable ethics. It could be legitimate to perform either male or

female circumcision, as any other surgery, for specific, extremely

rare, medical reasons on specific individuals. But to arbitrarily

mutilate children, boys or girls, under the pretext that it is for

their own good, shows an influence of cynicism and fanaticism.

That is why there is no valid justification of the distinction made

between male and female circumcision. Doctor Zwang goes

further: " Female circumcision will never stop as long as male

circumcision is going on. How do you expect to convince an African

father to leave his daughter uncircumcised as long as you let him do

it to his son? " 201 There is no alternative but to condemn the

attitude of international and non-governmental organizations which

dissociate one type of circumcision from the other, giving legitimacy

to male circumcision in the process.

 

Religion has been a means of justifying both male and female

circumcision. It is time to expose the irrationality behind this

thinking and reveal the harmful influence of some religious circles

which are in favour of it or refuse to denounce it.

 

That is the goal of this study which, I hope, will contribute to the

respect of the rights of all children.

 

 

-----------------------

For more information

I possess a great number of documents on male and female

circumcision. They are at the disposal of all interested persons. I

am also ready to discuss this problem with those interested. I may be

contacted at the following address: Sami Aldeeb, Swiss Institute of

Comparative Law, Dorigny, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. Tel.

021/6924912. Fax 021/6924949.

 

 

-----------------------

Footnotes

1 This Convention came into effect on September 2, 1990.

2 Rapport sur les pratiques traditionnelles , Dakar, 1984, p. 85. The

full name of this specific committee: Comité inter-africain sur les

pratiques traditionnelles ayant effet sur la santé des femmes et des

enfants .In 1984, its denomination was: Groupe de travail ONG sur les

pratiques traditionnelles ayant effet sur la santé des femmes et des

enfants.

3 Rapport sur les pratiques traditionnelles , Addis Abeba, 1987, p.

77.

4 The term female circumcision is used by the WHO (World Health

Organization). Its " position relative to female circumcision " was

submitted in June 1982 to the United Nations Sub-Committee for

Prevention of Discrimination against and Protection of Minorities,

Workshop on Slavery. At the Conference on Traditional Practices,

Addis Abeba, 1990, the delegates considered that the terms " female

circumcision and excision could lead to confusion and possibly could

not fully describe the different methods used for the practice " . They

recommended that they be replaced by female genital mutilations

(Report on Traditional Practices, Addis Abeba, 1990, p. 8).

5 Amin, Ahmad: Qamus al-'adat wal-taqalid wal-ta'abir al-masriyyah,

Maktabat al-nahdah al-masriyyah, Cairo, 1992, p. 188.

6 Here are the most important organizations:

-Sentinelles, 10 chemin du Languedoc, Lausanne, Switzerland, Tel.

(021) 6173838. Founded in 1980 by Edmond Kaiser, founder of Terre des

Hommes. This former organization inaugurated a campaign against

female genital mutilations with a press conference held in Geneva on

April 25, 1977. This campaign is being kept alive by Sentinelles.

-Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices affecting Women's

and Children's Health. President: Mrs. Berhane Ras-Work, 147 rue de

Lausanne, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland, Tel: (022) 7312420. Founded in

1984, this committee represents 23 African national committees.

-WHO , Dr. Leila Mehra, Chief Family Planning and Population,

Division of Family Health, 20, avenue Appia, 1211 Geneva 27,

Switzerland, Tel: (022) 7913357.

-Center for Human Rights, Service for Legislation and Prevention of

Discrimination, Mr. Doglo Daniel Atchebro, Bureau D 416, Palais des

Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, Tel: (022) 9173410. -UNICEF, Mrs. Marie-

Pierre Poirier, Public Affairs Officer NGO, 16 avenue de Tremblay,

1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland, Tel: (022) 7910823.

I wish to express my gratitude to these organizations for their

support and encouragement in the preparation of this study.

7 One should take note here that neither Rifa'ah Al-Tahtawi (1801-

1873) nor Qassim Amin (1863-1908), two prominent personalities in the

19th-century fight for women's liberation, ever mentioned the issue

of female circumcision.

8 I have studied many juridical works in Arabic relative to the penal

code and to the protection of the child. Some of those papers devote

a few lines to the phenomenon, drawing a line between excessive

circumcision and minimal circumcision, the latter being considered a

part of the prophetical sunnah (see for example Muhammad,

Muhammad 'Abd-al-Gawwad: Himayat al-umumah wal-tufulah fil-mawathiq

al-duwaliyyah wal-shari'ah al-islamiyyah, Mansha'at al-ma'arif,

Alexandria, 1991, pp. 92 and 136-137). As customary in the Arab

world, those works compare public international law to the Muslim

law, stating that Muslim law preceded international documents in

regard to the protection of the child (Ibid, pp. 15 and 251).

9 El-Saadawi, Nawal: The hidden face of Eve, Women in the Arab World,

translated and edited by Sherif Hetata, Zed Press, London, 1980, p.

36.

10 Let us point out the three following associations which oppose

male (and female) circumcision:

-Association contre la Mutilation des Enfants, 50 boulevard Jean

Jaurës, 92100 Boulogne

(P.O.Box 220, 92108 Boulogne Cedex), France, Tel: 33 (1) 48 25 79 56.

In line with organizations opposed to female circumcision, this

organization has produced a video cassette on this form of child

abuse by means of this unjustified surgical procedure.

-National Organization of Circumcision Centers (NOCIRC), P.O.Box

2512, San Anselmo, CA 94979-2512, U.S.A., Tel: (415) 488 9883.

-End the Horror of Infant Circumcision (E.T.H.I.C.): founder: Bettie

Malofie, 1989. P.O.Box 42526, 1005 Columbia Street, New Westminster,

B.C., V3M 6H5, Canada.

11 The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, a guide to

the " Travaux préparatoires " , Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht,

Boston, London, 1992, p. 351.

12 Zenie Ziegler, Wedad: La face voilée des femmes d'Egypte,, Mercure

de France, Paris, 1985, pp. 139-140. See also Farah, Nadyah Ramsis

(dir.): Hayat al-mar'ah wa-sihhatuha, Sina lil-nashr, Cairo, and Al-

Saqr al-'arabi lil-ibda', Limassol, 1991, p. 37.

13 Report of the United Nations Seminar related to Traditional

Practices affecting the Health of Women and Children, Ouagadougou,

Burkina Faso, Apr.29-May 3, 1991, E/CN.4/Sub.2/1991/48, Jun.12, 1991,

p. 9.

14 El-Khayat-Bennai, Ghita: Le monde arabe au féminin, L'Harmattan,

Paris, 1985, p. 39.

15 Guidicelli-Delage, Geneviëve: Excision et droit pénal, in: Droit

et Culture, Vol. 20, 1990, p. 203.

16 Conversation by phone on Jan.7, 1993.

17 On April 9,1981, the Belgian Department of Public Prosecutions

declared male and female circumcision an assault on physical

integrity and consequently contrary to the Belgian International

Public Order; thus male circumcision should not be protected under

the guarantee of freedom of religion. This decision was rejected by

the Court of Appeal in Liege, which considered excision and

infibulation to be of a different nature than male circumcision

(without explaining how). Any physician who would practiced

circumcision would be guaranteed medical immunity. However, the Court

rejected a request from an Algerian father who wanted his son

circumcised. The son, a minor, whose Belgian mother had been granted

custody, had been baptised in the Catholic faith. In this specific

case, the respect of the rights of the child demanded respect for his

right to chose which ideology, religious or non-denominational, to

embrace once he becomes an adult. (Revue trimestrielle de droit

familial, 1982, pp. 331-334; Foblets, M.C.: Salem's circumcision, the

encounter of cultures in a civil law action, a Belgian case-study, in

Living Law in the Low Countries, special issue of the Dutch and

Belgian Law and Society Journal, [1990?], pp. 42-56).

18 Gaudio, Attilio and Pelletier, Renée: Femmes d'Islam ou le sexe

interdit, Denoël/Gonthier, Paris, 1980, pp. 53-54.

19 Zenie-Ziegler: La face voilée, op. cit., pp. 62 and 140.

20 Leslau, Wolf: Coutumes et croyances des Falachas (Juifs

d'Abyssinie), Institut d'Ethnographie, Paris, 1957, p. 93.

21 El-Saadawi: The hidden, op. cit., p. 34.

22 Rapport sur les pratiques traditionnelles, Addis Abeba, 1990, p.

56; UNO, Economic and Social Council, E/CN.4/1986/42, Feb. 4, 1986,

p. 19.

23 Gaudio and Pelletier: Femmes, op. cit., p. 53. For other

testimonies, see El-Saadawi: The hidden, op. cit., pp. 7-8 (She

describes her own circumcision) and El-Masry, Youssef: Le drame

sexuel de la femme dans l'Orient arabe, Laffont, Paris, 1962, pp. 39-

44.

24 If one can trust unverified information, the Guards of the Holy

Shrine of Islam in Saudi Arabia are said to be eunuchs. Where do they

come from? Also the Israeli army in its repression of Palestinians

often aims at their genitals. In a letter dated November 29, 1988,

received by a priest in Jerusalem, one reads: " Witnesses often see

the Army beating up boys on their private parts (lately in Ramallah

and all around). The victims do not dare to talk too much about it,

but they are not men any more, their mothers say. Isn't this a form

of genocide ? " (Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh, Sami A.: Discriminations contre

les non-Juifs tant Chrétiens que Musulmans en Israël, Pax Christi,

Lausanne, 1992, p. 28).

25 El-Masry: Le drame sexuel, op. cit., pp. 46-47.

26 Ghawabi, Hamid Al-: Khitan al-banat bayn al-tib wal-islam, in Abd-

al-Raziq, Abu-Bakr: Al-Khitan, ra'y al-din wal-'ilm fi khitan al-

awlad wal-banat, Dar al-i'tissam, Cairo, 1989, p. 55.

27 Mahran, Maher: Les risques médicaux de l'excision (circoncision

médicale), reprint of a paper published in Bulletin Médical de

l'IPPF, Vol.15, No.2, April 1981, p. 1.

28 Ibid., p. 1. See also the report of the WHO regional office for

the Eastern Mediterranean, in Terre des Hommes: Les mutilations

sexuelles féminines infligées aux enfants , Press Conference of Terre

des Hommes, Geneva, April 25, 1977, p. 9.

29 El-Saadawi: The hidden, op. cit., p. 40.

30 Report on Traditional Practices, Dakar, 1984, p. 61.

31 Terre des Hommes: les mutilations sexuelles, op. cit (intervention

of Dr. Ahmad Abu-el-Futuh), p. 45.

32 Gaudio and Pelletier: Femmes, op. cit., p. 59.

33 It is by a fatwa of February 13, 1989, that Imam Khomeini

sentenced Salman Rushdie to the death penalty.

34 Concerning this institution, see Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh, Sami A.:

L'institution du mufti et de sa fatwa/décision en Islam, in Praxis

juridique et religion, 7.2.1990, pp. 125-148.

35 Sukkari, 'Abd-al-Salam 'Abd-al-Rahim Al-: Khitan al-dhakar wa-

khifad al-untha min manzur islami, Dar al-manar, Heliopolis, 1988,

pp. 13-17 and 21-22.

36 Genesis 17:9-14. Talking of alliance, Doctor Gérard Zwang

writes: " After their circumcision, some Africans wear their foreskin

around a finger, it is a ring symbolically vulvar, worn on the ring

fingers of married civilized persons. It is an alliance that Jehovah

has established with the circumcised " . (Zwang, Gérard: La fonction

érotique , Editions Robert Laffont, Paris, 3rd edition, Vol. 3,

Supplement, 1978, p. 271, note 2).

37 Exodus 12:44; Leviticus 12:3. In other passages, circumcision is a

rite of initiation to marriage and to life in a group (Genesis 34:14;

Exodus 4:24-26; Leviticus 19:23). See comment about Genesis 17:10 in

the Bible de Jérusalem, Editions du Cerf, Paris, 1986, p. 46.

38 First Book of Samuel 18:24-28.

39 Shaltut, Mahmud: Al-fatawi, Dar al-shuruq, Cairo & Beirut, 10th

edition, 1980, p. 332.

40 Sukkari: Khitan, op. cit., p. 97.

41 Ibid., pp. 11-12. 'Abd-al-Razzaq quotes comments by Christ out of

the Gospel according to Barnabe: Adam, after his sin, swore to cut

his body. The Archangel Gabriel is said to have reprimanded him. As

he was unwilling to commit perjury, the Archangel is said to have

shown him the foreskin which he then cut off. Therefore, according

to 'Abd-al-Razzaq, " each of Adam's descendant must fulfil Adam's oath

and be circumcised " . ('Abd-al-Raziq, Abu-Bakr: Al-khitan, ra'y ad-din

wal-'ilm fi khitan al-awlad wal-banat, Dar Al-i'tissam, Cairo, 1989,

p. 16).

42 Gamri, 'Abd-al-Amir Mansur Al-: Al-mar'ah fi zil al-islam, Dar al-

hilal, Beirut, 4th edition, 1986, pp. 170-171.

43 Sukkari: Khitan, op. cit., pp. 103-107.

44 Shaltut: Al-fatawi, op. cit., p. 331.

45 Excerpt from a text read during an undated broadcast of Resistance

and forwarded by the Muslim Institute of the Mosque of Paris to Mr.

Edmond Kaiser, founder of Terre des Hommes.

46 Sukkari: Khitan, op. cit., pp. 99-100.

47 Ibid., pp. 103-106.

48 El-Saadawi: The hidden, op. cit., p. 42.

49 Ibid., pp. 41-42.

50 Saurel, Renée: L'enterrée vive, in Les Temps modernes, No. 393,

April 1979, Paris, p. 1659, cited by El-Khayat-Bennai: Le monde

arabe, op. cit., p. 43.

51 Buti, Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan Al-: Mas'alat tahdid al-nasl

wiqayatan wa-'ilagan, Matba'at Al-Farabi, 2nd edition, Damascus,

[1982?], pp. 33-34; Khatib, Um Kulthum Yahya Mustafa Al-: Qadiyyat

tahdid al-nasl fil-shari'ah al-islamiyyah, Al-Dar al-su'udiyyah, 2nd

edition, Jeddah, 1982, pp. 143-146. In one of the narrations, some of

Mohammed's companions were taking part in a razzia. As they were

experiencing deprivation, they asked Mohammed if they could castrate

themselves. Mohammed forbade it. Commenting on the narration, Ibn-

Hagar wrote: " Emasculation brings among other damage much suffering

and deformity as well as a probability of death; it deprives someone

of his manhood and transforms God's creation. It is ungratefulness

toward God's blessings because to be created a man is one of God's

supreme blessings. Without it, the man looks like a woman and in fact

chooses imperfection versus perfection " . According to other

commentators, the interdiction comes from the fact that castration

changes the creation and brings an end to having progeny (Ibn-al-

Dardir, Abd-al-'Aziz: Li-maslahat man tahdid al-nasl wa-tanzimuh,

Maktabat al-Qur'an, Cairo, 1990, pp. 52, 54-55).

52 Rapport sur les pratiques traditionnelles, Addis Abeba, 1987, p.

83. This verse can also be read on the cover of a Sudanese pamphlet

against circumcision (Al-Darir, Asma' 'Abd-al-Rahman: Murshid

muharabat al-khifad, [Khartoum, 1982]).

53 Unabridged arab text on the issue in Report on Traditional

Practices, Dakar, 1984, pp. 247-250; basic french translation, pp. 72-

73.

54 Gaza'iri, Abu-Bakr Gabir Al-: Ya 'ulama' al-islam iftuna, Matabi'

al-Rashid, Medina, 1992, p. 28.

55 Exodus 12:7-13. 56 He refers here to verse 86:14: " It is not vain

talk " .

57 Mahdawi Mustafa Kamal Al-: Al-Bayan bil-Qur'an, 2 Volumes, Al-dar

al-gamahiriyyah, Misratah and Dar al-afaq al-gadidah, Casablanca,

1990, Vol. 1, pp. 348-350.

58 Sukkari: Khitan, Op. cit., p. 45.

59 Ibid., pp. 47-54.

60 Shaltut: Al-fatawi, op. cit., p. 332.

61 Sukkari: Khitan, op. cit., p. 46.

62 Ibid., pp. 55-61 63 Ibid., pp. 46, 62-63.

64 Khallaf, 'Abd-al-Wahhab: Khitan al-banat, in 'Abd-al-Raziq: Al-

khitan, op. cit. p. 76.

65 Shaltut: Al-fatawi, op. cit., pp. 333-334.

66 Birri, Zakariyya Al-: Ma hukm khitan al-bint wa-hal huwa daruri,

in 'Abd-al-Raziq: Al-khitan, op. cit., pp. 95-96.

67 Qaradawi, Youssef Al-: Huda al-islam, fatawi mu'assirah, Dar al-

qalam, Kuwait, 3rd edition, 1987, p. 443.

68 Makhluf, Hassanayn Muhammad: Hukm al-khitan, in Al-fatawi al-

islamiyyah min dar al-ifta' al-masriyyah, Wazarat al-awqaf, Cairo,

Vol. 2, 1981, p. 449.

69 Nassar, 'Allam: Khitan al-banat, in Al-fatawi al-islamiyyah min

dar al-ifta' al-masriyyah, Wazarat al-awqaf, Cairo, Vol. 6, 1982, p.

1986.

70 Gad-al-Haq, Gad-al-Haq 'Ali: Khitan al-banat, in Al-fatawi al-

islamiyyah min dar al-ifta' al-masriyyah, Wazarat al-awqaf, Cairo,

Vol. 9, 1983, pp. 3119-3125.

71 This author contradicts himself as he earlier relied upon the

circumcision of Jewish women as a basis for the circumcision of

Muslim women.

72 Sukkari: Khitan, op. cit., pp. 63-66; Shaltut, Mahmud: Khitan al-

banat, in 'Abd-al-Raziq: Al-Khitan, op. cit., pp. 89-90.

73 Ibid, pp. 70-77.

74 Amin: Qamus, op. cit., 1992, p. 187.

75 Bousquet, G.-H.: L'éthique sexuelle de l'Islam, Desclée de

Brouwer, Paris, 1990, pp. 102-103.

76 See the two Saudi fatwas in Magallat al-buhuth al-islamiyyah,

Riyadh, No. 20, 1987, p. 161, and No. 25, 1989, p. 62.

77 Zenie-Ziegler: La face voilée, op. cit., pp. 66-67.

78 Ibid., pp. 64-65.

79 El-Masry: Le drame sexuel, op. cit., p. 3.

80 Ibid., p. 62.

81 Sukkari: Khitan, op. cit., pp. 65-67. Some jurists believe that

Mohammed was born circumcised. Others insist that he was circumcised

on the seventh day.

82 Ibid., p. 86.

83 Gad-al-Haq: Khitan al-banat, op. cit., p. 3121.

84 Sha'rawi, Muhammad Mitwalli Al-: Al-fatawi, Maktabat al-Qur'an,

Cairo, 1981, Vol. 1, p. 27.

85 Report on Traditional Practices, Addis Abeba, 1990, p. 64.

86 According to Muslim law, a girl's share of an inheritance is half

the size of her brother's. If a person is hermaphrodite, this person

will inherit according to which sex can pass urine.

87 Sukkari: Khitan, op. cit., pp. 87-89.

88 Ibid., pp. 86 and 90-95.

89 Zenie-Ziegler: La face voilée, op. cit., p. 62.

90 El-Saadawi: The hidden, op. cit., pp. 33-34.

91 Sukkari: Khitan, op. cit., pp. 78-81.

92 Hadidi, Muhammad Sa'id Al-: Khitan al-awlad bayn al-tib wal-islam,

in 'Abd-al-Raziq: Al-khitan, op. cit., pp. 65-66. On the advantages

of male circumcision also, consult Salih, Muhammad Ibn-Ahmad Al-: Al-

tifil fil-shari'ah al-islamiyyah, Matba'at nahdat Masr, Cairo, 1980,

pp. 84-85.

93 Fangari, Ahmad Shawqi Al-: Al-tib al-wiqa'i fil-islam, Al-hay'ah

al-masriyyah al-'ammah lil-kitab, Cairo, 1980, p. 143.

94 Epistle to the Romans 2:29.

95 Shaltut: Al-fatawi, op. cit., pp. 333-334.

96 Jewish male circumcision was banned on several occasions through

the centuries. Closer to us, it was banned in Strasbourg, France, in

1793 after the establishment of the Cult of Reason. In Russia, Jewish

and Moslem circumcision was fought against by the Bolshevist

Revolution, but for the same reason as any other religious practice.

Tendencies can be found favouring exemption from this practice for

converts to Judaism in order to help proselytism (already during the

2nd Century). In the middle of the 19th Century, the Judaic German

Reform urged the abolition of mandatory circumcision for new-born

Jews. In spite of the failure of this attempt in Frankfurt, Germany,

in 1843, the American Reformed Judaism, some 40 years later, adopted

the official policy that non-circumcised converts be accepted

(Erlich, Michel: Les mutilations sexuelles, Presses Universitaires de

France, Paris, 1991, pp. 110-113).

97 Zwang, Gérard: La fonction érotique, op. cit., p. 271.

98 Zwang, Gérard: Prépuce et érotisme, in Union, revue internationale

des rapports humains, No 44, Nouvelle série, May 1992, p. 41.

99 Zwang, Gérard: Le prépuce: une erreur de la nature?,

(bibliographical note), in Contraception-fertilité-sexualité, 1989,

Vol. 17, No. 12, p. 1162.

100 Zwang, Gérard: La fonction érotique, op. cit., p. 271.

101 Ibid., pp. 271-275.

102 Ibid., pp. 275-277.

103 Ibid., pp. 277-279.

104 Ibid., pp. 279.

105 We refer the reader to Elisabeth Badinter's thoughts: XY de

l'identité masculine , Editions Odile Jacob, Paris, 1992, pp. 86-89.

106 Birri: Ma hukm, op. cit., pp. 95-96. See also Salim, Muhammad

Ibrahim: Khitan al-banat, in 'Abd-al-Raziq: Al-khitan, op. cit., pp.

81-82.

107 Rapport sur les pratiques traditionnelles, Addis Abeba, 1990, pp.

63-68.

108 Al-I'tissam, Dec. 1980, No. 1, cited by Soual, No. 4, 1983, Women

in the Arab world, pp. 73-74.

109 Ghawabi: Khitan, op. cit., p. 55.

110 Ibid., p. 57.

111 Salih: Al-tifil, op. cit., p. 85.

112 Ghawabi: Khitan, op. cit., p. 62.

113 Ibid., p. 51.

114 Sukkari: Khitan, op. cit., p. 64. See also Shaltut: Khitan al-

banat, op. cit., pp. 89-90.

115 Salim: Khitan al-banat, op. cit., pp. 81-82.

116 Ghawabi: Khitan, op. cit., p. 57.

117 'Adawi, 'Abd-al-Rahman: Khitan al-banat, in 'Abd-al-Raziq: Al-

khitan, op. cit., pp. 97-98.

118 'Arnus, Mahmud: Khitan al-banat, in 'Abd-al-Raziq: Al-khitan, op.

cit., pp. 93-94.

119 Salim: Khitan al-banat, op. cit., pp. 81-82.

120 Gad-al-Haq: Khitan al-banat, op. cit., p. 3124.

121 For more about those complications, see Mahran: Les risques, op.

cit., pp. 1-2; Rapport sur les pratiques traditionnelles, Addis

Abeba, 1990, pp. 56-57; Terre des Hommes: Les mutilations sexuelles,

op. cit., (presentation by Doctor Gérard Zwang), p. 25.

122 Terre des Hommes: Les mutilations sexuelles, op. cit.

(presentation by Doctor Gérard Zwang), p. 25.

123 Sukkari: Khitan, op. cit., p. 106.

124 For the link between drugs and female circumcision, see Amin:

Qamus, op. cit., p. 188; Morsy, Soheir A.: Sex differences and folk

illness in an Egyptian village, in Women in the Muslim World, Harvard

University Press, Cambridge (Massachussetts) & London, 1978, p. 611;

Hadidi: Khitan al-awlad, op. cit., pp. 67-70.

125 El-Masry: Le drame sexuel, op. cit., pp. 56-69.

126 Ibid., p. 31. Doctor Al-Fangari presents remarks in the same

vein: " Without banning female circumcision, we shall never be able to

stop the use of drugs in the Arab and Moslem world " (Fangari: Al-tib,

op. cit., p. 144). Doctor Mahran writes: " Excision is one of the

causes of the ever increasing use of hashish among men who believe,

albeit wrongly, that smoking it delays ejaculation, giving men their

orgasms at the same time as their excised wives: 16% of excised women

admit that their husbands smoke hashish for sexual reasons " . (Mahran:

Les risques, op. cit., p. 2).

127 El-Masry: Le drame sexuel, op. cit., pp. 61-62.

128 Hadidi: Khitan al-awlad, op. cit., pp. 67-70.

129 Ibid., pp. 67-70.

130 El-Saadawi: The hidden, op. cit., p. 38.

131 Hamrush, Ibrahim: Khitan al-banat, in 'Abd-al-Raziq: Al-khitan,

op. cit., p. 75.

132 Reference is made here to Verse 23:115: " Did you think that we

created you in vain? " 133 Reference is made here to Verse

53:3: " Neither does he speak out of whim " ; alternatively, " And

neither does he speak out of his own desire " .

134 Labban, Muhammad Muhammad Al-: Khitan al-banat, in 'Abd-al-Raziq:

Al-khitan, op. cit., pp. 85-86.

135 Nassar: Khitan al-banat, op. cit., p. 1986.

136 Sukkari: Khitan, op. cit., pp. 33-37.

137 Ibid., pp. 39-40.

138 Ibid., p. 99.

139 Shaltut: Al-fatawi, op. cit., pp. 333-334.

140 Shaltut: Khitan al-banat, op. cit., pp. 89-90.

141 Nawawi, 'Abd-Allah Al-: Sa'aluni 'an al-mar'ah, Dhat al-salassil,

Kuwait, 1986, p. 103.

142 Banna, Muhammad Al-: Khitan al-banat, in 'Abd-al-Raziq: Al-

khitan, op. cit., pp. 79-80.

143 Khallaf: Khitan al-banat, op. cit., p. 76. Also see Hamrush:

Khitan al-banat, op. cit., p. 75.

144'Abd-al-Wahid, Nigm 'Abd-Allah: Nazrat al-islam hawl tabi'at al-

gins wal-tanassul, Matabi' al-manar, Kuwait, 1986, pp. 109-116. 145

For further details, refer back to Chapter II, Paragraph II, Point 3.

146 Sukkari: Khitan, op. cit., p. 41.

147 Shaltut: Khitan al-banat, op. cit., p. 89.

148 Gaudio and Pelletier: Femmes, op. cit., p. 59. See Kenyatta,

Jomo: Au pied du mont Kenya, Maspero, Paris, !967, pp. 96-110. Page

98, one reads: " ...clitoridectomy - as indeed circumcision among

Jews -is a bodily mutilation, viewed somehow as the condition sine

qua non for receiving a complete religious and moral education " .

149 Cited by Gaudio and Pelletier: Femmes, op. cit., p. 60.

150 United Nations, 26th Session of the Economic and Social

Committee, 1029th Plenary Meeting, July 10, 1958.

151 WHO, 12th World Health Assembly, 11th Plenary Meeting, May 28,

1959.

152 Text of this Report in Terre des Hommes: Les mutilations

sexuelles, op. cit., pp. 9-12.

153 UNICEF, Department of Information, Position of UNICEF on Female

Excision, Sept. 23, 1980, p. 1.

154 Rapport sur les pratiques traditionnelles, Dakar, 1984, p. 67.

155 Ibid., p. 71.

156 Ibid., p. 7.

157 Vernier, Dominique: Le traitement pénal de l'excision en France:

historique, in Droit et Culture, Vol. 20, 1990, p. 193.

158 Ibid., pp. 193-194.

159 Giudicelli-Delage: Excision, op. cit., p. 211.

160 Traditional Practices affecting the Health of Women and Children,

Report of a Seminar, Khartoum, February 10-15, 1979, p. 4.

161 WHO's position relative to female circumcision, op. cit.

162 WHO, Resolution of the Regional Committee for Africa, Thirty-

ninth session, AFR/RC39/R9, Sep. 13, 1989.

163 Report on Traditional Practices, Addis Abeba, p. 77.

164 Ibid., pp. 8-9.

165 Law No. 316 (May 27, 1982) forbidding female circumcision, in

Recueil International de la Législation sanitaire, 1982, p. 770.

166 Law of July 16, 1985, forbidding female circumcision, in Recueil

international de la Législation sanitaire, 1985, pp. 1043-1044.

167 This declaration, formulated after Mr. Edmond Kaiser's

intervention, states: We ask every physician in a hospital or private

practice to be very attentive to the content of the following

Declaration.

The Central Committee for Medical Ethics of the Swiss Academy of

Medical Sciences,

- attentive to the fact that some parents coming from countries where

ritual practices of sexual mutilation are performed on women, are

trying to get their children admitted into our hospitals or day

surgery clinics in order to have those types of surgery performed,

- preoccupied by the fact that one might be tempted to accede to such

demands for reasons of misconceived compassion or other badly thought

out reasons,

- convinced that such procedures, performed according to customs in

opposition to our ethical principles concerning minors unable to

judge by themselves, are cruel and degrading, and convinced that they

contradict the eminently personal right to physical integrity and as

such constitute an infraction automatically prosecuted as serious

bodily assault according to article 122, numeral 1, paragraph 2 of

the Swiss Penal Code,

declares:

- Anyone, be it a physician and practicing in clinical conditions

beyond reproach, who performs sexual mutilations on children and

teenagers of the female gender, is guilty of serious deliberate

bodily assault according to article 122 of the Swiss Penal Code. This

person therefore must be prosecuted automatically.

- Moreover, this person violates the fundamental rights of a human

being in performing a degrading and cruel procedure on a minor

incapable of judgement and who is unable to enforce her own claim to

the right to physical integrity.

- Whoever collaborates in such a procedure becomes an accomplice

under the criminal law and, generally speaking, is guilty of the

violation of human rights.

- The guilty parties and their accomplices, doctors and auxiliary

nursing staff, are moreover violating in the most serious way, the

moral principles applicable to the exercise of their duties.

(Declaration published in Bulletin des médecins suisses, Vol. 64,

1983, notebook 34, 24.8.1983, p. 1275).

168 Document provided by Dr. Leila Mehra of the WHO.

169 The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, a guide, op.

cit., p. 351.

170 Meeting of January 12, 1982.

171 Rapport sur les pratiques traditionnelles, Addis Abeba, 1990, pp.

63-68.

172 Al-khifad al-far'uni, ma lahu, wa ma 'alayh , Al-Maglis al-qawmi

lil-ri'ayah al-igtima'iyyah & UNICEF-Khartoum, May 1979, pp. 10-11.

One can see the same problem in another document against

circumcision: Al-Dareer, Asma' 'Abd-al-Rahman: Murshid muharabat al-

khifad, Khartoum, 1982, p. 5.

173 According to another source, a decree from the Ministry of Health

on June 24, 1959, created a committee in charge of studying female

circumcision in Egypt as well as its religious, sanitary and social

aspects. This committee then took the decision mentioned above, but

the first paragraph should be read as: " It is forbidden for anyone

but a physician to practice excision " . . . . A fourth paragraph is

added: " Excision as it is practiced in Egypt today has harmful

consequences for women before and after marriage. As the religious

authorities have decided that it is contrary to Islamic dogma to

practice total excision of sexual organs, it is not therefore a

ritual of Islam " (Report on Traditional Practices, Dakar, 1984, p.

88).

174 Farah: Hayat al-mar'rah, op. cit., p. 39.

175 Magmu'at al-qawa'id al-qanuniyyah 1931-1955, Penal Division,

March 28, 1938 Session, vol. 2, p. 824.

176 Qararat Mahkamat al-naqd, Penal Division, March 11, 1974 Session,

Judicial Year 25, p. 263.

177 The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, a guide, op.

cit., p. 351.

178 Vernier: Le traitement pénal, op. cit., pp. 198-199.

179 Rapport du Séminaire des Nations Unies relatif aux pratiques

traditionnelles, op. cit., pp. 7 and 10.

180 Gaudio et Pelletier: Femmes, op. cit., p. 53.

181 Ibid., p. 57.

182 El-Saadawi: The hidden, op. cit., p. 33.

183 Ibid., pp. 40-41.

184 Zwang, Gérard: La fonction érotique, op. cit., p. 275.

185 El-Saadawi: The hidden, op. cit., p. 41.

186 Rapport du Séminaire des Nations Unies relatif aux pratiques

traditionnelles, op. cit., pp. 10-11.

187 NOCIRC Newsletter, Vol. 5, No. 2, 1991, p. 3.

188 Rapport du Séminaire des Nations Unies relatif aux pratiques

traditionnelles, op. cit., p. 9.

189 El-Saadawi: The hidden, op. cit., pp. 34-35.

190 Zenie-Ziegler: La face voilée, op. cit., pp. 62-63, 72.

191 Ibid., p. 137.

192 Ibid., pp. 137-138.

193 The title of my speech: " To mutilate in the name of Jehovah or

Allah: Legitimization of Male and Female circumcision " .

194 National organization of circumcision information resource

centers, P.O.Box 2512, San Anselmo, CA 94979-2512, USA, tel. (415)

488-9883, fax (415) 488-9883. This is the most important organization

in the fight against male and female circumcision. It was founded and

is presided over by Marilyn Fayre Milos, a nurse who was fired for

her views on this subject.

195 The tray on which an infant is restrained while a doctor performs

a circumcision on him.

196 Contact: Nurses of St. Vincent Hospital, c/o Ann Lown, R.N.,

P.O.Box 8824, Santa Fe, NM 87504, USA.

197 Address: Mr. Jim Bigelow, P.O.Box 52138, Pacific Grove, CA 93950,

USA. Tel/Fax (408) 315-4326.

198 Jim Bigelow: The Joy of Uncircumcising, restore your birthright

and maximize sexual pleasure, published by Hourglass, Book

publishing, P.O.Box 171, Aptos, CA 95001, USA. 199 Address: Mr. R.

Wayne Griffiths, RECAP - UNCIRC, 3205 Northwood Drive, Suite 209,

Concord, CA 94520-4506, USA. Tel. (510) 827-4077, Fax (510) 827-4119.

200 National organization to halt the abuse and routine mutilation of

males (NOHARMM), P.O.Box 460795, San Francisco, CA 94146-0795, USA,

Tel/Fax 415-826-9351. This organization was founded and is presided

over by Mr. Tim Hammond.

201 Conversation by phone on January 7, 1993.

 

 

 

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BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Sami Aldeeb is a Doctor of Law; Graduate in Political Sciences;

Staff Legal Advisor in charge of Arabic and Muslim Law at the Swiss

Institute of Comparative Law, Lausanne; Lecturer at the Institute of

Canon Law, University of Human Sciences, Strasbourg, France. The

author is most grateful to Jacqueline Maire, of ETHIC, New

Westminster, Canada, to Martin Sychold, Staff Legal Advisor at the

Swiss Institute of Comparative Law, and to Frederick Hodges, for

having translated this text from the French original. This text is

also available in French and Spanish version which can be ordered

directly from the author.

 

 

-----------------------

From the same author:

- Les Musulmans face aux droits de l'homme: religion & droit

& politique, Étude et documents, Verlag Dr. Dieter Winkler, Postfach

102665, 44726 Bochum (Germany), 610 pages.

 

- L'impact de la religion sur l'ordre juridique, cas de l'Egypte, non-

musulmans en pays d'Islam, Fribourg/Switzerland 1979, 420 pages.

 

- Discriminations contre les non-juifs tant chretiens que musulmans

en Israel, Lausanne, 1992, 36 pages. (The first title can be ordered

directly from the editor [publisher]. The last two titles can be

ordered from the author: Sami Aldeeb, Rue du Centre 74, 1025 St-

Sulpice, Switzerland).

 

 

-----------------------

Citation:

Sami Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh. To Mutilate in the Name of Jehovah or Allah:

Legitimization of Male and Female Circumcision. (Translation by

Frederick M. Hodges, D. Phil. (Oxon).) Medicine and Law, vol. 13, no.

7-8 ( July 1994): pp. 575-622.

 

-----------------------

(File revised 22 December 2006)

 

To Mutilate in the Name of Jehovah or Allah: Legitimization of Male and Female

Circumcision

http://www.cirp.org/library/cultural/aldeeb1/