New Age Islam News
Bureau
18 October
2020
The
family flew to Munich by private jet (file picture) CREDIT: RaptTV/Corbis RF
Stills
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Female
Genital Mutilation has not been mandated either by the Quran or Hadith but
still it is practiced in Arab and African Muslim communities. The practice
leaves many girls traumatised for life. Many of them die to the complications
arising out of circumcision. But still the practice is alive more due to the
male chauvinism than to its religious sanction.
On October
9, a man called Basoz Q and his wife Shwana Q fled with his 12 year son and 7
year old daughter to Germany and sought asylum there. The man told the
Immigration that his father-in-law insisted that his wife and 7 year old
daughter be circumcised. His father-in-law was threatening them in case they
did not comply to the "Islamic law" of female genital mutilation.
They finally sold their family restaurant at £55000 and fled to Germany on a
private jet.
This
incident is a glaring example of how Islamic male chauvinism has reduced women
to a sex object under the cover of Islamic law. In Ancient Arab society, women
were forced to undergo genital cutting to lessen their sexual desire to prevent
tbem from adultery or extramarital affair. They believed that if they were not
circumcised they would have a greater or more intense sexual urge which would
lead them to licentiousness or adultery.
Islam did
not make female genital mutilation mandatory. Neither Quran nor hadiths make
FMG mandatory for Muslims. But the advocates of FMG insist that there are some
hadiths that support it. Below are the hadiths:
1)
"Abu Hurairah said, I heard the Prophet pbuh say, " The Fitrah is
five things --- or five things are the part of Fitrah --- circumcision, shaving
the pubes, trimming the moustache, cutting the nails and plucking the armpit
hairs."(Bukhari: 5891, Muslim: 527)
This hadith
is obviously about male circumcision but the supporters of FMG cite this hadith
in support of FMG.
2) Abul
Malih ibn Usama's father relates that the Prophet pbuh said, "Circumcision
is a law for men and a preservation of honour for women.” (Ahmad ibn Hanbal:
5:75 Abu Dawud Adab 167).
This hadith
also does not make FMG mandatory for women in clear words. For men, the hadith
makes circumcision mandatory by saying "circumcision is a law for
men" while for women it does not say it is a law but only a means of
preserving a woman's honour.
3) Narrated
Umm Atiyyah al Ansariyyah,"A woman used to perform circumcision in Madina.
The prophet said to her, “Do not cut severely as that is better for a woman and
more desirable for a husband."(Sunan Abu Dawud 41:525)
This hadith
clearly discourages FMG.
The female
genital circumcision was prevalent in pre-Islam Arab and African society and so
the Prophet pbuh did not oppose it openly and strictly but discouraged it
because it was painful and also deprived a woman and her husband of the true
sexual pleasure. In the hadith qouted above hints towards this fact. But the
advocates of FMG stress the part "Do not cut severely" suggesting
that the Prophet pbuh only said "Do not cut severely" and did not
forbid cutting" and ignored the part "it is better for a woman and
her husband".
The hadith
makes it clear that the Prophet pbuh saw the practice as a mere regional
cultural practice and that's why he pbuh did not make female genital mutilation
a law for all the Muslims..
Female
Genital Mutilation is prevalent as an Islamic practice in the African countries
where the Muims have extremist ideas about Islam. It is the Muslims of the
African countries who are spreading extremist ideas in immigrant Muslim population
in European countries. They believe that FMG is an Islamic law and should be
practiced even at the cost of the life of women.
Therefore,
thousands of girls of immigrant families in European countries are victims of
forced FMG though in France and Britain FMG/C is illegal. These families are
mostly from African and Asian countries. Iraq, Egypt, Somalia, Eritrea and
Ethiopia are some of the countries where female genital cutting is common. And
immigrants coming from these countries bring this custom with them and insist
on it despite the fact that FMG is illegal in these countries. They say it is
their religious duty and therefore they violate the law of their adopted
country. There are about 5, 00, 000 victims of FMG across Europe and there has
been an increase of 20% in the number in recent years. There are many European
and Asian countries where FMG is not considered a religious duty and women
there are not forced to undergo female genital cutting. Women in these counties
enjoy their womanhood equally with their husbands. The Quran and hadith also
preach men to like for their women what they like for themselves.
The
incident of the Iraqi couple fleeing to a Christian country from an Islamic
country only due to their father/father-in-law who threatened them with dire
consequences if they did no agree on FMG brings the harms of extremist beliefs
and practices prevalent in contemporary Muslim societies. These obscurantist
Muslims have made life hell for their own kith and kin.
It is no
surprise then that Germany has also decided to crack down on practitioners of
FMG in the country and save women and girls from falling victims of a pre-Islam
practice that threatened their life and caused them life long psychological and
physical pain.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/germany-cracks-down-islamic-male/d/123185
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