Cynical as I am, I have to say that I was a bit taken aback to read that in this day and age, nine out of ten Egyption girls are made to endure female genital mutilation (FGM).
But that’s what a piece Glenn linked earlier said:
Nine out of ten Egyptian women suffer genital mutilation. US President Barack Obama said Jan. 29, “The right to peaceful assembly and association, the right to free speech, and the ability to determine their own destiny … are human rights. And the United States will stand up for them everywhere.” Does Obama think that genital mutilation is a human rights violation? To expect Egypt to leap from the intimate violence of traditional society to the full rights of a modern democracy seems whimsical.
In fact, the vast majority of Egyptians has practiced civil disobedience against the Mubarak regime for years. The Mubarak government announced a “complete” ban on genital mutilation in 2007, the second time it has done so – without success, for the Egyptian population ignored the enlightened pronouncements of its government. Do Western liberals cheer at this quiet revolt against Mubarak’s authority?
Suzanne Mubarak, Egypt’s First Lady, continues to campaign against the practice, which she has denounced as “physical and psychological violence against children.” Last May 1, she appeared at Aswan City alongside the provincial governor and other local officials to declare the province free of it. And on October 28, Mrs Mubarak inaugurated an African conference on stopping genital mutilation.
The most authoritative Egyptian Muslim scholars continue to recommend genital mutilation.
The 90% figure is shocking by any standard. In fact, it seemed as if it might be too high, so I checked it.
Sure enough I found the statistic confirmed here and here. The lowest estimate claimed it was 72%, with some studies say it is even higher than 90%:
Experts believe that although female circumcision is widespread, considerable progress has been achieved. “The Demographic Health Survey of 2008 [published in 2009] showed that 72 percent of girls aged 15-30 were circumcised, compared to 96 percent of the same age group in the Demographic Health Survey of 1995,” said Azza Shalaby, gender adviser at Plan Egypt, a children’s development NGO.
However, the Demographic Health Survey of 2008 also indicated that 91 percent of women aged 15-49 were circumcised.
As best as I can determine, it does appear that senior Islamic clerics are opposed to FGM and maintain it is not sanctioned by the Koran, although some religious leaders still favor the practice:
When interviewed about FGM, Ali Gum’a, the Mufti of Egypt (a.k.a. Gomaa), said:
“We’ve warned time and again that this thing… It has become clear to us, in modern times, with all the medical information we have, that this is inappropriate, and that it causes severe damage from the medical, social, and human aspects. So we [decided] to refrain from performing this custom and to prevent it. We’ve said this once, twice, three times, and ten times… Not only now, but since 1954, we have been calling upon people to abandon this ugly custom.” 5
When the interviewer pressured the mufti by asking specifically whether Islam prohibits or permits FGM, Ali Gum’a replied:
“This issue, with these characteristics, in our times – is prohibited. If they want to know what the Mufti of Egypt has to say. I say this custom is prohibited.”
Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi, the Grand Sheikh of Cairo’s al-Azhar mosque, has repeated his assertion that the practice as un-Islamic. However, some other Muslim clerics have supported FGM.
That there does not appear to be any religious justification for this barbaric practice obviously does not stop it from being popular.
Seeing is believing.
I agree with Glenn that what is happening in Egypt is not analogous the fall of the Berlin Wall.
People who routinely do such a savage thing to their children may be a lot of things, but I’m having trouble seeing them as narrative material for the triumph of democracy. They’re in need of liberation, all right. From themselves.
They don’t even seem to have a backward and oppressive theocratic regime to offer as an excuse for Cripe’s sake. They’re just mindlessly reenacting a gruesome cultural tradition.
It’s been a real disappointment for me, just learning about it.
Much as I’d like to go gaga over democracy, I think the country could use an improvement in its human rights department.
Starting with their own homes.
Comments
11 responses to “How’s Egpyt doing with that human rights thing?”
And yet we have some in America who mindlessly hang on to gay hatred. Or the unBiblical War On Drugs.
What is needed is the right kind of porn. Fingering, fondling, and licking. Up close and personal. With reaction shots. And Egyptian actors (or Israeli:
Jewish Porn Sweeps The Arab World)
Simon,
While I understand your point, there is such a thing as patience. There needs to be patience even with female circumcision. Yes, it’s vile, it’s gross, it can kill kids, but possibly the strongest force in human society is “We’ve always done it this way.” It’s clear these women don’t see anything wrong and think they’re doing their daughters a favor. They might well be, at that, one on one and woman on woman — I remember growing up in a village with an allergy to metal that prevented my wearing earrings. Other kids used to taunt me to prove I was a girl. I learned to fight shortly after I learned to walk. I imagine it’s worse being uncircumcised in a conformist society in which everyone is circumcised. I suspect in this case the only change possible is IMPOSED from above. Customs are very hard to break from within.
Why feminists in the west aren’t howling night and day against this, is beyond me. NO, multiculturalism can’t hide you. I can see you, you little hypocrites. Call yourself a feminist and cling to multiculturalism, do you? And you look yourself in the mirror and don’t flinch. Remarkable.
As for pointing the finger at us and saying “we too” — Simon, we freed our slaves. We walked back from prohibition, which I studied last month and which was as insane as the war on drugs and as entrenched. You’re missing the point that human society changes very slowly, and most of it doesn’t change at all. We can change and we should. And yes, we should continue to work against blatant injustice. Not saying to shut up. However, gay people in the western world enjoy more freedom and recognition than at any time since Rome fell (and arguably more than before! I think it depended on class.) Yeah, we’re far from perfect. But acceptance of the odd is a function of economic abundance, and we’ve had that — relatively — for what? A hundred years? It’s generational. Generations will need to pass away.
As for drugs — I don’t like them personally. I don’t like being out of control of my mind, and I’ve seen what addiction does. That said, the way we’re “controlling” them is stupid, flawed and gives power to all the wrong people. Frankly they would be easier to study and people who are addicted easier to treat if it were out in the open. (I THINK — I actually don’t know. All the cases in which it’s been tried are flawed. And please, let’s not talk about Portugal, where EVERYONE lies in public records and where I know what I’ve seen last summer and it ain’t pretty. Yeah, otehr factors in that too.) I am pro legalization, study and being open about effects.
Unfortunately, in THAT case we got a massive issue with government’s big boots having got in. There isn’t a single “war on” they’ve managed to win — or even not make worse. But getting them out of it is going to be a job and a half. Again, I’m not saying to shut up.
I’m saying to be aware we’re not perfect, work towards improving, but never, ever, ever compare ourselves to … things like female circumcision. AND never, ever, ever, let that weaken our moral argument when we say “this MUST stop.”
Sarah,
Very nice soft cop to my hard cop.
And yes. Things are coming along nicely.
My theory: it is a population control measure – if sex is less pleasurable or hurts (dry is popular in Africa with the men) children are less likely. With a population that is on the edge – it could be a good thing.
The thing is: it is difficult to tell the value of a practice to society unless you know all the factors and their weights.
How’s for a REAL hard cop? Any male whose daughter gets mutilated gets castrated. Any mother who gets her daughter mutilated gets sterilized.
One generation, no more FGM. Sometimes I sympathise with the “I wanna be a dictator” types – this is one of the times.
P.S.
M. Simon, it’s not a population control measure. Women in countries that practice FGM are generally not permitted to refuse sex. It may “work” somewhat in increasing childbirth deaths. But, IMO, that’s not a good method of population control (or anything else, for that matter).
My hard cop, on the other hand, WOULD be a population control measure.
Some feminists are very vocal about FGM. Problem is they aren’t western liberal feminists, so no-one listens to them. Example above in Suzanne Mubarak. She’s a feminist, IMO. In some countries, you have to start with the Real basics first.
Behind you all the way — I said that type of thing can only be cured fast in one generation by an occupying force. “Really, you have this charming habit of mutilating your daughters? Nice. We mutilate fathers who mutilate their daughters. You carry on your tradition, then we carry on ours.”
And I agree on SM. Also on the population control thing. The poor women just CAN’T say no. We won’t even go into the effects of intitutionalized polygamy with women having no rights.
But Western Womyn who are like, hyper concerned about grammar and let these things go? Nothing but the deepest disdain for them.
Yeah – oddly enough the Western Womyn were fairly concerned about FGM (I wander off my ‘reservation’ quite a bit, it keeps me on my toes), until 9/11/01. After that, they got very quiet. Fear? I’m really not sure. Fear, or a fear that someone with my attitudes might actually try to DO something about it, perhaps.
And male circumcision?
There’s FGM and then there’s FGM. It ranges from an excision of the clitoral hood to a barbaric and primitive surgery that leaves the woman unlucky enough to survive it with a hole barely big enough to menstruate through. Conflating them all would be like counting circumcisions along with with penile amputations and castrations. I’d be curious to know which kinds of FGM and in what proportions are practiced in Egypt.