Another 13-year-old Egyptian girl dies because someone still believes that cutting her genitals is a good idea.
A government ban alone will not do much to stop the practice. But if men start saying that they absolutely refuse to marry any woman who is circumcised, parents may stop putting their daughters through this mutilation. If Al Azhar and Amr Khaled tell people that women's bodies are not Fitna (sources of threat and anarachy) that have to be covered to protect men, perhaps barbers and doctors who perform this operation will go out of business. If a man's honor no longer lies between a woman's thighs, but in his own actions, perhaps no 13-year-old girl will die in circumcision.
It may also help if we stop cursing women's vaginas every time we don't get a good night's sleep.
We should try. What would we lose?
site meter
4 comments:
Hi Amal,
I'm not sure that I agree with your proposed solution. It can be implied from what you propose that the only way to stop a sexist crime enforced by a patriarchal society is to play along patriarchal lines. in other words, the only way to stop fgm is to change male's opinion about it, so that it forces parents to abandon it, bcs in patriarchal societies the only virtue of a girl is to get married (which dictates her choices and what her parents impose on her by the society's males).
Hi Haytham,
I can see how you could conclude that from what I wrote. But it's not what I meant and I'm glad you raise an objection so I can have a chance to clarify. My point is that a top down ban from the government won't go far enough in stopping people from fgm. It may help; it's important. But alone it won't do the job. The solution should be more radical: changing people's attitudes to women's sexuality. When I mention that men should absolutely refuse to marry circumcized women, my point is that men are complicit in fgm even if they don't practice it themselves by having the sexist attitudes they do--as you probably know women who are not circumcized are social pariahs in some places. So when a man says that he wants his partner to have her sexual organs intact, he's expressing his solidarity with women who are refusing to be circumcized. This is how I meant it.The whole society needs to be re-educated in order for this practice to stop. We all need to change, not just the law. I hope you agree with this.
An honest question (not meant to be rhetorical): Do you think it's fair of me, Amal, to refuse to marry a circumcised man? Given that most men in the USA are circumcised while most women aren't, I find the procedure sexist.
It's called "Patriarchy" arianne, so you cannot make these equal comparisons of men and women. They cannot be made because men and women simply do not have equal rights and privileges. Period. The reverse-sexism argument is null.
Post a Comment