Oportunidades Comerciales para El Salvador

Religion as a justification of FGC was prominent in many of the participant responses, however, there was agreement by all participants that FGC is not a religious practice as it is not in the Bible or Quran and was around before religion. Many stated, religious leaders did not support FGC and that they had the power to stop it from continuing.

“It’s not a religious practice because no single holy book from my own research and work with religious leaders, Imams, pastors there is no thing called religious erm, you know holly book that advocates for FGM, and for those who claim it to be Sunnah which is the Hadith erm you know in

actually mutilation of the body is Haram in the Quran so it shouldn’t be tolerated what so ever”.

-Aluna, Female, 41, Kenyan (Has FGC)

“I know in some countries they give a religious explanation for it to do that, but in my opinion as a Muslim woman, it’s not religious and I also don’t want to be rude or judge any cultural values, but it’s not religious it’s just physically assaulting a woman in my opinion”.

-Naza, Female, 29, Turkish/Kurdish (Does not have FGC)

Participants believed that people confused culture with religion and religious beliefs also prevented them from talking openly about topics considered taboo or sensitive such as FGC and sex, this is discussed more in chapter Nine.

“Give them the facts that it is not religion it is not mentioned in the Quran or Bible it is just a cultural thing”.

-Kusta, Female, 33, Gambian (Has FGC)

“I think a lot of people confused culture with religion, there’s like that little thin line”.

-Xalwo, Female, 22, Somali (Does not have FGC)

“Some of them are really going through the affect mentally, they aren’t going to say anything about it because religiously its taboo to talk about it”.

-Samira, Female, 36, Guinean (Has FGC)

“I think that mostly it’s to do with culture and maybe if also people miss interpret religion maybe they heard about some scholars saying there is a Sunnah version of you know cutting. I think you know about Sunnah? The way I heard about it was just you know, like having a small like bleeding or something and but not cutting if they heard some scholars say that and then they misinterpreted it maybe they will do it the other way, but mostly

-Cabdi, Male, 34, Somali (Mother and sister have FGC)

“It’s not our religion, it doesn’t say do for wife or child, some people use culture as an excuse”.

-Uba, Female, 26, Somali (Does not have FGC)

“They just know that this is not religion, and if it is not religion it is bad culture, then for that reason the people have been educated and they know now what it is and that supported me to stop this thing”.

-Bilan, Female, 49, Somali (Has FGC)

All participants rejected the idea that FGC was religious by highlighting that god created people the way they were meant to be.

“No no I wouldn’t God gave this part, so we can’t remove it”. -Zend, Male, 32, Kurdish (Sister has FGC)

“I feel like ok my logic behind it is that like you know how Muslims have such strong beliefs in god and god created us perfect, so if god created us perfect then why would they remove such a thing from like a female body? And obviously like everything in our body has a purpose, so like I just don’t get why they’d remove it like I just don’t get it yeah”.

- Zafeera, Female, 19, Sudanese (Has FGC)

“I don’t see the reason why anyone would think of doing that *laughs* and obviously personally having been and brought up in a Catholic family you know when god created us, he put all those things there for a purpose why would someone you know go changing them you know”.

-Aluna, Female, 41, Kenyan (Has FGC)

One Christian participant had experienced her pastor advising her to get stitched together (type 3 FGC) to ensure she stayed chaste before marriage. In conflict with another Christian participant who stated that priests would not promote it or prevent it.

“If they knew about it yes, some people would find it beneficial, but I remember when I was a teenager and my pastor said to me that he met a girl in the U.S who had her vagina stitched up and that he thought that was a good thing and maybe I should go and have my vagina stitched up just so that I can be chaste until I get married”.

-Abeni, Female, 37, Nigerian (Has FGC)

Christians overall tended to believe that it was difficult to blame FGC on Christianity because it is not in the Bible, but they highlighted the confusion for Muslims who were not sure if it was in the Quran.

“With Christianity, it’s hard to blame in on religion, I know in Islam the Prophet said a cut is ok but in Christianity it’s really hard to pinpoint it on religion very difficult”.

-Dinka, Female, 20, Kenyan (Does not have FGC, but mother does)

There was common agreement that Muslims had misinterpreted FGC and calling it Sunnah added to the confusion.

“Erm no because like the religion Islam obviously it says to make sure the men are circumcised that’s like compulsory, erm for like health benefits or whatever. With the women erm, like the Prophet said because at that time like there were so many women performing it quite a lot, and then he said don’t go into extremes of doing it like if you do, do it, for whatever reason because sometimes if a woman wants to have it done then tell her to not be extreme and only to remove a little bit, like for whatever reasons some people might want it for cosmetic reasons because the labia is too large or whatever so in that sense he only said it in that way”.

Muslim participants stated that it was Haram to harm and mutilate the body and it goes against their religious beliefs. Other participants were told culturally that if they did not have FGC then their food would be Haram, and people would not be able to eat it.

“In terms of religion Islamic religion which most of the Somalis believe in you have all these scholars which have gone through you know villages and towns everywhere and they told people it’s completely Haram to do that”.

-Cabdi, Male, 34, Somali (Mother and sister have FGC)

One Muslim participant highlighted that he believed religion was more important than culture as it is about morality and that people needed to learn their religion again as circumcision was compulsory for men but optional for women, and the sheik he spoke to further advised a difference between circumcision which is just a scratch and mutilation. Another participant suggested that the prophet advised not to go to extremes and only remove a little bit when practicing FGC.

“Sunnah yeah, so they see it I think there is four different schools of thought and then two of them say it’s acceptable in Islam, and then the other two say its preferred so people like to use that to justify”.

-Zafeera, Female, 19, Sudanese (Has FGC)

“Some people try to justify it on the basis of religion, so they will be like religion doesn’t ban it and I think certain sects of Islam erm what’s the word like allow it so then people like jump to that and just use that to justify it in a sense”.

-Zafeera, Female, 19, Sudanese (Has FGC)

Other notable points raised from Muslim participants was that Islam was introduced to them after the war by Arabs and Egyptians and that despite religion permitting men four wives, they had started to only take one wife as they wanted to forge stronger relations with the European Union (EU). Overall there were less Christian participants in my study

than Muslim, but there appeared to be no significant difference in their view on the influence religion has on the continuation of FGC.

In addition to religion being identified as a justification of FGC, religion seemed to reinforce the justification of controlling women’s sexuality and the difficulty to talk openly about sexual issues.

“Especially from a religious side we don’t have that, we don’t talk about sexuality with our partner at all, we don’t. It’s happening. We don’t go and say you know last time when you did this, I didn’t like that, and do you know last time I like that, we don’t talk about that Paris its taboo”. -Samira, Female, 36, Guinean (Has FGC)

“Sex which is another thing which is like taboo like obviously especially if you’re a Muslim if someone from a certain culture like those things cannot be discussed with your parents…they don’t want you to be free to do whatever you want they want to control that especially you know your sex life… obviously if you’re a Muslim anyway just you being a Muslim would stop you from doing that because that’s what your religion tells you to do but culture feels like you know they need to physically stop it by closing you up which is crazy yeah”.

-Amiina, Female, 21, Somali (Has FGC)

These quotes demonstrate the value placed on religious beliefs and cultural values around sex and virginity before marriage, which also acted as reinforces and justifications for FGC to be practiced. Amiina highlights the difference between religion advising you not to have sex before marriage and culture enforcing it through FGC.

6.6 Summary

This chapter highlights, utilising the interview data, many of the complex factors that contribute to the justifications of FGC and potentially to the continuation of FGC. This includes; gender identity norms, the desire to be like other women, hygiene, sexual control, cultural identity, pressure to conform and tradition. FGC was deeply rooted in sociocultural norms, pride, honour, expectations of behaviour, gender and cultural identities. Overall participants agreed that FGC was not a religious requirement and highlighted that this was a misconception and excuse for “bad” culture. The following chapter (chapter Seven) considers the implications of FGC, and how these may be experienced as conflicting or in tension with the justifications. For example, the justification that FGC produces a normative female gender identity is often experienced as feeling incomplete or less of a woman in the UK. In chapter Nine some of these justifications will be reconsidered and analysed in terms of generational changes and conflict.

Chapter Seven- Embodied implications and Cultural

discursive commentary of the impact of FGC on the Body,

Sexuality and Identity

7.1 Introduction

The previous chapter discussed the justifications given for FGC, this highlighted three main areas of importance: controlling women’s bodies; controlling women’s sexuality;