Muslim Marriage (Zawaj) and Islam’s View of Women
One of the difficult things for westerners to understand about Islam is the Muslim view of women, marriage,(zawaj), polygamy, female circumcision, and the permissible age for marriage. The Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an says:
The question of whether circumcision is absolutely required of Muslims was addressed by classical jurisconsults with varying opinions. For example, al-Shāfiʿī (d. ca. 204/820) considered it obligatory for both males and females (see al-Nawawī’s commentary in Nawawī, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim. K. al-Ṭahāra, iii, 148; for an English translation of the passage, see A.J. Wensinck, Khitān). Some jurists consider circumcision to be a recommended (sunna) rather than an obligatory (wājib) practice, although custom has usually supported it strongly, particularly in the case of males . Thus, while explicit qurʾānic support is lacking, the strong support for circumcision in the Islamic tradition suggests that it was simply assumed by Muhammad and his community. (Frederick Mathewson Denny, “Circumcision”).
The Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures says,
There is one sentence addressing female circumcision in the ḥadīth,1Muslim discussions regarding FGC are primarily found in the debates and opinions of various legal authorities. The jurists who deliberated on FGC generally resorted to the one oft-quoted ḥadīth or its many versions in which the Prophet Muḥammad had reportedly chided Umm ʿAṭiyya al-Anṣāriyya, a Medinan khiṭāna (circumciser of women): “Do not destroy it completely (that is, do not cut too much away), for it is more preferable to the woman and pleasing for the man.” Another version of the ḥadīth states “Do not be too vigorous as this is enjoyable for the woman and more desirable to the husband.” Irrespective of the content of the ḥadīth, jurists acknowledged its weak chain of transmission and therefore question its authenticity. This ḥadīth is found in the Sunan of Abū Dāwūd but not in the canonical ḥadīth collections of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī or Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim.
The jurist Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 1350) describes the attempt to associate FGC with the Abrahamic tradition. Sarah, upon hearing that Abraham’s slave woman Hagar was pregnant by him, threatened to cut off her three members (nose and ears). Abraham then persuaded Sarah to pierce Hagar’s ears and to “circumcise” her. However, Ibn Qayyim ends this account with the caveat that the truth of this matter is known only to God. The ninth-century belletrist al-Jāḥiẓ (d. 868) notes in his Kitāb al-Ḥayāwān, “ circumcision has been practiced among the Arabs on both men and women since the time of Abraham and Hagar up to our own day.” Both reports imply an Abrahamic origin for the practice predating Islam.
In his Musnad, Ibn Ḥanbal (d. 835) considers male circumcision as sunna (a practice sanctioned by the Prophet Muḥammad) and female circumcision as makrūma, a noble deed for women. Ibn Ḥanbal’s account influenced the views of subsequent Ḥanbalī jurists. The Syrian Ḥanbalī Ibn Qudāma (d. 1223) states “ circumcision is required of men and recommended for women, but is not required of them.” Al-Nawawī, a thirteenthcentury Egyptian Shāfiʿī jurist, wrote “ circumcision is required (wājib) for both men and women.”
Kassamali, Noor, “Genital Cutting: Africa and the Middle East”, in: Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures, General Editor Suad Joseph. statements purported to have been made by the prophet Muḥammad. It warns: “Do not go deep. That [the clitoris] is enjoyable to the woman and is preferable to the husband”. As there are several versions of this statement, however, its meaning has been interpreted in different ways. For example, both pro- and anti-female circumcision activists have used the passage to support their opposing stances on the practice. The situation is even more complicated in that not all Muslims practice female circumcision and many non-Muslims do.
Although scholars and activists alike often attempt to disentangle the practice of female circumcision from Islam, Muslims in local contexts often link it explicitly with their religion. Muslim Jola in Senegal, for example, consider both excision and initiation, which take place separately and are rather recent practices, as “Islamic obligations” (de Jong 2007, 49). For Mandinga peoples in Guinea-Bissau as described by Johnson (2009, 209), female circumcision is a “cleansing rite that enables women to pray in the proper Muslim fashion, making them ‘true Muslims.’” Specifically, Guinean Mandinga believe that uncircumcised women’s genitals produce an odor that makes them unfit for prayer. In similar fashion, Senegalese Muslim Jola believe than an uncircumcised woman’s prayers do not “take” or are worth less in the eyes of God than the prayers of circumcised women. In their eyes, “a circumcised woman is considered a better Muslim” (Dellenborg 2004, 82). In Mali, seliji, or “prayer water,” is a common euphemism for both male and female circumcision, and refers to the water that Muslims use for ablutions before prayer (Gosselin 2000, 54). In cutting their bodies in the name of Islam as men do (through the practice of male circumcision), Muslim women in these societies are increasingly demanding full participation in their religion.
Despite the explicit link made in some societies between female circumcision and Muslim identity, not all Muslim women in sub-Saharan Africa practice it and many disapprove of it. Tuareg peoples in Niger and Wolof peoples in Senegal are two examples of Muslim ethnic groups that practice circumcision for men but not for women. Lively debates about the practice of female circumcision, including but certainly not limited to its relationship to Islam, are currently taking place across sub-Saharan Africa, as well as in African immigrant populations in North America and Europe. 2Michelle Johnson, “Childhood: Coming of Age Rituals: Sub-Saharan Africa”, in: Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures, General Editor Suad Joseph.
Ali Gomaa and Female Circumcision
I have been watching Ali Gomaa’s explanation of women in Islam. Ali Gomaa is one of the highest Sunni Muslim authorities in Egypt. In part 2 he discussed the equality of women in Islam as it pertains to inheritance laws. He began and continues his discussion of female circumcision in this video (part 3):
1:03
Gomma notes that Muhammad did not have his daughters circumcised.
1:14
Gomma discusses Islamic scholars back in the 1950s and how they did not want to immediately outright forbid female circumcision believing this was a western inclination or imitation. Not immediately following the fashions and, too often, godless fads of the West is wise. However, does the Western denunciation of the practice more than fifty years ago fall into this category?
Female Circumcision in the Western World
One might think that female circumcision is only practiced in the Middle East or Africa. Not so. It is estimated that in Belgium some 5,000 women have been circumcised.
In this following video Ali Gomaa calls female circumcision a “wrongful crime” (0:56) but says a minor cutting is allowed by specialized doctors (1:03-1:56).
Sheikh Ali Gomaa’s fatwa against female circumcision
Ali Gomaa has issued a fatwa with respect to female circumcision:
In the name of God the all merciful
The international conference of scholars concerning a ban on abuse of the female body was held on 1st and 2nd Du al-Qi’dah 1427 of the Hijri, corresponding to the 22nd and 23rd November 2006, in the conference facilities at Al-Azhar University. An array of research work was presented. Once scientists, Islamic scholars, experts and activists from civil rights organisations in Egypt, Europe and Africa had been heard, the following recommendations were issued:
1. God gave people dignity. In the Qur’an God says: “We have dignified the sons of Adam”. Therefore, God forbids any harm coming to man, irrespective of social status and gender.
2. Genital circumcision is a deplorable, inherited custom, which is practiced in some societies and is copied by some Muslims in several countries. There are no written grounds for this custom in the Qur’an with regard to an authentic tradition of the Prophet.
3. The female genital circumcision practiced today harms women psychologically and physically. Therefore, the practice must be stopped in support of one of the highest values of Islam, namely to do no harm to another – in accordance with the commandment of the Prophet Mohammed “Accept no harm and do no harm to another”. Moreover, this is seen as punishable aggression against humankind.
4. The conference calls on Muslims to end this deplorable custom in accordance with the teachings of Islam, which forbid injuring another in any form.
5. The participants of the conference also called on international and religious institutions and establishments to concentrate their efforts on educating and instructing the population. This concerns particularly the basic rules of hygienic and medicine, which must be maintained for women so that this deplorable custom is no longer practiced.
6. The conference reminds the educational establishments and the media that they have an implicit duty to educate about the harm this custom brings and its devastating consequences for society. This will contribute to stopping the custom of mutilating the female body.
7. The conference calls on the legislative organs to pass a law, which bans the practice of this gruesome custom and declares it a crime, irrespective of whether this concerns the perpetrator or the initiator.
8. Furthermore, the conference calls on international institutions and organisations to provide help in all regions where this gruesome custom is practiced, which will contribute to its elimination.
Signature:
Professor Ali Gom’a Grand Mufti of Egypt 24/11/2006
You may also be interested in:
Muhammad, Marriage, and the Quran
Related Posts
References
There are many sayings of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) to show the important place, circumcision, whether of males or females, occupies in Islam. Among these traditions is the one where the Prophet is reported to have declared circumcision (khitan) to be sunnat for men and ennobling for women (Baihaqi).
He is also known to have declared that the bath (following sexual intercourse without which no prayer is valid) becomes obligatory when both the circumcised parts meet (Tirmidhi). The fact that the Prophet defined sexual intercourse as the meeting of the male and female circumcised parts (khitanul khitan or khitanain) when stressing on the need for the obligatory post-coital bath could be taken as pre-supposing or indicative of the obligatory nature of circumcision in the case of both males and females.
Stronger still is his statement classing circumcision (khitan) as one of the acts characteristic of the fitra or God-given nature (Or in other words, Divinely-inspired natural inclinations of humans) such as the shaving of pubic hair, removing the hair of the armpits and the paring of nails (Bukhari) which again shows its strongly emphasized if not obligatory character in the case of both males and females. Muslim scholars are of the view that acts constituting fitra which the Prophet expected Muslims to follow are to be included in the category of wajib or obligatory.
That the early Muslims regarded female circumcision as obligatory even for those Muslims who embraced Islam later in life is suggested by a tradition occurring in the Adab al Mufrad of Bukhari where Umm Al Muhajir is reported to have said: “I was captured with some girls from Byzantium. (Caliph) Uthman offered us Islam, but only myself and one other girl accepted Islam. Uthman said: ‘Go and circumcise them and purify them.’”
More recently, we had Sheikh Jadul Haqq, the distinguished head of Al Azhar declaring both male and female circumcision to be obligatory religious duties (Khitan Al Banat in Fatawa Al-Islamiyyah. 1983). The fatwa by his successor Tantawi who opposed the practice cannot be taken seriously as we all know that he has pronounced a number of unislamic fatwas such as declaring bank interest halal and questioning the obligation of women wearing headscarves.
At the same time, however, what is required in Islam, is the removal of only the prepuce of the clitoris, and not the clitoris itself as is widely believed. The Prophet told Umm Atiyyah, a lady who circumcised girls in Medina: “When you circumcise, cut plainly and do not cut severely, for it is beauty for the face and desirable for the husband” (idha khafadti fa ashimmi wa la tanhaki fa innahu ashraq li’l wajh wa ahza ind al zawj) (Abu Dawud, Al Awsat of Tabarani and Tarikh Baghdad of Al Baghdadi).
This hadith clearly explains the procedure to be followed in the circumcision of girls. The words: “Cut plainly and do not cut severely” (ashimmi wa la tanhaki) is to be understood in the sense of removing the skin covering the clitoris, and not the clitoris. The expression “It is beauty (more properly brightness or radiance) for the face” (ashraq li’l wajh) is further proof of this as it simply means the joyous countenance of a woman, arising out of her being sexually satisfied by her husband. The idea here is that it is only with the removal of the clitoral prepuce that real sexual satisfaction could be realized. The procedure enhances sexual feeling in women during the sex act since a circumcised clitoris is much more likely to be stimulated as a result of direct oral, penile or tactile contact than the uncircumcised organ whose prepuce serves as an obstacle to direct stimulation.
A number of religious works by the classical scholars such as Fath Al Bari by Ibn Hajar Asqalani and Sharhul Muhadhdhab of Imam Nawawi have stressed on the necessity of removing only the prepuce of the clitoris and not any part of the organ itself. It is recorded in the Majmu Al Fatawa that when Ibn Taymiyyah was asked whether the woman is circumcised, he replied: “Yes we circumcise. Her circumcision is to cut the uppermost skin (jilda) like the cock’s comb.” More recently Sheikh Jadul Haqq declared that the circumcision of females consists of the removal of the clitoral prepuce (Khitan Al Banat in Fatawa Al Islamiyya. 1983).
Besides being a religious duty, the procedure is believed to facilitate good hygiene since the removal of the prepuce of the clitoris serves to prevent the accumulation of smegma, a foul-smelling, germ-containing cheese- like substance that collects underneath the prepuces of uncircumcised women (See Al Hidaayah. August 1997).
A recent study by Sitt Al Banat Khalid ‘Khitan Al-Banat Ru’ yah Sihhiyyah’ (2003) has shown that female circumcision, like male circumcision, offers considerable health benefits, such as prevention of urinary tract infections and other diseases such as cystitis affecting the female reproductive organs.
The latest is the study Orgasmic Dysfunction Among Women at a Primary Care Setting in Malaysia. Hatta Sidi, and Marhani Midin, and Sharifah Ezat Wan Puteh, and Norni Abdullah, (2008) Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health, 20 (4) accessible myais.fsktm.um.edu.my/4480/ which shows that being Non-Malay is a higher risk factor for Orgasmic Sexual Dysfunction in women, implying that Malay women experience less problems in achieving orgasm than non-Malay women. As you know almost all Malay women in Malaysia are circumcised (undergo hoodectomy) in contrast to non-Malay women who are not. This would suggest that hoodectomy does in fact contribute to an improved sex life in women rather than diminishing it as some argue.
Another good reason why women need a hoodectomy (Islamic female circumcision). It can prevent cancer arising from oral sex. Here’s an interesting news item:
US scientists said Sunday there is strong evidence linking oral sex to cancer, and urged more study of how human papillomaviruses may be to blame for a rise in oral cancer among white men. In the United States, oral cancer due to HPV infection is now more common than oral cancer from tobacco use, which remains the leading cause of such cancers in the rest of the world.
Researchers have found a 225-percent increase in oral cancer cases in the United States from 1974 to 2007, mainly among white men, said Maura Gillison of Ohio State University. “The rise in oral cancer in the US is predominantly among young white males and we do not know the answer as to why.”
It is obvious that the only way men can acquire the HPV virus is through the oral stimulation of one’s partner’s clitoris which allows the virus to enter the mouth. The virus no doubt is harboured in the prepuce of the clitoris just as it has been found that HPV also resides in the foreskins of males, through the transmission of which cervical cancer occurs in females. Thus a hoodectomy could, by removing the part that harbours the virus, significantly reduce or eliminate the risk of women transmitting the virus to their male partners.
Here’s a link that covers the topic of female circumcision in depth. The author’s writings in a book posted in a now obsolete website are probably the source of much of the information on the topic that has been circulating in the web.
He convincingly shows the Islamic basis for the procedure and what really needs to be done (basically removing the prepuce of the clitoris like in male circumcision) and its benefits in terms of genital health and sexual fulfillment.
Female Circumcision – An Islamic Perspective
http://www.sailanmuslim.com/news/female-circumcision-the-hidden-truth-by-asiff-hussein