Gender, sexuality, and religion have plenty of third rails - topics where passions run high and thoughtful dialogue seems a forlorn hope. Female genital cutting, also referred to as mutilation or female circumcision, is one. Between 100 and 140 million girls and women have had this "procedure"; about 3 million girls each year are cut.
The World Health Organization (WHO) describes the process this way: "Female genital mutilation comprises all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. It has no health benefits and harms girls and women in many ways." If you want the gory details go to the WHO website or other sources which describe a pretty wide range of techniques that range from a symbolic nick to major cutting and sewing. To make matters worse, many traditions have the process done in public, on young girls who have no inkling of the pain and danger they are facing.
And what does it have to do with religion? Almost nothing. Virtually all religious scholars state categorically that no religious text or teaching prescribes cutting, yet millions believe that the process has religious origins and is mandated by religious teachings. The issue demonstrates how difficult it can be to disentangle culture and religion. FGC has no benefits, it is clearly a violation of child rights, and it does real harm. But tell that to a group of women from affected countries and you may find them seething in indignation at the audacity of Westerners seeking to impose their values.
We can start by trying to understand what's behind it. That's not easy. Cutting largely, but not completely, coincides with Muslim majority communities. There are, however, some Christian and other communities that practice it and some Muslim communities that do not.
Some people will tell you that cutting is about cleanliness and purity. In some cultures men will not eat food prepared by a woman who has not been cut. Supporters argue that it controls women's tendency to promiscuity. And a profession of traditional cutters has grown up who play other important community roles and "preserve the culture." The practice seems to embody discomfort with women's sexuality and a desire to make sure women are not tempted to sexual affairs. And women often are the ones who perpetuate the practice and most resist change.
A Senegalese non-governmental organization called Tostan, founded by a former American Peace Corps volunteer, Molly Melching, offers both the most plausible understanding of the baffling process and the most effective approach to ending it that I know of. The practice is, like the ancient Chinese practice of foot-binding, linked to marriagability of daughters. Since mothers want their daughters to marry, and thus to preserve their line and insure their old age, they willingly adhere to community norms.
So Tostan works to bring the community both to understand the harm in the practice and to commit to change. They start with the religious leaders and elders, and seek their support. With a constant focus on knowledge and understanding, they work towards a public declaration by community members that they will end the practice.
The good news is that change can happen - Chinese footbinding ended in the space of a generation through a similar process of community buy-in. Thousands of African communities have made their public declarations. Religious leaders are increasingly speaking out forthrightly, as are political leaders. The less good news is that the numbers affected are still staggering and for too many stopping this unkind cut is a low priority.
