From a cultural context of initiation rites, Mbiti 1975 views circumcision for boys and clitoridectomy for girls, which are practiced in many parts of Africa, involving the cutting off the foreskin of the boy’s male organ and the cutting of some portion of the girl’s female organ, respectively. In both cases, blood is spilt, and the operation is very painful. Where the custom is followed, everyone must undergo it, with a feeling of shamefulness and stigmatization where one does not partake the ritual practice. It is also very much a community and public affair, thus making it difficult for one to shy away from it. Female operators do it on girls, and male operators on boys. One of the most compelling reasons behind this practice is its close association with marriage. Thus, as Mbiti argues, where circumcision and clitoridectomy are practiced, they symbolically represent the flow of life through the shedding of blood from the organs of reproduction, an act that is profoundly religious by means of which the young people accept that they have to become bearers of children through marriage. While the medical benefits of male circumcision have been proven, especially in the reduction of HIV transmission, that of female circumcision is clouded in controversy, with some seeing no value as a medical procedure with direct injurious effect on reproductive health; others considering it as having cultural and hygienic benefits. While many countries in Africa have legislated against female circumcision or female genital cutting (FGC) or, as commonly labeled as female genital mutilation (FGM), the practice has persisted. It is estimated that female circumcision is practiced in about 28 countries in the African continent, with about two million women and girls globally being considered at risk for undergoing the procedure each year (Gruenbaum, The female circumcision controversy: an anthropological perspective. University of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, 2001; WHO, Reproductive health indicators: Guidelines for their generation, interpretation and analysis for global monitoring. WHO Press, Geneva, 2006). While in Africa, female circumcision is not a preserve of Muslim communities, this chapter is limited to a reexamination of the doctrinal, cultural, and medical underpinnings of the practice among adherents of Islam. In so doing, the essay seeks to propose harm reduction as a maxim that can be adopted not only to eradicate the practice but as an instrument aimed at improving the well-being of Muslim women in line with the general tenets of Islam and the universal aspirations of the SDGs No. 3 on good health and well-being.

Reevaluation of Female Circumcision in Islam in Africa

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发表日期：

2026年

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Mohamed Suleiman Mraja

摘要

From a cultural context of initiation rites, Mbiti 1975 views circumcision for boys and clitoridectomy for girls, which are practiced in many parts of Africa, involving the cutting off the foreskin of the boy’s male organ and the cutting of some portion of the girl’s female organ, respectively. In both cases, blood is spilt, and the operation is very painful. Where the custom is followed, everyone must undergo it, with a feeling of shamefulness and stigmatization where one does not partake the ritual practice. It is also very much a community and public affair, thus making it difficult for one to shy away from it. Female operators do it on girls, and male operators on boys. One of the most compelling reasons behind this practice is its close association with marriage. Thus, as Mbiti argues, where circumcision and clitoridectomy are practiced, they symbolically represent the flow of life through the shedding of blood from the organs of reproduction, an act that is profoundly religious by means of which the young people accept that they have to become bearers of children through marriage. While the medical benefits of male circumcision have been proven, especially in the reduction of HIV transmission, that of female circumcision is clouded in controversy, with some seeing no value as a medical procedure with direct injurious effect on reproductive health; others considering it as having cultural and hygienic benefits. While many countries in Africa have legislated against female circumcision or female genital cutting (FGC) or, as commonly labeled as female genital mutilation (FGM), the practice has persisted. It is estimated that female circumcision is practiced in about 28 countries in the African continent, with about two million women and girls globally being considered at risk for undergoing the procedure each year (Gruenbaum, The female circumcision controversy: an anthropological perspective. University of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, 2001; WHO, Reproductive health indicators: Guidelines for their generation, interpretation and analysis for global monitoring. WHO Press, Geneva, 2006). While in Africa, female circumcision is not a preserve of Muslim communities, this chapter is limited to a reexamination of the doctrinal, cultural, and medical underpinnings of the practice among adherents of Islam. In so doing, the essay seeks to propose harm reduction as a maxim that can be adopted not only to eradicate the practice but as an instrument aimed at improving the well-being of Muslim women in line with the general tenets of Islam and the universal aspirations of the SDGs No. 3 on good health and well-being.