It is vitally important the UK uses its influence and clout to lead a global campaign that seeks to rid the world of FGM.
Ghaffar Hussain is head of research at counter-extremism think tank Quilliam
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a gross human rights violation that should not be tolerated anywhere in the world.
Despite FGM being illegal in the UK since 1985, there have been no prosecutions to date and a culture of secrecy within communities in which it occurs, combined with misplaced cultural sensitivities, has allowed this practice to thrive.
However, increased awareness and campaigning around the issue has meant there is now more will to enforce existing laws in much more rigorous way.
In spite of the tide swinging in the right way in the UK, the picture is not so good in other countries. Of particular concern is the Maldives. Dr. Mohamed Iyaz Abdul Latheef, vice president of the influential Fiqh Academy of the Maldives, who is also a candidate for the Muslim Brotherhood-inspired Adhaalath Party, has issued a fatwa for FGM stating that it is justified on theological grounds.
Due to Dr. Latheef prominent position in Fiqh Academy, which was established by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, there is concern about the influence these calls could have on Maldivian society.
The call for FGM in the Maldives is based on highly literalist and austere interpretations of Islam that have been imported into the country in recent years. These calls are part of a wider lurch towards an archaic form of religious conservatism that is currently taking place and backed by social conservatives in other parts of the world.
My colleague Dr Usama Hasan has challenged the religious justification for FGM, stating:
“FGM has no Islamic sanction – there are just two traditions on the subject, both of which are strongly disputed, with many jurists throughout history discounting them as having nothing to do with the Prophet of Islam, but, like the blasphemy and apostasy laws of medieval Islam, FGM became a theoretical juristic position even though it was rarely practiced. Contemporary Muslim scholars are increasingly opposed to and dismissive of FGM.”
We at Quilliam have welcomed the recent shift towards a tougher approach to the enforcement of existing anti-FGM laws in the UK, and commend the campaign of the young British Somali woman from Bristol, Leyla Hussein, in this regard.
Last Saturday, on International Women’s Day, development minister Lynne Featherstone stated that it was the aim of her department to reduce FGM in Africa by 30 per cent within the next five years. Others, such as Michael Gove, have also made a commitment to stamping out this evil practise.
With this much-welcomed cultural transformation taking place in the UK, it is vitally important that we now use our global influence and clout to lead a global campaign that seeks to rid the world of FGM.
57 Responses to “Calls for the introduction of FGM in the Maldives should worry all of us”
Alec
Gawd, is OrtegaSeason still at this? It’s positively distasteful to see him befoul threads on FGM with his orientalist fascination with the laceration of clitores.
ThisIsTheEnd
Liberal muslims are not saying that muslims who practice FGM think its unIslamic. Liberal muslims are disputing that the practice is Islamic. Again not a difficult position to understand.
Where are you getting all this hyperbolic language from? “Heretics”, “Authoritarian”. So in your mind liberal muslims are authoritarian and brand non liberal muslims as heretics. And I suppose you think also “War is Peace” and “Freedom is slavery”
You’re being utterly moronic.
ThisIsTheEnd
I didn’t realise he had form with this. What a cock
Alec
See one of his early comments to me in that thread:
What a piece of muck.
He also littered his spiel which dismissals of the “emotive” nature of my and others’ objection to him, and took pride in his detachment and ability to talk of what some more excitable intellects might see as barbaric practices in other societies but which he was able to look at dispassionately.
What really unsettles me about him and those like him is that they clearly see other people as like exhibits in a zoo, or a glass frame full of preserved butterflies.
(He lost his composure only when he was traduced.)
He’s sunk to new levels in this thread. Usama Hasan is not Pakistani… he’s British. And one who’s had real and credible threats made against him for his expressed views. Plus that Pakistani Islam is liberal and tolerant is a new one of me.
Of course, this human-butterfly collector isn’t adverse to telling Somalis like Mohammed that they’re not reliable witnesses on Somali practices.
So, Ortega, when are we going to take a pair of scissors to your precious parts? Not that I would force you to make-do with sweetened tea as an antiseptic, as I’m sure you are much more sensitive and less able to cope with discomfort that those exotic foreign women.
I’d let you have an local anaesthetic. Go on, give us your twat.
~alec
OrtegaSeason
Liberal muslims are not saying that muslims who
practice FGM think its unIslamic.
What are you replying to?
Liberal muslims are disputing that the practice is
Islamic. Again not a difficult position to understand.
I understand it. I just think it’s problematic for the reasons I’ve laid out, namely that it comes from a position of authoritarianism and ethnocentrism. If they’re so liberal and rational why don’t
they condemn male circumcision as well?