There is a widespread view among practitioners of female genital mutilation (FGM) that it is a religious requirement, although prevalence rates often vary according to geography and ethnic group. There is an ongoing debate about the extent to which the practice's continuation is influenced by custom, social pressure, lack of health-care information, and the position of women in society. The procedures confer no health benefits and can lead to serious health problems."Classification of female genital mutilation", Geneva: World Health Organization, 2017.

FGM is practised predominantly within certain Muslim societies, but it also exists within some adjacent Christian and animist groups. The practice is not required by Islam and fatwas have been issued forbidding FGM,"In Mauritania, progress made in ending female genital mutilation/cutting" , UNICEF, October 2012.

"Mauritania fatwa bans female genital mutilation", BBC News, 18 January 2010. favouring it, or leaving the decision to parents but advising against it."Iraqi Kurdistan: FGM Fatwa Positive, but Not Definitive", Human Rights Watch, 17 July 2010. However, FGM was introduced in Southeast Asia by the spread of Shafi'i version of Islamic jurisprudence, which considers the practice obligatory.Ali, Kecia (2006). Sexual Ethics And Islam: Feminist Reflections on Qur'an, Hadith, and Jurisprudence. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, p. 100. Clarence-Smith, William G. (2012). "Female Circumcision in Southeast Asia since the Coming of Islam", in Chitra Raghavan and James P. Levine (eds.). Self-Determination and Women's Rights in Muslim Societies. Brandeis University Press, pp. 124–146. Ghadially, R. (1991). "All for 'Izzat': The Practice of Female Circumcision amongBohra Muslims." Manushi, 66, Sept—Oct, pp. 17—20. Hefner, Robert (1985). Hindu Javanese: Tengger Tradition and Islam. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 34–39, 142–147, 255–258. There is mention of it on a Greek papyrus from 163 BCE and a possible indirect reference to it on a coffin from Egypt's Middle Kingdom (c. 1991–1786 BCE). It has been found among Skoptsy Christians in Europe, Coptic Christians in Egypt, Orthodox Christians in Ethiopia, Protestants and Catholics in Sudan and Kenya.Papademetriou, George C. (2011).Two Traditions, One Space: Orthodox Christians and Muslims in Dialogue. Somerset Hall Press, p. 138. The only Jewish group known to have practiced it are the Beta Israel of Ethiopia.

Background Definition

Until the 1980s FGM was widely known as female circumcision, which gave the erroneous impression that it was equivalent in severity and health effects to male circumcision. In fact, FGM has only adverse health effects and is almost always more extensive than male circumcision.Nussbaum, Martha (1999). Sex and Social Justice. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 119. In 1990 the IAC began referring to it as female genital mutilation, as did the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1991. The WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA defined FGM in 1997 as "all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons". There are four WHO categories:

Type I: "partial or total removal of the clitoral glans (the external and visible part of the clitoris, a highly sensitive part of the female genitals), and/or the prepuce/clitoral hood (the fold of skin surrounding the clitoral glans.)" Type Ia involves removal of just the prepuce. More common is Type Ib (clitoridectomy), the complete or partial removal of the clitoral glans (the visible tip of the clitoris) and clitoral hood. Type II (excision): complete or partial removal of the inner labia, with or without removal of the clitoral glans and outer labia. Type III (infibulation): removal of the inner and outer labia and the fusion of the wound, leaving a matchstick-sized hole for the passing of urine and menstrual blood. Type IV: all other practices including both more severe forms and symbolic nicking."Classification of female genital mutilation", Geneva: World Health Organization, 2017.

Origins

FGM is concentrated in what Gerry Mackie called an "intriguingly contiguous" zone in Africa—east to west from Somalia to Senegal, and north to south from Egypt to Tanzania. The practice is both "contiguously distributed and contagious", he writes: "It spreads across groups as more resource-endowed males encounter less resource-endowed females in circumstances of inequality." Marriageability is its "main engine of continuation". The practice's distribution in Africa meets in Nubia in the Sudan, leading Mackie to suggest that Type III FGM began there with the Meroite civilization (c. 800 BCE – c. 350 CE) to increase confidence in paternity.Also see Hicks, Esther K. (1996). Infibulation: Female Mutilation in Islamic Northeastern Africa. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, p. 19ff.

The proposed circumcision of an Egyptian girl is mentioned on a Greek papyrus from 163 BCE. Spell 1117 of the Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts may refer to an uncircumcised girl ('m't), although there is disagreement about the word's meaning. Found on the sarcophagus of Sit-Hedj-Hotep, the spell dates to Egypt's Middle Kingdom (c. 1991–1786 BCE).De Buck, Adriaan and Gardiner, Alan (1961). The Egyptian Coffin Texts, Volume 7, Chicago: Chicago University Press, 448–450. The examination of mummies has shown no evidence of FGM.

Strabo (c. 64 BCE – c. 23 CE) wrote about FGM after visiting Egypt around 25 BCE,Strabo, Geographica, Book VII, chapter 2, 17.2.5. as did Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 BCE – 50 CE): "the Egyptians by the custom of their country circumcise the marriageable youth and maid in the fourteenth (year) of their age, when the male begins to get seed, and the female to have a menstrual flow." Type III FGM became linked to slavery. João dos Santos wrote in 1609 of a group near Mogadishu who had a "custome to sew up their Females, especially their slaves being young to make them unable for conception, which makes these slaves sell dearer, both for their chastitie, and for better confidence which their Masters put in them".

Christianity

The Bible does not mention FGM. Christian authorities agree that the practice has no foundation in Christianity's religious texts, and Christian missionaries in Africa were at the forefront of efforts to stop it. Indeed, they led the way in referring to it as mutilation; from 1929 the Kenya Missionary Council called it the "sexual mutilation of women", following the lead of Marion Scott Stevenson, a Church of Scotland missionary.Karanja, James (2009). The Missionary Movement in Colonial Kenya: The Foundation of Africa Inland Church. Göttingen: Cuvillier Verlag, 93, n. 631. When, in the 1930s, Christian missionaries tried to make the abandonment of FGM a condition of church membership in colonial Kenya, they provoked a far-reaching campaign in defence of the practice.Thomas, Lynn M. (2000). "'Ngaitana (I will circumcise myself)': Lessons from Colonial Campaigns to Ban Excision in Meru, Kenya", in Bettina Shell-Duncan, Ylva Hernlund, eds., Female "Circumcision" in Africa. Lynne Rienner, p. 132.

Despite the absence of scriptural support, women and girls within Christian communities, including in Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania, do undergo FGM. It has been found among Coptic Christians in Egypt, Orthodox Christians in Ethiopia, and Protestants and Catholics in Sudan and Kenya. A 2013 UNICEF report identified 17 African countries in which at least 10 percent of Christian women and girls aged 15–49 had undergone it. In Niger, for example, 55 percent of Christian women and girls had experienced it, against two percent of Muslim women and girls.

The Skoptsy Christian sect in Europe practiced FGM as part of redemption from sin and to remain chaste.

Islam

Overview Circumcision has been called one of the "five practices" connected to the Fitrah (innate nature in Islam). FGM is found largely within and adjacent to Muslim communities. Prevalence rates among various Muslim nations depend on the ethnicity and location. In Arabic, the practice is referred to as khafḍ () or khifaḍ (). Khitan (), which means male circumcision, can also include FGM."Khitān", Encyclopædia Britannica. Less severe forms of FGM, or what the World Health Organization calls Type I (removal of the clitoral hood and/or the clitoral glans), may be referred to as sunna (recommended).

Senior Muslim religious authorities have stated that FGM is neither required nor prohibited by Islam. The Quran does not mention FGM or male circumcision. FGM is praised in a few hadith (sayings attributed to Muhammad) as noble but not required, though the authenticity of these hadith has been questioned.

Hadith Islamic hadith collectors Ahmad ibn Hanbal (780–855) and the Hanbali jurisprudent Abū Dāwūd (817–889) reported that Muhammad said circumcision was a "law for men and a preservation of honor for women" however these narrations or Hadith are regarded as daʻīf (weak). In a reported narration Muhammad made female genital cutting optional, but he warned against harming women. The above narration is designated as "weak"; according to the Islamic criteria of authenticity, it is missing a link in the chain of narrators and it is found in only one of the six undisputed hadith collections. According to Sayyid Sabiq, the author of Fiqh-us-Sunnah, all hadiths concerning female circumcision are non-authentic.As cited in an article on FGM dated January 1999 in the website of FGM Network and Message Board: http://www.fgm.org

One hadith from the Sunan Abu Dawood collection states: "A woman used to perform circumcision in Medina. The Prophet said to her: Do not cut severely as that is better for a woman and more desirable for a husband." Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani describes this hadith as poor in authenticity, and quotes Ahmad Bayhaqi's opinion that it is "poor, with a broken chain of transmission". Yusuf ibn Abd-al-Barr commented: "Those who consider (female) circumcision a sunna, use as evidence this hadith of Abu al-Malih, which is based solely on the evidence of Hajjaj ibn Artaa, who cannot be admitted as an authority when he is the sole transmitter."Al-Sabbagh, Muhammad Lutfi (1996). "Islamic Ruling on Male and Female Circumcision", Alexandria: World Health Organization, pp. 17–19, 125–126.

Another hadith used in support is in Sahih Muslim: "The Messenger of Allah said: When anyone sits amidst four parts (of the woman) and the circumcised parts touch each other a bath becomes obligatory." Mohammad Salim al-Awa states that, while the hadith is authentic, it is not evidence of support for FGM. He explains that because Arabic uses dualistic semantics, the word for "the two circumcised organs" can mean "the two organs," with only one being circumcised. A hadith in Sahih Bukhari says: "I heard the Prophet saying. "Five practices are characteristics of the Fitra: circumcision, shaving the pubic hair, cutting the moustaches short, clipping the nails, and depilating the hair of the armpits."Rizvi et al. (1999). "Religious Circumcision: A Muslim View". BJU International, 83(S1), pp. 13–16. Berkey, J. P. (1996). "Circumcision Circumscribed: Female Excision and Cultural Accommodation in the Medieval Near East". International Journal of Middle East Studies, 28(1), pp. 19–38. Mohamed Salim Al-Awwa writes that it is unclear whether these requirements were meant for women and girls.

Fatwa In addition to Sharia, the Ijtihad have been one of the four sources of Muslim law through the centuries. Ijtihad include fatwas (opinions of Muslim religious scholars), which are often widely distributed and describe behaviour that conforms to religious requirements. Fatwas have been issued favouring FGM, advising against it but leaving the decision to parents, and forbidding FGM.

Support for Type Ia mutilation