[Dean's World] Dean: Understanding Problems: A First Step Toward Fixing Them

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Posted by Dean:
Understanding Problems: A First Step Toward Fixing Them
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1144078585.shtml


   Dr. Sanity has an [1]interesting look at the issue of female
   circumcision in Egypt.

   Although I agree that the horror of female circumcision neds to be
   ended, I must point out some objections I have to her analysis, which
   is thoughtful but misses some important points:

   1) It is entirely clear that the practice of female circumcision is
   barbaric and should be fought at every opportunity. BUT, we need to
   stop infantalizing women when we do so. This needs is no minor
   objection.

   To whit: It is a virtual certainty that female circumcision is
   advocated by most young girls' mothers, sisters, and grandmothers. We
   have no way of knowing precisely where the practice came from, because
   it's been practiced for thousands of years--longer than the entire
   religion of Islam has existed. So, wherever it started, it's been
   continued for a long time, and we need to come to grips with the fact
   that it has often been women who are central to its continuation.

   Historically, and even today, in most places where female circumcision
   is practiced, it is primarily done to women by other women. Typically,
   a young girl's mother will decide when it's time for her to have this
   done, and will take her to an aunt, or grandmother, or other family
   member to get it done. Indeed, it would be very rare, in most such
   societies, to find men anywhere near the place where the procedure's
   being done.

   In a rather tragically perverse way, it's actually a sign of
   "advancement"--I can't think of a better word, as vulgar as it is in
   this context--that in Egypt it's increasingly normal for a doctor, who
   probably uses anasthetic and sterilized instruments, to do it rather
   than the old fashioned "here dear, bite down on this while your aunt
   takes the shears to you."

   In a related vein, it's worth considering that when feminist
   researcher Patricia Pearson started some of her groundbreaking
   research on female violence--for which some in the feminist
   establishment all but excommunicated her--she noted to her horror that
   in the cases of "honor killings" the Middle East, it was found that a
   majority of men committed honor-killings directly at the behest of the
   women in his family. They were the ones to tell him he should do it,
   to tell him he needed to preserve the family honor by committing the
   murder. (See [2]When She Was Bad: How And Why Women Get Away With
   Murder for more.) The point of this is not to forgive men who do
   barbaric things, but to stop infantilizing women by pretending
   everything boils down to a male-on-female problem. It's often far more
   complicated than that.

   Anyone who knows much about the Middle Eastern world will confirm that
   while outwardly men may have all the obvious power, within the family
   the women have a tremendous amount of power. If we're going to change
   people's minds through education, we aren't going to do it by
   demonizing muslim men and infantalizing muslim women. Advocating for
   change is much more tricky than that.

   2) We should bear in mind that not only does female circumcision
   pre-date the entire religion of Islam, but it is nowhere advocated in
   any Muslim scriptures. It's just not there. There is one disputed
   quote of the Prophet Muhammed--not from scripture--and all he
   supposedly said was that if you were going to do this you shouldn't
   cut too much.

   Notably, he was supposed to be addressing a woman who practiced it for
   a living. Which shouldn't be any surprise, since historically it would
   be odd for a man to be be allowed to go near a woman to do something
   like this. Unless he was a eunuch. Or, a "modern" physician.

   In any case, like I said, most Muslims don't even recognize that
   weak-tea "endorsement" as legitimate.

   This is important, because it points to another thing we need to bear
   in mind: Most Muslims around the world do not practice female
   circumcision, and, in the area where it is practiced, it is
   Christians, Muslims, and native Animist religionists who all practice
   it, all for exactly the same reasons. It's not a "muslim problem."
   It's a regional/cultural problem. Indeed, it's mostly not Arabs who do
   it, it's mostly Africans, although it's crept into a few Arab lands.

   ---

   The other night I was watching one of my favorite comedians, [3]Kathy
   Griffin, talk about her trip to Afghanistan with the USO. She was
   rather crude but funny about it, and I laughed a lot. But I couldn't
   help but notice she did the same thing I talk about here:

   She was talking about how she'd witnessed a female circumcision on The
   Oprah Winfrey Show that took place in Afghanistan. She talked about
   how horrifying it was to watch, and listen to. She described it fairly
   well, too: they showed a young girl, surrounded entirely by her
   sisters, aunts, female cousins, mother, grandmother, etc., and how
   they held her down and sliced her up while dancing and singing and
   shrieking triumphantly.

   Then about five minutes later Kathy went off on a rant as to how bad
   Afghan men were to their women.

   I could only shake my head a little at her naivetee, and her blatant
   sexism. She had witnessed herself how this is something that women do
   to their little girls, but it was the men's fault anyway.

   Some people apparently don't appreciate just how much power women
   have, especially over family matters, even in highly patriarchal
   societies.

   You aren't going to change this it until you get all those aunts,
   mothers, and grandmothers in places like Egypt to agree that it needs
   to be changed. And I doubt you're going to get the most mileage by
   blaming their brothers, fathers, and husbands for a tradition that
   goes back to long before living memory, before even written history.

   My conclusion: let's make sure we know exactly what it is we're
   condemning, and who we need as our allies on this, otherwise we're
   likely to go off in foolish directions trying to fix it.

References

   1. http://drsanity.blogspot.com/2006/04/no-relation-to-reality-indeed.html
   2. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140243887/sr=1-1/qid=1144077000/ref=sr_1_1/002-8851966-4915258?%5Fencoding=UTF8&s=books/deansworld01-20
   3. http://www.kathygriffin.net/