A Barbaric Practice

I find it difficult not to get both depressed and angry when reading about some of the things inflicted on the group that comprises 50% of the human race. Last week it was reading about the case of Savita Halappanavar. Today it is reading about the barbaric practice of female genital mutilation in Indonesia, a supposedly modern Muslim country.

It is well established that female genital mutilation (FGM) is not required in Muslim law. It is an ancient cultural practice that existed before Islam, Christianity and Judaism. It is also agreed across large swathes of the world that it is barbaric. At the mass ceremony, I ask the foundation’s social welfare secretary, Lukman Hakim, why they do it. His answer not only predates the dawn of religion, it predates human evolution: “It is necessary to control women’s sexual urges,” says Hakim, a stern, bespectacled man in a fez. “They must be chaste to preserve their beauty.”

Oh God, ah Allah, what evil we do in thy names…