{"id":81174,"date":"2018-09-19T22:52:45","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T04:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=81174"},"modified":"2018-09-19T15:51:22","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T22:51:22","slug":"calls-to-medicalise-female-circumcision-grow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/09\/19\/calls-to-medicalise-female-circumcision-grow\/","title":{"rendered":"Calls to medicalise female circumcision grow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fatima Yasmin\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Muslim religious organisations in Sri Lanka have called on the government to \u2018medicalise\u2019 female circumcision to ensure the procedure is done under hygienic conditions. In their submission before the Parliamentary Committee on Women and Gender early this month, the Muslim groups stated that the Muslim community was very concerned about moves to ban the procedure on the grounds that it was Female Genital Mutilation.<\/p>\n

Spokeswoman Noor Hazeema Haris said that although Muslims wholeheartedly supported the abolition of traditional practices harmful to women and children such as FGM, the Islamic practice of female circumcision was very different.<\/p>\n

She pointed out that female circumcision practiced by Muslims was a very minor procedure similar to male circumcision where the prepuce of the clitoris was removed. It is something that is arranged and done by women. Those who say this is male oppression against women are mistaken. It is we who do it just like our mothers and grandmothers and countless generations of our women have done. We continue to practice it because we know it benefits us. Even educated Muslim women support it wholeheartedly\u201d, she said, adding If as medical complications have arisen among some women circumcised by Osthamamis (traditional female circumcisors without medical training) as alleged by women\u2019s rights groups, it is all the more reason to medicalise the procedure instead of prohibiting it, which will only drive the procedure underground and put girls and women at unnecessary risk\u201d.<\/p>\n

The move is a very dangerous one since it could lead to greater acceptability of FGM among the country\u2019s Muslims. There have been many complaints raised against the traditional practitioners including use of unsterile instruments and harming the clitoris in some cases. However the solution is to ban it altogether rather than medicalising it.<\/p>\n

But analysts warn this could lead to an uproar from religious parties and have political implications since parties that come out against FGM risk losing a large and influential Muslim vote bank. The All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama, an organization of religious scholars issued a fatwa in 2008 stating that female circumcision was obligatory, and were among the parties that made representations to medicalise the practice early this month.<\/p>\n

It is a also matter of concern to women\u2019s rights groups that the said Parliamentary committee agreed to accommodate the representations and requested that medical evidence be submitted to prove that female circumcision of the type prescribed in Islam causes no harm and benefits women as stated by the representatives.<\/p>\n

A female doctor who performed the procedure before a health ministry circular came into effect last month prohibiting medical professionals from performing it, and whose name has been withheld here at her request, said that she welcomed the move to medicalise it. I performed about 25 circumcisions a day in a private clinic, mostly infants. But there were women too. Some were newly married and wanted to be circumcised at their husbands\u2019 request. All I do is remove a little bit of skin covering the clitoris. I use a very fine instrument for the babies. It takes only a few minutes. In the case of adults, I inject an anaesthetic before proceeding to circumcise them. My patients tell me it\u2019s only the injection that hurts a bit and that after that they don\u2019t feel a thing. It\u2019s sore for a few days, but heals fast. There is a huge demand for this service. It\u2019s a shame that its now going back into the hands of untrained women who have no proper medical knowledge and who use unsterilized instruments for the purpose.\u201d.<\/p>\n

A young mother who had her infant daughter circumcised by a traditional practitioner also agreed. Doctors refuse to do this now, and I was forced to get it done by an Osthamami. She took out a blade which looked as if it had been used many times and made a cut to my daughter\u2019s genitals. Some blood came out. I could not bear to look. Later I checked it and noticed a cut had been made in the skin over the clitoris but the foreskin had not been removed. This is an improper circumcision according to my sister who is an Aalimah (Religious scholar) and so I will have to get her circumcised again. Why are these so-called women\u2019s groups against doctors doing it? We will practice it whether they ban it or not\u201d she said irately.<\/p>\n

However a member of a prominent women\u2019s organization said that prohibiting the practice is the right thing to do. FGM has been condemned as a violation of the rights of women and girl children by the World Health Organisation. WHO makes no distinction between FGM and the type of circumcision practiced here. It\u2019s all the same. How can you cut these girls and call it a religious obligation. I understand there is a strong religious argument for the practice, but we cannot let religion affect the health of girls and women\u201d, she added.<\/p>\n

And so the debate goes on – to ban or medicalise. But one thing is for sure. It won\u2019t be an easy battle. Not only does the religious establishment support the practice, but most local Muslim women are very much for it. The government and women\u2019s activists will have a hard time convincing them to abandon it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fatima Yasmin\u00a0 Muslim religious organisations in Sri Lanka have called on the government to \u2018medicalise\u2019 female circumcision to ensure the procedure is done under hygienic conditions. In their submission before the Parliamentary Committee on Women and Gender early this month, the Muslim groups stated that the Muslim community was very concerned about moves to ban […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}