“ They will not stop us...we support circumcision”, shouts Saad Yehiah, a teashop owner in Kafr Al Manshi Abou Hamar, Egypt. Yehiah is responding to the government shutdown of a medical clinic that performs genital mutilation on young girls.
Michael Slackman wrote an article titled, In Egypt, Shielding Girls From an Old Practice, which was featured on the front page of the New York Times on Thursday, September 20, 2007. The article begins with a story about a 13-year-old girl who recently died as a result of a clitoral removal surgery.
In 1996 Egyptian’s Health Ministry ordered an end to this practice, however allowing it to occur in cases of emergency. Unfortunately, this exception was broad enough that it still continues to happen on a regular basis. A survey in 2005 discovered that 96 percent of women had undergone the procedure.
The Egyptian government is attempting to end this practice by banning health care workers from performing the procedure, many official religious leaders have deemed it ‘harmful’ and ‘prohibited’, television advertisements have been shown to discourage it, a national hotline has been set up to answer questions and pamphlets have been published that say genital cutting is not necessary for the Islamic religion.
Unfortunately these measures are not enough. The tradition runs deep in the culture and in the religious practices of the Egyptian people. The men of the village especially seem to be protesting.
It is frustrating that the women in Egypt, and many other countries, have little voice. Their family members mutilate the women and they in turn pass the tradition on to their offspring. For many people they do not know anything different. However the procedure is very dangerous, many times there is no use of anesthetics or sanitary materials, and has serious consequences later in life. According to Britannica Online Encyclopedia, the consequences include severe bleeding, tetanus, urethral closure, long delays during childbirth, psychological trauma and many other unpleasant consequences.
UNICEF is also becoming involved in this cause. They have reported that globally 130 million women have undergone this procedure. Erma Manoncourt, UNICEF representative in Egypt, is very firm on the fact that there is, “no evidence in religious texts either in the Muslim tradition nor in the Christian tradition that promotes this practice”.
This is the frustrating aspect of religion. It doesn’t matter whether you are Christian or Muslim or Buddhist you still encounter legalism and misinformation. I realize that genital mutilation is a very extreme form of legalism, but I think it is an excellent reminder. Our views of religion and how that correlates with our faith can easily be skewed without even realizing it.
I would encourage you to look at your faith critically and truly understand where your basis of living is. Are you advocating issues that aren’t necessarily Biblically based? Are there areas of your life that are habit or that you have adopted because your parents did? Find out what you believe. Search for the Truth. Live the Truth.
5 comments:
I definitely understand where you are going with this. I feel like too many people in this world are doing things or believing things just because that is all they know, and they do not take the time to search what is right and why. It is horrible that this is happening in Egypt, and that they feel this is a religious practice. It would be amazing what the would would be like if people made real educated decisions based on truth and not tradition.
Wow…your blog is definitely written on a very interesting topic; one I think a lot of people would shy away from responding to. It is a truly awful situation in Egypt and a hard article to read. But I really like your response to it. I especially like the last paragraph where you ask us to consider the issues we are advocating. How many times do we get caught up in what our church or Christian friends around us are pushing for, losing sight of what God truly says on the topic? This blog really did make me think and consider that question!
Amazing! I love your conclusion! I can't believe that stuff is still going on! Thanks for exposing this sad practice that is still present in various cultures. It is interesting that neither Islam or Christianity does not advocate this practice, yet the people still say they do it for religious reasons!
Thanks. This blog is both fascinating and thought provoking; I especially appreciated your conclusive thoughts and aiming questions to the reader. I believe that in relation to your questions we are talking much less extreme practices in the Western culture of Christianity, but nonetheless, your questions challenge us to evaluate our ethical practices in light of scripture. In this case, I believe the situation in Egypt is extremely powerful because it is dealing with physical practices. In our case, I believe we are talking more about spiritual facets.
Not only do I find this procedure defying to women but almost ignorant as well. First of all I can't imagine being a woman in Egypt and because of a false tradition having to go through an unsanitary and extremely painful surgery. I want to know how are we supposed to enable these women to have a voice in what happens to their own body and be able to stand up for themselves. The U.S. is a completly different world compared to so many other countries, we are truly blessed in our freedom. Refering to the ignorance, I am forced to ask why people would continue to follow through with a tradition that is not backed up by their religion but insist that it must be done. What is the real reason behind this. I appreciate your fowardness in asking the readers including myself to really look at the things we believe in our Christian faith and ask why and does it match up with the bible.
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