[wvns] The Quran Against Female Mutilation

HEALTH ACTIVISTS LOOK TO RELIGION TO MAKE THE CASE AGAINST FEMALE
GENITAL MUTILATION -
Associated Press
http://news.bostonherald.com/international/africa/view.bg?articleid=1002763

Trying to stop a bloody ritual undergone by millions of Muslim women
in sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab world, health activists are trying
a new appeal - they're citing the Quran.

"The guiding factor is always Islam," says 34-year-old Maryam Sheikh
Abdi, who grew up in a region of northeast Kenya where 98 percent of
girls are believed to undergo the procedure, a genital mutilation
sometimes called female circumcision. Women believe "the pain, the
problems, the bleeding _ they are all God's will."

Health activists, finding that focusing on women's rights isn't
working to persuade Muslims to stop performing the ritual, are
increasingly using theology to make the case that "the cut" has
nothing to do with religion. Abdi, who speaks about female genital
mutilation on behalf of the U.S.-based Population Council, said
invoking Islam penetrates years of cultural indoctrination.

"Women don't have to torture themselves. Islam does not require them
to do it," said Abdi, who underwent the procedure when she was 6 and
was a college student by the time she realized it was not necessary
from a religious viewpoint. . .

Late last year, the top cleric in Egypt _ where the practice is
pervasive and many believe it is required by Islam _ spoke out against
it, saying circumcision was not mentioned in the Quran, the Muslim
holy book, or in the Sunna, the sayings and deeds of Muhammad _ the
two main sources of Islamic practice.

"In Islam, circumcision is for men only," Mohammed Sayed Tantawi said.
"From a religious point of view, I don't find anything that says that
circumcision is a must" for women.

Laws against female genital mutilation exist in many of the regions
where it is practiced, but poor enforcement and lack of publicity can
hinder the laws, human rights groups and women activists say. They say
laws aren't effective unless those who practice and require the
tradition are first made aware of its physical and mental damage.

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