Genital Mutilation.

Genital Mutilation.

Right, buckle in.

I shall start with some good, actually great news, from the continent of controversy that is Africa. On May 1^st 2020, Sudan took a huge step away from their usual barbarism, and have finally made female genital mutilation, or FGM, a crime. At last, some sense was found and those in power have begun to realise that the forced removal of the labia minora and majora, clitoris, and final sewing up of a child’s vagina, is perhaps not something they should be advocating (the fact that it only warrants three years in prison and a fine is still utterly ridiculous, but small steps…). How this is even a practise, that occurs in twenty-seven countries in Africa, Asia and the middle east, is truly incomprehensible to me. And if this is not the case with you, reader, then take a long, hard look at yourself in the mirror, and throw yourself into it, please.

The topic for this essay however is not the recent successes of female rights activists in East Africa. As beneficial and therapeutic as it would be for me to sit and rant about the horrors inflicted upon women across the globe, I shall save that for a possible future endeavour (maybe one where I educate the majority of you as to why Mother Theresa is a disgusting woman, seeming as you are still yet to grasp that fact). No, I shall take the time to discuss here the idiocy of people that somehow can quite rightly accept FGM for all of its atrocities, yet keep shtum on the topic of MGM. Male genital mutilation. Never heard of it? It somehow has the apt name of circumcision. Or as I like to call it, genital mutilation.

Now before I start, I will address the main (and only real, valid, acceptable) excuse here. This of course is not in context to medically necessary circumcision; the awful fact that the two procedures share the same name is a difficulty in itself. If you need your foreskin removed for medical reasons, this is of course fine; excessive tightness, recurrent fungal infections or cancer of the penis, are obviously proper, medical reasons to have your foreskin removed. And if you are to address the following arguments I will present by saying, “but what about for medical reasons?”, 1- this is blindingly obvious and not the point of my writing, and 2- are you seriously trying to defend genital mutilation?

Let us get down to some facts. Contrary to popular belief, the most prevalent group of child-mutilators find their beliefs in Islam and not Judaism; they still commit this horrible act too however, so bear with me. Parents of Islamic faith feel, that when they look down at a this new bundle of love and joy that lays in their arms and stares back up at them, their next generation of familial heritage commenced, with a world of possibilities ahead of them, that the best way to kick off this child’s life, is to take a knife to its penis, and slice off the end (just don’t forget to call it Khitan so you can claim some religious moral high ground in a vain attempt to shut the outsiders up). And for what? “Hygiene reasons”, apparently. Having no urine on the end of the organ where urine comes out of, is apparently a good enough reason to force your child – at the average age of seven, may I add – to undergo this harrowing ordeal. And do you want to know the best part? The Prophet Mohammad was said to have been born aposthetic: sans foreskin. The irony of he himself having to have never undergone this!

Judaism beats this however, as it seems to lack even the common decency to produce a half-arsed attempt at a semi-reputable proposal for their child-focussed-mutilation. For Jewish boys, Brit Milah (there goes that fancy nomenclature again) is nothing more than a religious obligation. Obligation! To whom?! The audacity a parent has to instruct an official circumciser (add that to the CV!), or Mohel, to harm their offspring in such a way sickens me (such a person is usually an ‘observant Jew’ -can they not see what they are doing?). This supposed obligation is for Jewish boys to have a physical symbol, etched onto their skin, as a sign of their partnership with God (is it me, or does that sound a lot like branding cattle to show their ownership?). The apparent punishment for refusing to undergo the mutilation of your child is to be cut off from the community of God, for breaking the covenant. I know I would much rather break a deal with God than my own moral codes, and if those of the Jewish community happen to line up in accordance with mutilating acts with religious explanations, I am glad I am not part of such a cult.

Let me come to the main source of my vexation in regards to these inhumane instances of humans at their absolute worst. The main reasons for genital mutilation, the ones that come under the category of FGM, are for the following reasons: religion, hygiene, social acceptance. Do these sound familiar? That would be because I have just listed those reasons in relation to circumcision, as well. Why, oh why then, are the two somehow not only separate, but seemingly on opposing ends of the spectrum that is acceptability? Understandably, FGM is part of the ongoing struggle of female empowerment across the globe, with this vile act a prime example of male control over women, to which they are treated as nothing more than complex birthing machines. But and this is a big but, if you feel that by separating FGM from circumcision that this will further the pursuit of female equality, then you need to remove your pejorative, disillusioned feministic views from this equation and realise the true issue here.

In all honesty, I feel that there truly is no more to say about the matter. Such anger, frustration and bewilderment eat away at me knowing that somehow this still goes on around the world. I hope I have grabbed your attention on an issue that often goes unspoken. Circumcision is hotly debated around the world. Anti-FGM movements are ever-growing in their attempts at removing this unholy sin from societies. My issue here is with neither. As you will gather from my writings, I despise contradiction. As my topics of choice venture into those that are plagued with religious backing, contradiction will become an ongoing war which I pledge. If you maim, mangle or mutilate, butcher, cut or dismember, the reproductive organs of a fucking child, you are the embodiment of a deadly poison, and should have no right to exert your views on those too fragile to fight back. How dare you.

Now Sudan, if only we can address your legal acts of child marriages and marital rape, then we would really be making headway.