Article المقال ( Janvier )
The
lie of the "Pharaohs FGM"
at the
Faculty of Fine Arts
Helwan
University, Cairo.
https://helwan.academia.edu/zeinabnour
http://www.facebook.com/zeinabnour.art/
The number of females subjected
to the tragedy of FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) in 2016 is about 200 million
worldwide. According to UNICEF, these women live in more than 27 countries in
Africa, in less numbers in Asia and in the Middle East, along with a few other
communities around the world. What a horrible ignorance to hear someone asking
with a mocking spirit: "What is the aim of supporting women? Women do not need
any support, what is the importance of what is called "feminism" at a
time when women have all their rights and more?"!!!
Female genital mutilation rates in Africa, Iraq Kurdistan, and Yemen, as
demonstrated by studies in 2015. Wikipedia
A normal human being, only the
normal one, when reads some of what has been written or watches in a
documentary film about the truth of dark circumcision, he would feel the
shudder in his body and feel at the moment that he hates the world, including
the earth and the people; how human beings, especially women, can cut and
mutilate parts of a weak girl's body who has no power and no capacity, all her
sin in this world, is being born in a mentally and psychologically ill community
with lack of civilization!
Dear reader, if you have a
sensitive heart, do not read the next three lines, for they are shocking, you
can overcome them to enter to the essence of the cultural, ideological, social
and historical backgrounds of the subject .. I mean of the disaster!
In most deteriorated societies
of these countries (like in northeast Africa, especially in Somalia), most of
the external parts of the female genitalia are cut off and the vagina is
sealed, leaving only a small opening to allow passage of urine and menstrual
blood; later, in marriage, vagina has to be re-opened (sometimes with a knife)
to allow intercourse and procreation, and this is what is classified as the 3rd
type of FGM.
Artwork by Fatma
Mahmoud – Student at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Cairo
In the context
of a Mural design project "No to FGM" under the supervision of
Dr.Zeinab Nour.
Written in Arabic:
Think before you break her, how her destiny is going to be?
We shall not talk about the
circumstances in which these diabolical rituals are done, which are often
carried out in the name of preserving chastity. Everyone knows that most of
these cases are done in unhealthy and contaminated conditions, with primitive
tools and brutal methods; girls are often exposed to diseases or hemorrhages to
death. In my opinion, the severe physiological consequences, including death
itself, are in general inferior to the devastating psychological effects on
these girls throughout their lives, and the black comedy is that the first to
suffer with these girls in their future lives are men who wanted to ensure girls'
chastity before marriage!
This body organ, almost every
girl has heard, since the smoothness of her nails - especially oriental ones- how
she should preserve it, to cover and to maintain her honor and the honor of her
people by conserving this organ, and if she doesn't follow the rules she will
subject herself to all kinds of punishment ranging from verbal attack to social
reprimand and physical abuse, reaching murder; this organ is the same one that
is forcibly stripped by monsters in the form of humans to cut off parts or all of
it in the name of maintaining chastity, and it is always the same organ that she
is supposed to use in building a happy family, the happiness of one man and the
birth of sons and daughters, adults and in good health.
For an ordinary girl, how can
she deal with this imposed terrorism and in the same time with this due
diligence? This is the blind foolishness itself, such tortured girl finds
herself only hating herself, her community, her husband and the duties imposed
on her vagina, which was assassinated in its youth with a violated privacy from
the closest relatives to her and later comes an idiot to wait from this organ a
new life!
Egypt is on my Mind
I say it with much pain "Egypt
is the most country in terms of the number of girls who have undergone FGM
around the world", as mentioned in too many references. It is true that
the rate of FGM in Egypt has dropped from 97% in 1985 to 70% in 2015, as a
result of many efforts exerted by the State, especially those made during the
era of Suzanne Mubarak (an undeniable fact) and the efforts of many
organizations such as the National Council for Women, human rights
organizations, NGOs and individual feminist initiatives such as the feminist writer
Nawal El-Saadawi; but unfortunately, because the population of Egypt is
large, despite these efforts, it is still huge and tragic number to this day,
or rather these were not enough efforts to spread awareness needed to eradicate
this ugly phenomenon from Egypt.
It is also known that many FGM
operations in Egypt are carried out by doctors especially during the last few
decades, although this seems to be better than the cases that are carried out
by the savages of the wild and rural areas; but in my opinion, it seems to be
hidden, the fact that the possibility of doing the FGM on the hands of doctors
has led to increase the number of victims; for their mothers and grandmothers –
who are usually the ones who submit their girls to such crime – think that if
the FGM is performed by a doctor, it would be better, cleaner, safer, and less
severe in the cut procedure, because usually, the doctor doesn't cut off large
parts of these girls clitorises.
The criminalizing law of
female genital mutilation in Egypt has become more severe than before, but it
is still incapable in front of ignorance of families, especially women, and
what made matters worse is that the text of the law can create a gap that
allows the exploitation of practitioners of circumcision; for in the text of
the law, it is said: that criminalization of female genital mutilation deals
with the amputation of all or part of any genitalia unless there is a medical
justification for it. So, the so called "medical justification" has
opened the door to many who do not have a professional conscience and set their
attitudes regarding FGM before applying the law. They can simply convince
families that their girls do need a medical justification which shall be legal
and there is no problem[1]. In
addition, in case of any interfere from the law protectors against these
doctors, it would be too late, there would be no longer any physical evidence
that there was or wasn’t any medical reason for this operation; not to mention
that this claimed "medical reason" is very rare to exist, many
straight doctors have rejected, calling it "crap"!
Ancient Egypt is innocent of the FGM crime
*Your angry voice
When I passed by
the door was ajar
Her angry voice came to me
I wished I was her dependent
So she would reprove me
And I would pretend to be a
child, afraid of her anger[2].
King Min Kaw Raa and
his wife beside him
* She is one girl; there is no one like
her.
She is more beautiful than any other.
Look, she is like a star goddess
Arising at the beginning of a
happy new year[3].
These lines represent only a
point in an ocean of treasures of ancient Egyptians literary and poetic, in
love and passion!
How can a rational or
objective researcher say with the utmost satisfaction that the origin of the dark
FGM's practice is ancient Egypt? Ancient Egypt, which considered woman sacred,
raised her and gave her rights equal to man; enabled her of the highest
positions with dignity and beauty, how to carry out such a heinous crime to
women?
Those who said that were based
on several "facts" by which they wanted to prove wrong things or through
which they fell into the trap of gross error, just like any common mistakes we
deal with in our daily life as better than all right things but unusual!
The origins and roots of
female Genital Mutilation are not known, and it is not known exactly which
human civilizations first followed that ritual. The intersection of this
practice in Africa, north-south and east-west, is in Sudan. Gerry Mackie suggested that FGM began in
the Meroë civilization, about 800 BC - 350 AD along with polygamy,
centuries before the dawn of Islam. The purpose of this was to prove the
paternity of children and ensure their descent to their father and mother, and
to prevent mixing genealogies [4]
And here we have to search
about the term "circumcision or FGM of the Pharaohs". It is a term
that was referred to female genital mutilation in its worst form, the way it
was explained before, cutting off the external parts of the girl's genitalia
and closing the vagina, except for a small opening for urine and menstrual
passage. This process was called by this name for uncertain reasons, but this
label in itself spread false information that female genital mutilation had
spread in ancient Egypt in this ugly way, and we have a set of facts that
contradicts this lie:
An ancient Egyptian relief depicting the male circumcision
1 - It is known and proven
that female genital mutilation in Egypt, starting the beginning and to this day
does not follow this horrible method, but most often follow the first and
sometimes the second type, classified by the World Health Organization, which
consist of cutting a part of or all of the girl's clitoris, without cutting any
other parts and without closing the vagina.
2 – It was mentioned and drawn
in ancient Egypt on murals in more than one site the circumcision of males, as Herodotus
said: it was for hygiene, or, as others have said, it was a civilized
alternative to the ritual of human sacrifice, which did not exist in ancient
Egypt, so, this was a less bloody alternative and at the same time it was
emphasizing the principle of personal hygiene. Perhaps for this reason, this
ritual was later called - "purity" – and it is used by Jews and
Muslims. However, there are no discoveries yet on any murals in both ancient
Egyptian temples and tombs, which reflect FGM.
3 – As for female genital
mutilation mentioned in some papyrus or texts written by scholars or
intellectuals visiting Egypt or residing
in it such as the Greek geographer Strabo
64 BCE – c. 23 CE, or Philo of Alexandria 20 BCE –
50 CE, or the Greek physician Galen 129 –200 CE, or the Roman
physician Aëtius
of Amida (mid-5th to mid-6th century CE); as we can see, they were all living
in times that we can call "The remains of Ancient Egypt" while Ancient
Egypt dates back thousands of years before Christ, and I repeat for thousands
of years, where there is no evidence to be found dating back to this deep
history to say the existence of FGM in ancient Egypt, and even what was stated
in the words of the Roman physician Aëtius
of Amida to describe the process of female genital mutilation, which he witnessed
in Egypt, confirms that the method of circumcision practiced at the time was
urging not to cut off much of the girl's clitoris so that it does not cause
health problems[5]; which
means that even the circumcision that was performed for females in these late ages
of ancient Egypt did not represent the so-called "Pharaonic
circumcision." So where did this term come from?
4 - It is possible to
speculate that this term and this brutal method of female genital mutilation
has resulted from the suspicion of some or many who have examined the status of
female mummy's vagina of ancient Egypt, which appeared as if it was
circumcised. For by the look at the vaginal area of these female mummies, it
appears to be similar to that of the vaginal area of the female which was
circumcised by a third type, because during mummification, the skin of the two
large labias was pushed back to the anus to cover the vagina opening, possibly
to prevent the sexual desecration of the mummy. As for determining whether the
first and second circumcision types were applied to female mummies is IMPOSSIBLE,
since the soft tissues were either removed by those who conducted the mummification
or that these tissues were probably dissolved over time[6]; which
seems logical because of the chemicals and organic materials used in
mummification.
** So, we can say that the
phenomenon of female genital mutilation in Egypt began, only in the late ages
of ancient Egyptian civilization, the period during which Egypt was subjected
to occupation by many different forces and cultures - especially North and
South -, if these late ages are compared to the history and thought of deep
ancient Egypt, it shall be an era of deterioration; in these late ages, it was natural to mix
with habits and traditions from other cultures, some are fine and others are
decadent, which was confirmed by the Egyptian expert gynecologist and
researcher Dr. Mohammed Fayyad [7]
(may he rest in peace). What made reality mix with imagination,
the physical condition found in the genital organs of women's mummies in
ancient Egypt; someone/some people wanted to take advantage of this condition of
dead women bodies and transfer it to other women to be buried alive, with the
utmost cruelty and brutality that humanity should be ashamed of!
On the other hand, enemies of
the ancient Egyptian civilization found a rumor to distort the aesthetics of
this civilization, which is innocent of this disgraceful act which cannot be harmonized
with the most characteristics of this civilization: kindness, knowledge and
beauty.
Artwork by Fatma
Mahmoud – Student at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Cairo
In the context
of a Mural design project "No to FGM" under the supervision of
Dr.Zeinab Nour.
Written in Arabic:
Prophet Mohamed didn’t circumcise his daughters, why do you do it to yours?
Al-Khifad (simplified FGM) in
Islam, good for Egyptian woman and bad for other "Arab" women??
Feminism graffiti arts which
spread during the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt starting in 2012
were only a true image of the reality experienced by women during this reign,
which is the reality of fear, marginalization and exploitation. It is
imperative that readers of these lines have experienced themselves what the Brotherhood
tried to do concerning women issues in Egypt, starting with their trial to make
the girls' age for marriage earlier than it is mentioned in the law and also to
delete the law criminalizing FGM in Egypt.
Historically, there are many
ideological differences and historical animosity between "Wahhabi
Salafis" (who started and grew basically in Saudi-Arabia) and the Muslim
Brotherhood (who started and grew basically in Egypt). However, we can say
with the utmost simplicity that there is no need for scientific evidence; both
of them carry radical Islamic ideas which lead to terrorism. However, in spite
of this hostility, both of them have cooperated in solidarity in the face of Nasserism
in the 1970s. These years may have been the starting years for both of them in
the Arab world, especially Egypt. And there are those who confirm that the
"Wahhabi" thought reached Egypt in the early 20th
century, like Dr. Ali Mabrouk, professor of Islamic Philosophy in Cairo University[8].
**However, what I want to
refer to is.. a set of questions that don’t fade away from my mind and I do not
find comprehensive answers for them, but perhaps these questions do not need
answers as much as they call us to meditate and devise the trap in which
Egyptian women have fallen:
- There is no FGM in Saudi
society – it is so rare – there is no objective comparison can be made in terms
of numbers between Saudi Arabia and Egypt concerning this issue. How and why
Egyptians, especially mothers and grandmothers, didn’t know about this fact?
Especially since Saudi Arabia is supposed to be the most representative of
Islam in terms of its political system as a state!
- have the Wahhabism of
the Saudi society preserved for women the right of enjoying what God created
for them and reserved for Saudi men the right of enjoying their wives while
Egypt was only given the idea that FGM is a religious duty? Just as Wahhabism
has worked on beating the softest power of Egypt: film, song and culture
industries, in the second half of the twentieth century?
- Why did the Muslim Brotherhood
in Egypt, unlike Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia, contribute significantly to
the culture of female genital mutilation, to destroy the beauty created by God
in its best form, claiming that it is a religious and ritual demand?
- Are Muslim Brotherhood men keen to circumcise
their daughters just like they are keen to urge people to circumcise their
daughters in rural areas, the countryside and poor places in Egypt in order to
please God?
- While Muslim Brotherhood has
always urged Egyptian women not to define or to re-shape their eyebrows because
it is forbidden to change God's creation, they were urging them to re-shape
their girls' intimate physical parts; Have nobody thought: what is the
difference? Isn't re-shaping this intimate part more forbidden then re-shaping
one's eye brow?! At least, harm in the 1st physical interfere is
greater than in the 2nd one, if there is harm in the 2nd
one in the 1st place.
- We shall not approach the
discussion of the Shafi'i doctrine in Islam, which saw FGM obligatory,
while most other Sunni doctrines saw it as only an honor, but we would like to
point out that the most widespread land of the Shafi'i doctrine is the
Saudi Arabia and Egypt; so again, why is FGM spread in Egypt and not spread in
Saudi Arabia? What are the hidden hands that have been activated in Egypt and
slowed down in Saudi Arabia in this way? Was it intended to hit Egyptian
society in its core? Female genital mutilation was known before the emergence
of Islam in both geographical spots. Egyptian society is more mediated and opened
to the other through its long history. Why has FGM spread in such a terrible
way by linking it to the principles of Islam, noticing that Egypt is a society
in which two different faiths live (Christianity and then historically Islam)?
- Is the approach of Egypt
from the heart of Africa helped more to spread this black habit? But the
Arabian land is closer to Yemen and Somalia, two spots known to spread female
genital mutilation!
- "Why did not the hadith
attributed to the Prophet (PBUH) – and which was confirmed as a very weak talk
by the Egyptian House of Fatwa- why it didn't lead to the spread of FGM in the
Arabian land like it did in Egypt? For it was mentioned: "Um Atiya
al-Ansaria said that a woman was doing the FGM in the city. The Prophet (PBUH)
said to her: "Do not overcut. It is better for the woman and beloved by
the husband", which supposed to mean that he guided her not to cut off
too much of the clitoris of the girl.
Here, our mind calls for a
conscious reading of the reality on which the Arabian land was before Islam, it
was full of ignorant traditions and customs, brutality, corruption and vileness
that reached the burial of new born, alive if they were girls. It was natural
that the new religion had to focus on the most important and then the important
to find those who follow it, this religion couldn’t be spread if it was banning
everything bad on this land. The FGM tradition, as it is clear from the hadith
– even if it was a true hadith - was already found on the Arabian land, and
perhaps the Prophet (PBUH) saw it wiser in this time and place to show the
advantages of retaining these parts of the body of the girl for her good as
well as for the good of her future husband than completely eliminating FGM.
In fact, this hadith - whether
its story is real or not - should not replace and above all the proven reality
that we as Muslims have never heard - not from close not from far - any hadith,
even a weak one that the Prophet (PBUH) - has asked for applying or applied the
FGM operation on any of his wives or daughters (worth mentioning here that he
has even refused that Ali Ibn Abi-Taleb gets a second wife over his
daughter Fatema!). Isn't this obvious fact enough to be spread and loudly
repeated in our land so that the criminals stop their crime? A truth that seems
to be logic without any need for evidence that this crime has nothing to do
with Islam? (Worth mentioning that, of course FGM was not mentioned in Quran)!
- FGM in Egypt has reached the
limit of being applied to Christian girls on the hand of their own mothers and
grandmothers, despite the Coptic Church's insistence on rejecting this habit
repeatedly. The operation was even carried out by Christian doctors on Muslim
girls who are intimately exposed on their tables, in a clear and explicit
opposition to customs and ideas of Muslims in contemporary Egypt!!
Note that whether the FGM in
Egypt is done to Muslim or Christian girls, the stated goal of it, is always to
maintain the chastity of the girl, especially before marriage. Questions that
always arise in here: What about after marriage? What about prostitutes in
Egypt - whether they are working in prostitution upon their desire or not - aren't
most of them circumcised? Does not this constitute a clear contradiction to the
principle of linking chastity to FGM?
- A large percentage of the
devastation caused to the psychology of the circumcised girl and then to her
marriage has certainly contributed to Egypt to be one of the most countries in
the world where divorce spreads; despite Egypt was the symbol of home,
stability, fertility and love represented in the spirit of Hathor, the
body of Isis and the embracing of Nut. This dark habit has for
sure contributed to raising up this divorce percentage; for FGM usually leads
the wife who was circumcised to hate the sexual relationship, especially wives
who have been cut off larger parts of their genitals or who have been subjected
to greater violence during the circumcision process (without anesthesia, for
example). These wives would consider sexual relations as heartless or as a
burden on the chest because they do not find pleasure during the intercourse, which
in return alienates the husband from this relationship and makes him looking
for an alternative to her or looking for another breathing exit, like continuous
anger and distemper?
**After all these questions, isn't
clear that there is a defect in the Egyptian cultural system that destroys
itself but definitely not on its own. In 2013, the Egyptian Fatwa House issued
a "fatwa" stating that female genital mutilation is "haraam/forbidden,"
and that it causes health harm and must be prohibited because in Islam it is
supposed to be no harm, The House called upon the concerned authorities to
exert more efforts to confront and stop this phenomenon, which was described as
not a religious issue or a worship ritual at its origin.
Earlier in 2007, the Supreme
Council of Islamic Research of Al-Azhar in Cairo decided that FGM has no
basis in the basic Islamic law or any of its partial provisions. Since August
2016, FGM has been transformed from a misdemeanor to a felony/crime to be
punished for both perpetrators and instigators.
All these procedures and
restraints are good, but they are too late. No matter how severe the sanctions
are, the tragedy will inevitably continue, unless there are continuous
campaigns of awareness among women before Egyptian men, in school books and artworks
of all kinds, especially cinema and television which are closer to the large
spectrum of people in Egypt.
Why not? What are we waiting
for?
Why such campaigns are not
strong as much as they were against polio, for example, which disappeared from
Egypt several years ago??
What prevents the
intensification of awareness and the dissemination of sexual culture, even in
its minimum range? Why don’t we concentrate efforts to stop this bloody human
and social bleeding which has been directed at the heart of the Egyptian
society for years of ignorance, poverty and destitution?
Finally, the so-called "Pharaohs
FGM" as an expression is nothing but a distortion of a great history in
the age of humanity.
But, FGM is nothing but a circumcision for the entire Egyptian
society, in which love, mental health and stability are cut off.
For more about feminist art in
Egypt[9]
31/12/2018.
It is happening here campaign launched from UK
to warn from the ongoing FGM for immigrating
females in Europe
[1] https://www.youm7.com/story/2017/11/26/هل-يصبح-قانون-تجريم-ختان-الإناث-المتهم-الأول-فى-إجراء/3526618
[2] محمود الاسوانى – المصريون
القدماء وأشعار الحب http://ramadan.mobtada.com/details.php?ID=604232
[3] Ancient Egyptian Love Poetry,
found on http://themagentahornet.com/ancient-egyptian-love-poems.html
[4] Gerry Mackie, "Female Genital Cutting:
The Beginning of the End", in Bettina Shell-Duncan and Ylva
Hernlund (eds.), Female "Circumcision" in Africa:
Culture Controversy and Change, Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000,
pp. 253–282.
[5] Mary Knight, "Curing Cut or Ritual Mutilation?: Some Remarks on the
Practice of Female and Male Circumcision in Graeco-Roman Egypt," Isis, 92(2), June 2001,
pp. 317–338.
[6] Knight 2001, p. 331, citing G. Elliot
Smith, A Contribution to the Study of Mummification in Egypt, Cairo:
L'Institut Egyptien, 1906, p. 30, and Marc Armand Ruffer, Studies in the
Paleopathology of Egypt, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1921,
p. 171
[7] http://www.m.ahewar.org/s.asp?aid=313304&r=0&fbclid=IwAR2TiqlPOhA-hGah1Uq3QnSaoItxlmK8Qn8ubHUlyi12KNASAS2ubsDBxAs
[8] زيزي شوشة - كيف اخترق المد
الوهابى المجتمع المصرى https://raseef22.com/politics/2015/06/21/how-the-wahhabi-tide-broke-through-the-egyptian-culture/
[9] Nour, Zeinab. Reflections of the Feminism in Contemporary
Mural Painting between Occidental and Oriental societies. comparative
research (in English), presented to the INTL Conference "Cities' Identity
Through Architecture and Arts" organized by the Faculty of Fine Arts,
Helwan University as well as IEREK the Academic research community, Fairmont
Hotel – Cairo – (11-13 May2017).
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