The Cut in Conflict: Female Genital Mutilation and the Concept of Religious Violence in the Western World

Abstract

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is both a concurrent and historical practice, manifesting in geographically diverse regions and across different religious groups. Wherever it is practiced, the ritual cutting of female genitals is an act designed to undermine a woman’s personal sexual autonomy and identity, as well as reify patriarchal power relations. Although historically practiced in Islamic communities, records of female genital mutilation predate Islam, and the validity of Quranic references to the practice are contested by modern Islamic scholars. The recent incidents of FGM reported to have occurred in expatriate Muslim communities in Western European and North American nations reveal an ancient tribal practice that has acclimated itself to notions of modern Western medical authority. In fact, there is evidence for the presence of FGM in Western culture since the 19th century, in a context distinct from Muslim communities or Islamic religious influence; the history and current iterations of FGM in the West conform closely to Foucauldian theories of sex and power, and echo Foucault’s assertion, discussed in The History of Sexuality, that power relations must successfully conceal their own mechanisms in order to maintain viability within society. Consequently, patterns associated with twenty first century FGM analogize the construction of “religious violence” as a cultural category in Western discourse. When gendered violence is categorized as “religious,” it is inevitably subjected to a process of othering that serves to further embed its practices as part of the collective social reality.