Muslims say FGM is necessary so girls don’t touch themselves “down there.” Or even worse so cousins (future husbands) won’t touch them “down there.” The cruel practice involves cutting the clitorises and mutilating the labia of young girls. It is carried out with the purpose of making sex painful for girls and is claimed this will ensure the ‘purity’ of a girl before and throughout marriage.

TimesLive Muslim defenders say “It is a religious thing. Do you want to change the religion?” “You only listen to what the West is saying.” Some insist that FGM has nothing to do with Islam, but it is mandated in Islamic law:

“Circumcision is obligatory (for every male and female) (by cutting off the piece of skin on the glans of the penis of the male, but circumcision of the female is by cutting out the bazr ‘clitoris’ [this is called khufaadh ‘female circumcision’]).” — Umdat al-Salik e4.3, translated by Mark Durie, The Third Choice, p. 64

Genital cutting of girls was banned in Egypt in 2008, but it remains persistent. A 2016 survey by the UN Children’s Fund showed 87% of women and girls aged 15 to 49 had undergone the procedure.

The campaign, entitled “White Coats”, saw posters with the slogans “No to FGM” and “FGM is a Crime” put up at a Cairo metro station, where doctors in white coats gave out leaflets about the dangers of the practice.

Organiser Randa Fakhr El Deen, head of NGO Union Against Harmful Practices on Women and Children, said the doctors had faced challenges from proponents of FGM at the station, but the campaign was important.

“We want to send a message to other doctors that we do not want our white coats to be stained with blood, as well as to citizens that medicine refuses this practice.

Egyptian Muslim woman explains why they mutilate their daughters’ genitalia.

Female Circumcision of Egyptian Muslim women has been adopted and promoted by various groups within Islam. The practice of circumcision in Islam comes from the Hadith, Shariah law, and the consensus of Islamic communities.

Although not specifically prescribed in the quran, Muslim clerics rationalize it as a custom sanctioned by the prophet Muhammad, notorious paedophile. 97% of Egyptian Muslim girls have suffered FGM. They say it is an African custom that predates Islam yet is practiced primarily in Muslim countries and in Muslim communities of the West.

World leaders have pledged to eradicate FGM by 2030, but campaigners say the ancient ritual, which typically involves the partial or total removal of the external genitalia, remains deeply entrenched in many places.

It can cause long-lasting mental and physical health problems, including chronic infections, menstrual problems, infertility, pregnancy and childbirth complications.

Last month, Egyptian authorities arrested a retired doctor on charge of carrying out illegal FGM surgery and causing the death of a 12-year-old girl. The girl’s parents were also arrested. All have been released, but investigations are continuing and campaigners against FGM say they expect them to face trial.

The ritual is underpinned by the desire to control female sexuality, but is often justified for cultural or religious reasons in conservative societies.

The removal of all or part of the external genitalia is done in the name of promoting chastity. Some parents see it as a religious duty in spite of a ruling against it. Current Egyptian President el-Sisi has been trying to have the ban enforced but because so many of the FGM procedures are not done by doctors, it is very difficult.

Speaking to the BBC earlier this year, this dead girl’s relatives defended the practice of FGM, and insisted no-one was to blame for her death.

Women and children’s rights groups in Egypt say the ban has not been well enforced and that much of society is permissive of FGM, which is widely practised by Christians and Muslims.

The majority of FGM procedures are carried out by doctors and nurses at private clinics, with the rest done at home, according to the Egypt Demographic and Health Survey of 2014.

“It is a religious thing. Do you want to change religion?” said metro user Ibrahim Hassan in response to the “White Coats” campaign. “You only listen to what the West is saying.”

In response, Fakhr El Deen told Hassan that FGM had no basis in religion and was not taught in medical schools in Egypt.

“If a Muslim girl isn’t genitally mutilated, she cannot be trusted.” [WARNING: Graphic]

Or so say Muslim mothers in Egypt, Sudan, Somalia, and Ethiopia where upwards of 90% of young girls are genitally mutilated (circumsized) by old hags who use unsterilized razor blades for the procedure. This often results in sepsis infection and other problems. Not the least of which is that FGM women derive no pleasure from sexual relations.

Detroit Free Press, reported Millions of little girls and young women have been subjected to a painful rite of passage that involves cutting their genitals — often without anesthesia — for centuries in parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

With the increase of Muslim immigration into the United States, so, too, have clitordectomies increased. There have been at least 500,000 girls in U.S. who have undergone genital mutilation, or are at risk of having it done.

Now that no less than three Muslim doctors have been arrested in Michigan for performing female genital mutilations, the media is rushing to scrub Islam from this Islamic story. Nowhere is Islam mentioned in this article.