Islam’s Hatred of the Clitoris

FrontPage Magazine ^ | Jamie Glazov

[VinnyTex]

Islam’s Hatred of the Clitoris

FrontPageMagazine.com | October 19, 2001

Editor’s Note: The following article contains graphic descriptions of female genital mutilation, which some sensitive readers may wish to avoid.

IF YOU HATE WOMEN, and you hate their sexuality, and you are terrified that you cannot control it, the most effective thing you can do is to mutilate female sexual pleasure. This can be done by a sexual lobotomy, which will destroy an essential and sacred part of a woman’s natural makeup. In achieving this feat on all women, you will become able to ruthlessly dominate them.

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That’s what female circumcision is all about.

It’s about obliterating the clitoris, or the entire outer vagina. It is the barbarity that exists where misogyny festers most: in the Muslim and African world.

The Muslims are the principal religious group that practice female circumcision. In Egypt, for instance, 97 percent of women are circumcised. Their clitorises are amputated. In countries like Sudan, meanwhile, the women-haters are not so kind: all the women’s external genital organs are completely removed. In a savagery called infibulation, the clitoris, the two major outer lips (labia majora) and the two minor inner lips (labia minora) are amputated.

Nawal El Saadawi has documented these horrifying realities in The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World. She demonstrates how the violence of female circumcision is performed on girls anywhere from the ages of one month to puberty. Usually, it is done around the age of seven or eight. Anesthetics are never used. The child is pinned down by several women, while one of them attacks.

After infibulation, the small outer opening of the vagina is the only portion left intact. A tiny piece of wood or reed is inserted to allow urine and menstrual blood to seep out. Extra narrowing of the opening is carried out with stitches, which remain until marriage. The victim’s legs are often bound together from hip to ankle and she is immobile for about a month or two.

This violence has to occur because, in much of the Islamic world, the female’s genital area is considered dirty and unacceptable. For example, in Egypt the uncircumcised girl is called nigsa (unclean). Thus, it has to be made "clean."

Many of the victims lose their lives during this torture – which is often inflicted with broken glass. Many other victims are afflicted with acute and chronic infections for the rest of their lives.

With serious and disabling lifelong consequences, the mutilation robs women of their equilibrium. It deprives them from enjoying the fullness of their sexuality and the completeness of their lives. In terms of sexual pleasure, for instance, we know that approximately 75 percent of women cannot achieve orgasm without clitoral stimulation. In other words, the possibility of orgasm has been obliterated for tens of millions of women in the Muslim world. So what does it mean if the psychic, mental and physical health of women cannot be complete if they do not experience sexual pleasure?

The terror of the circumcision itself tracks its traumatized victims down like a nightmare. Most, if not all, of these poor women end up suffering from serious sexual and/or mental distortions. The mutilation of their sexual being becomes the epicenter where sex and violence meet constantly in their lives – with them as victims.

Wedding night is often quite eventful. In some parts of the Arab and African world, the husband assaults the wife after the wedding. In Somalia, for instance, the groom beats the bride with a leather whip. After this romantic apex, he cuts the sealed vagina with a sharp scalpel or razor in order to have intercourse. He then has prolonged repeated intercourse with her for a week – to prevent the scarring from closing the vaginal opening again. During this time the wife must lie still and not move. Meanwhile, the husband takes the bloody sharp object, which represents the virginity of his wife, and makes rounds around the community – showing it off for approval. Scholars such as Raphael Patai and Vincent Crapanzano have documented these phenomena.

After this honeymoon period, the woman is now, for the first time in her life, actually recognized as a person – because she has become the extension of her husband. Her status might even improve if she has a child (a boy). She will be humiliated and shamed, however, if she has a non-child (a girl).

And if a little innocent girl enters this world, it will only be a short time before her genitals share the same fate as that of her mother’s. When the torturers and soul-destroyers begin to slice, who will hear her cries?

Jamie Glazov holds a Ph.D. in History with a specialty in Soviet Studies. He is the author of 15 Tips on How to be a Good Leftist.. His father, Yuri Glazov, was a Soviet dissident during the Brezhnev era, who signed the Letter of Twelve, denouncing Soviet human rights abuses. His mother, Marina Glazov, also participated in the dissident movement in the Soviet Union, actively typing and circulating Samizdat - the underground political literature. To avoid imprisonment, Yuri Glazov took his family out of the USSR in 1972 and settled in Canada in 1975, when Jamie was 9. Today Jamie battles socialism from his high-tech warroom in Toronto. He writes the Dr. Progressive advice column for angst-ridden leftists at EnterStageRight.com. E-mail him at jglazov@home.com.

[StealthChild]

What is the description of the afterlife promised to devout female Muslims (fidels?)?

2% co-payment on eternal psychotherapy.

[Myrddin]

Actually, I hope where those hijackers went, they get their 72 virgins - and they all look like Helen Thomas

My hope is that there on only 72 virgins and it never changes. The same 72 for all of them...and no action for eternity. Not exactly paradise...perhaps purgatory. Let them all be ice cold wenches.

[zoyd]

Ever seen a baby boy get circumsised? It's no big deal. The people I see get their shorts in a knot over male circumcision are folks who don't have sons.

Is that why many pediatricians won't perform circumsicions, and leave it to GYN's? Yeah, I thought so.

[zoyd]

But a woman with her cl*t cut off? That's a different story entirely.

I never equated the two. Maybe you need to re-read the thread.

[cherry]

So does Christianity and Jews hate male sexuality since they practice circumcision.

not even the same but there are some Christian uncircmbscribed men in Indonesia that are finding out just how horrific and brutal circmcision can be when done by religios zealots...the Muslim fanatics take the men into the woods and circumsize them then and there ..to make them "muslim" you know.....this type of circumcision I would compare to the slicing off of female genitalia..

[disclaimer]

PJ-Comix - you think forskin is the same as fingernails. If so, you can't be a guy or you don't know what foreskin is! Hint, it is much much more sensitive than the other skin on your body.

Furthermore, circumcision in the old testament was a symbolic cutting of the foreskin - now it's almost complete removal of the specialized skin. Jesus did not promote the practice, hence the Catholic church does not require it to be performed.

And finally, why on earth should this operation be performed without consent of the person under the knife?? Babies can’t vote, that’s why. If a man chooses to have a circumcision done later in life then they can stuff a wine soaked rag in his mouth or use modern anesthetics. His choice. Do you think baby boys don't feel pain??

There is no medical reason to perform routine circumcision except that it's a money maker for the hospital/doctors. The practice is no longer recommended by the medical community, but only after pressure from men’s groups was applied in the form of lawsuits.

FGM is gross and detestable and is not on the same scale as circumcision. But that doesn't mean circumcision is okay. Go away and study the subject and get your facts straight and come back when you know what you're talking about!!!

[zoyd]

Why would a grandmother and the other old crones of the neighbourhood want to cut a jagged bloody hole where her grandaughters' external genitalia used to be?

I thought it was because women were forbidden to see male doctors. I could be wrong, but I believe that's why the process is done by women. That dirty vagina, doncha know? Men can't be asked to work on THAT! Besides, having seen the CNN video of the 10-YO being cut, it was plainly obvious that NONE of the women involved were excited to be there -- not the victim, not the 'surgeon', and not those standing by and watching.

[Republic]

Seems like a lot of Islam men are genuine cowards.

[zoyd]

Um.... So what is the purpose of tonsils?

I believe there is a legitimate purpose for tonsils, relating to the immune system. Tonsils are not removed anywhere near as often as they used to be, from my understanding. You might have suggested the appendix as a better example. As for the appendix, well, you got me there. But just because we might not be aware of the purpose of tonsils or the appendix, doesn't mean they don't have a purpose. I'm sure nobody knew what lymph glands did 200 years ago, but that doesn't change the fact that lymph nodes serve a purpose.

[zoyd]

And just why is this thinking more "advanced?"

Gee, I dunno, maybe because it avoids hacking away at a baby penis?

[StealthChild]

At the end of the day, though, her multiculturalism won out: She said, "Who are WE to judge somebody else's culture?"

Point of absurdity...if she's saying that it's inappropriate, (or worse, impossible) to make personal judgments, where does that stop? By her "logic," it goes into infinite regress, i.e. a proper response to her would be, who is SHE to judge those who judge somebody else's culture?

[LarryLied]

This article is a liberal killer. Please post it on every liberal board you frequent. They have no defense. Posted it on two boards myself and they either call it Zionist propaganda or begin to prattle about what Christians did 400 years ago. By attempting to minimize or make excuses for female genital mutilation, the next convention of lefties will be held in a phone booth. And only men, very sick men, will be there

Thanks for the link.

[PJ-Comix]

Furthermore, circumcision in the old testament was a symbolic cutting of the foreskin - now it's almost complete removal of the specialized skin.

???? What is a "symbolic cutting of the foreskin." Sorry it was circumcision then and it is circumcision now. No symbolism.

Jesus did not promote the practice, hence the Catholic church does not require it to be performed.

Jesus didn't mention it one way or another. If it was something so horrible I am sure he would have condemned the practice. And remember. He WAS circumcised.

And finally, why on earth should this operation be performed without consent of the person under the knife?? Babies can’t vote, that’s why.

So does this mean we can't slap babies on the face (or rear) to get them to breath? After all they haven't signed a consent form.

If a man chooses to have a circumcision done later in life then they can stuff a wine soaked rag in his mouth or use modern anesthetics. His choice. Do you think baby boys don't feel pain??

Not any pain that they can remember.

There is no medical reason to perform routine circumcision except that it's a money maker for the hospital/doctors.

Funny. I have known several adults who have had circumcisions performed precisely for MEDICAL reasons. The only thing they were upset about is that their folks were too clueless to have them circumcized soon after birth.

The practice is no longer recommended by the medical community, but only after pressure from men’s groups was applied in the form of lawsuits.

Sounds like yet another pressure group trying to cash in via the legal system.

[kaylar]

Slapped on the face...Where on earth did you get that from??? I've never heard of a baby being slapped anywhere but on the butt, and then only is S/he's not breathing.

Enough studies were done to prove conclusively that babies feel pain being circumsized, which is why it can no longer be done without anesthesia. As for you "not remembering" it....You are aware that some patients undergoing psychiatric care have been hypnotized or otherwise regressed to birth and even (supposedly) a month or so prior to birth. It is possible that at least some men circumsized w/o pain relievers were traumatized by this, even if they don't remember the pain consciously . In any case, I will take the word of the many health care professionals who did the studies as to the barbarism of the earlier methods .

[bearsgirl90]

I recall viewing a documentary filmed in Africa sometime ago that showed this room full of little girls, huddled in dark corners, some weeping quietly, while others were crying hysterically out loud. One by one, they were taken into a room off to the side of this main room. When it came time for this one precious little girl to go, she screamed, she cried out, "Momma, why? Why?" (Of course this was translated into English).
I will NEVER forget the blood curdling screams of that poor child. There isn't a painful enough death for these sick, demonic people. I wept for those children. I still do to this day. God help this sick world.

[Mark17]

This makes me ill, those people are truely evil and belong to the religion of satan himself!

Islam is the religion of Satan.

[miss print]

This whole discussion is so violent against women and young girls. After a woman has to endure excision and infibulation without anesthesia, what her "husband" does to her on their wedding night must be an absolute nightmare. Where does love fit into the picture of marriage? Aren't the boys concerned about what their sisters have to endure? Don't they care about them at all? I wonder if the so-called "virgins" in the alleged heaven of Allah have endured this torture? This is sheer barbarism and paganism.

Would I marry a man of that faith? Don't bet your tutu, toots!

When my son was born, the hospital asked me if I wanted my him circumcized. I told them "absolutely NOT" and if they did it "inadvertently" they wouldn't be able to imagine the size of the lawsuit that I would bring against them!! If a man believes he wants to be circumcized, let him do it. I think God created him just fine.

[ethical]

Never met a circumcised male who could not have an orgasm.

[b4its2late]

So does Christianity and Jews hate male sexuality since they practice circumcision.

Ignorance is bliss.

[PJ-Comix]

Slapped on the face...Where on earth did you get that from??? I've never heard of a baby being slapped anywhere but on the butt, and then only is S/he's not breathing.

I guess my doctor must have missed.

Enough studies were done to prove conclusively that babies feel pain being circumsized, which is why it can no longer be done without anesthesia.

So now we know for sure that they don't feel ANY pain. Case closed.

As for you "not remembering" it....You are aware that some patients undergoing psychiatric care have been hypnotized or otherwise regressed to birth and even (supposedly) a month or so prior to birth.

Ah yes. The famous Roseanne Barr psychiatric regression. Is this the same "scientific" study where she found out that Baby Roseanne was molested by her father? As I remember Roseanne's father was smeared due to Roseanne believing in a quack.

It is possible that at least some men circumsized w/o pain relievers were traumatized by this, even if they don't remember the pain consciously .

You're pinning your evidence on an awful lot of unconcious feelings here.

In any case, I will take the word of the many health care professionals who did the studies as to the barbarism of the earlier

The same health care quacks who regressed Roseanne to her babyhood? Or perhaps the ones who regressed Shirley McLaine to her pre-birth life?