“The Position of Women in Islam”
From ‘The Light of Life’ site.
http://www.light-of-life.com/eng/reveal/
(Was looking for women as property—women do have the ‘right to property’ under islamic law)
The "Female Circumcision"
SoftPedia
Stefan Anitei, Science Editor 11th of May 2007
"The practice seems to have originated in Egypt, during the Pharaohs' time and could have been spread across Africa with the Arab slave traders.
There are 4 types of mutilation, related to how severe the operation is. Types I and II are less severe. Type I (Sunna circumcision) means clitoridotomy (removal or splitting of the clitoris hood).
Type II means clitoris removal (clitoridectomy) with the total or partial extirpation of the labia minora (inner lips). The sewing together of the leftover labia minora epidermis, which contains sweat glands, favors a buildup of sweat and urine in the closed off space beneath this closure that can lead to local or urinary infection, septicemia, hemorrhaging and cyst formation.
Types I and II are the most common, encountered in all Western Africa (Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Mali, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Togo, Benin, Nigeria), plus Central Africa (Camerun, northern Zaire, Central African Republic, southern Sudan), Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, northeastern Tanzania, eastern Uganda and southern Arabian peninsula (Yemen, Oman) in a minority representing 20 % of the population.
The most severe types are III and IV, which represent 15 % of the total. Type III (infibulation, Pharaonic circumcision) means the partial or total removal of the female external genitalia and suture of the vaginal opening. Type IV means the puncture, perforation or incision of the clitoris and/or labia. These types are practiced in northern Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, eastern Ethiopia and neighboring zones.
The infibulation involves massive tissue removal of the external genitalia, including all of the labia minora and the inside of the labia majora, leaving a raw open wound. The labia majora are then held together using thorns or stitching and the girl's legs are tied together for two - six weeks, to prevent her from moving and to allow the healing of the two sides of the vulva. Nothing is left of the normal anatomy of the genitalia, except for a wall of flesh from the pubis down to the anus, with the exception of a pencil-size opening at the inferior portion of the vulva to allow urine and menstrual blood to pass through.
When girls are married, in many cases with much older men, to have sexual intercourse, the husband must use a knife on the wedding night to widen the aperture� During childbirth, the enlargement is too small to allow vaginal delivery, and so the infibulation must be opened completely and restored after delivery. Once again, the legs are tied together to allow the wound to heal, and the procedure is repeated for each subsequent act of intercourse or childbirth.
When childbirth takes place in a hospital, the surgeons may preserve the infibulation by enlarging the vagina with deep episiotomies. Afterwards, the patient may insist that her vagina be closed again so that her husband does not reject her."
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Female-Genital-Multation-54503.shtml