The Role of Religion in Female Genital Mutilation

In most societies where FGM is practiced, it is considered a cultural tradition, which often is used as an argument for its continuation.

However, no religious scripts prescribe the practice of FGM: it is mostly the practitioners who often believe the practice has religious support.

Indeed, religious leaders take varying positions regarding FGM: if some promote it, some also consider it irrelevant to religion. Some even contribute to its elimination.

For example, Sheikh Abdirizak Isse, a teacher and well-known Muslim leader in Bossaso, Puntland said: “FGM has continued because there is a perception that this is a religious requirement, and that is wrong,”

FGM is not endorsed by Islam or Christianity, but religious narratives are commonly deployed to justify the practice.

Mohamed Hashim al-Kahim, a prominent Sudanese Muslim scholar invited to lead debates over FGM in Puntland also said: “We know the truth, and this is our message for all the people: please, please, please sever the link between Islam and FGM/C. There is no relationship between the two.”

The Quran or other religious scripts do not mention FGM. In Somaliland, Sheikh Aden Musa was telling a public meeting that “nowhere in the Quran does it tell you to do this”.

Various religious authorities oppose violence against children - including this practice - and some of them insist on the fact that “Islam is a religion of mercy” that takes care of children at every stage of their lives.

For instance, Al-Azhar Supreme Council of Islamic Research, the highest religious authority in Egypt, issued a statement saying FGM has no basis in core Islamic law after a 12-year-old girl died during an FGM procedure in 2007.

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