Morning Star

FGM in Egypt

There is legislation, and there is the private activity that ignores the law:

Despite a 2008 ban on the brutal practice, 90% of women under the age of 50 have been mutilated in Egypt. FGM is the partial or complete removal of a female's external genitalia. It is considered to be a "sacred" ritual by many African tribal communities and by various Islamic sects.  FGM serves no positive medical purpose. On the contrary, women who have been subjected to this practice experience recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections, cysts, infertility, lack of sexual desire, an increased risk of childbirth complications and newborn deaths, and the need for later surgeries. Immediate side effects include severe pain, bleeding and psychological trauma, shock, hemorrhaging, tetanus or sepsis and bacterial infection.

When a woman has undergone such an ordeal, it would seem that she would like to spare her daughters, but often she is unable. Customs are pervasive, the religious authorities add their weight, and a husband's rule is law -- unless the women is very determined, as Nahla was:

“I lived with my husband for seven years. He was ‘the master,’ and I had no problem with what he did. I let him make all the decisions in every matter that had to do with my life and the life of our daughter and son. I tried to obey him so that he would not hurt me – physically or verbally.

“I was subjected to FGM as a child. I can still remember until now the details of that crime that was committed against me. Because of the FGM, I suffered as a married woman. That is why I promised myself that I would not circumcise my daughter under any circumstances. I will not expose her to the physical and mental pain of FGM.

“That’s why, when she reached the age of six and my husband wanted her to be cut, I refused and  stood up to him, because of my experience and because it could cause her complications.

“I tried to use experts to mediate, but it didn’t help. He still insisted. So I said to him, let’s take her to the doctor. The doctor said that she doesn’t need circumcision, an opinion that was rejected by my husband.”

Nahla finished her story: “My husband gave me two options: Either to listen to him or to bear the consequences of what he will do to me. He told me that he would circumcise my daughter to make her e a better person as the sharia obligates.

“As a result, our lives were turned upside down. Everything became much harder than it used to be. Every day we argued. I ran away and left the house after years of torture, taking with me my daughter and my son. I filed for divorce, not only because of the circumcision, but because life with a person like him is impossible. He wants a ‘mute’ woman that walks on a straight line that he plans for her, and I’ve have enough of it.”

God bless her courage, and prayers for their continued safety and well-being. Her path is singular and difficult.

What is taught in the mosque?

On Friday, 28 March, an Egyptian woman named Mary was viciously attacked simply for being Christian. She was dragged from the car that her persecutors had just crushed, then was kicked, beaten, had her hair ripped from her scalp, and then stabbed in the back. Their final savage acts after killing her were to slit her throat and strip her corpse naked before the crowd. Just last week. Unusual? Not according to locals, according to Raymond Ibrahim:

Added the eyewitness: “Let me tell you, here in Ain Shams, we [Christians] know that every Friday is a day of death; that the day after Friday, Saturday, we’ll be carried to the morgue!”

In fact, the overwhelming majority of attacks on Egypt’s Christians occur on Friday—the day when pious Muslims meet in mosque for prayers and to hear sermons.

The significance of this fact can only be understood by analogy: what if Christians were especially violent to non-Christian minorities on Sunday—right after they got out of church?  What would that say about what goes on in Christian churches?

What does it say about what goes on in Muslim mosques?

Prayers for her soul -- although this act of persecution has surely created a martyr. (She was delivering medicine to an elderly parishioner in a church outside of which this took place.) Prayers for her family and friends who are devastated. Prayers for the wider Christian community that they remain strong in the face of these ongoing attacks throughout the Muslim world.

Abducting Christian girls in Egypt

Consider the pain of this family -- only one of thousands:

On February 28, a 15-year old girl named Amira Hafez and her mother went to church in Egypt. Hafez took a quick trip to the store and never returned. When her parents filed the police report, they were fairly certain of who the police should interview: Yasser Mahmoud, an Egyptian soldier stationed nearby that used to protect their church.

Since the fall of Mubarek from power in 2011, Egyptian Christian women have increasingly suffered, from daily harassment in the streets to abduction and forced marriages, from having their Christian jewellry snatched and destroyed to rapes and enslavement -- and the police and courts do nothing to protect them.

Girls that are victims of forced conversions [through abduction] that are lucky enough to escape face additional problems. Firstly, any known conversion from Islam to Christianity (even if one was originally Christianity) makes her an “apostate.” That puts a giant target on her back because sharia’s punishment for apostates is death.

Secondly, the Egyptian government won’t let the girls’ change their registered religion back to Christianity. That makes the healing process extraordinarily more difficult and makes it tougher to assimilate back into the Christian community. It also stops the victim from having privacy. Wherever she goes, she will have to relive her trauma by explaining her story to whoever finds out she is registered as a Muslim.

The problem is two-fold: “twin-headed cultural hydra” of “deep-seeded Muslim and male supremacism,” according to a 2012 report on the issue. They combine in the sense that historically, Muslims have considered wives to be property, non-Muslim women to be loot, and hegemony to be proven by force. 

Al Qaeda's advance signals women's decline

The mayhem in the countries we know as Iraq and Syria is growing, and the sweeping reforms by the surging Islamic fundamentalists are especially degrading to women. The minute rules include the following:

• Women are banned from sitting on chairs (as reported verbatim).
• All women are obligated to wear Islamic attire, such as the niqab and burqa (which cover the entire body and face); sweaters, jeans, and makeup of any kind are strictly banned.
• Female clothing is not to be displayed in shop windows, and only women are allowed to work there; if a man is found on the grounds the shop faces closure.
• Women are banned from seeing male gynecologists.

While others may dispute this "interpretation" of Islam, it has a long history flowing from both the actions of Muhammed and the traditions codified in Reliance of the Traveller. These religions prescriptions take concrete form in decrees such as this, showing that even the burkha cannot guarantee safety:

Sheikh Abd al-Rahman Ali al-Dala, aid to the chief mufti of Syria, who is loyal to President Bashar Assad, gave aninterview to Sham FM, a radio station that supports Assad. In the interview, Al-Dala said Syrian army soldiers have permission to "marry" unmarried and married women, sisters and mothers of the rebel fighters, without any official marriage agreement. He clarified that the rape is intended as a punishment for not reporting the rebels to the goverment forces.

In making his statement, the Sheikh placed his religious authority behind the rape of women and girls by soldiers, as part of their fight against the rebels. According to testimony taken from captured soldiers and captains before they were put to death by rebels, rape has been employed as a common practice by the army, well before Al-Dala's official religious support was stated.

While particularly attractive women are reportedly brought to senior commanders, rape victims include religious muslim women dressed in face veils and full-body cloaks (niqab). It must be noted that for their part, the rebels have publicized religious permission for their fighters to do as they please with women who fall into their hands. Rebels from Al Qaeda have also apparently have been forcing Syrian Druze communities to convert to Islam.

A study in November found that Syria was the fourth worst country in the Arab world in terms of women's rights. Egypt was found to be the worst.

With ubiquitous dangers for women, Raymond Ibrahim summarises the impact:

All this is a reminder that, while the Islamic jihad may lead to brief, spectacular forms of terror—massacres, beheadings, rapes, bombed churches—its aftermath and goal, purportedly the creation of a “perfect Islamic society,” is “spectacular” in its own way, especially for women, who become virtually invisible members of society.

Naturally, who would set foot in the street under these conditions, or allow a wife or daughter out of the home?

"A disgrace for the whole of Egypt"

Another horrific story emblematic of a widespread problem in Egypt. Mary Abdelmassih writes:

(AINA) -- Hundreds of Christian Egyptian girls having been abducted and forced to convert to Islam and marry Muslim men since the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. But the case of 14 year old Sarah has become symbolic, bringing to confrontation Muslims groups, whose members are implicated in the kidnappings, and the Coptic Church and human rights organizations.

On Sunday, September 30 Sarah Ishaq Abdelmalek, born on August 1, 1998 in the town of el-Dabaa, 130 kilometers from Mersa Matrouh, was on her way to school with her cousin Miriam, when they stopped at a bookshop. Miriam went ahead of Sarah to school, leaving Sarah behind.

Sarah never made it to school and no one has seen her since then. Her father was hesitant at first to contact the authorities for fear of harm to his family and his other children by the Salafi Muslims, who have a large presence and influence in Mersa Matrouh and Alexandria. He finally filed a report with the police on October 20, accusing 27 year old bookshop keeper and Salafist Mahmoud Abu Zied Abdel Gawwad, a married man and father of children, of abducting Sarah and marrying her against her will (AINA 11-2-2012).

"Sarah was smuggled across the borders to Libya with the help of the Interior Ministry," said Ebram Louis, founder of the Coptic non-governmental organization Association of Victims of Abduction and Enforced Disappearance (AVAED), which handles cases of abducted Coptic minors. Louis blamed the interior ministry for all the disappearances of Coptic minors, saying the ministry colludes with the Muslims.

The recently elected Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II said the kidnapping and forced conversion of Sarah is a "disgrace for the whole of Egypt." During a meeting with a delegation of the Journalists Syndicate Council at Anba Bishoy Monastery in Wadi Natrunon on November 12, he said "Can any family accept the kidnapping of their daughter and her forced conversion?"

The growing fears over kidnapping are leading many Christian families to pull their girls from school, which is a wider unfortunate effect of the policy. The fact that the authorities turn a blind eye to this means that Christians can never expect justice, girls can never feel safe, and that Islam allows a bizarre underpinning to marriage: namely that unions can be based on coercion and duplicity.

In a statement, Salafist Front made clear that they will not hand over Sarah under any circumstances. They claim that "When we take up the issue of the girl Sarah, our response is purely in terms of her human rights." Their spokesman, Khaled el Masry, said that once a girl has embraced Islam she has no Christian guardian and can therefore get married without consent.

Age is also a factor, since she is 14, but that's been discussed here and here. Please pray for Sarah, her family, and all those in captivity -- and spread the word.

Children of Abraham

What does that mean in today's Egypt?

"I was once asked: If I came to power, would I let Christian women remain unveiled? And I said: If they want to get raped on the streets, then they can," Ashry told Nahar TV last week.

Introducing a Saudi-style anti-vice police force to enforce Islamic law was "not a bad thing", he said, and added: "In order for Egypt to become fully Islamic, alcohol must be banned and all women must be covered."

Mursi has pledged not to impose Islamic codes of behaviour and to protect adherents of all religions equally. But he has also enacted a new constitution that has more Islamic references than its predecessor and that critics say fails to protect freedoms and the rights of Christians and other minorities.

Activists say although Mursi's camp is not keen on religious austerity, stronger condemnation is required at this sensitive time.

"As long as such actions are not seriously condemned by the officials in public speeches, it leaves room for radicals to freely act and impose things on people," said human rights activist Gamal Eid.

The image of Egypt's bearded leadership flanked by their fully veiled wives sends a powerful psychological message that may belie their official words, they say.

"Islamist officials need to take a clearer stand on their views about rights and freedoms and act strictly if those rights and freedoms were threatened."

He may be an obscure preacher, but he's found a big pulpit, and tempers are flaring. Obviously, with such contempt for women.

Again, denunciation by other Muslims would go a long way.

What's worse than death?

The Coptic Christians don't know, unless it's just more death. The "Arab Spring" has not helped their plight, only worsened it. Just this week, a draft constitution passed posing a greater obstacle to their well-being:

The draft constitution has an Islamist bent. It strengthens provisions that set Islamic law as the basis of legislation, gives clerics a still undefined role in ensuring laws meet Shariah and commits the state to enforce morals and "the traditional family" in broad language that rights activists fear could be used to severely limit many civil liberties.

Almost all liberal and secular members of the assembly had quit in the past weeks to protest what they called Islamists' hijacking of the drafting process. As a result, 85 members - almost all Islamists, with no Christians - participated in the session that began Thursday. The voting, which had not been expected for another two months, was hastily moved up to approve the draft before the Supreme Constitutional Court rules on Sunday on whether to dissolve the controversial assembly.

Racing against the clock, the members voted article by article for 16 hours on the draft's more than 230 articles, passing them all by large margins. The rush resulted in a process that at times appeared slap-dash. Assembly head Hossam al-Ghiryani doggedly pushed the members to finish.

When one article received 16 objections, he pointed out that would require postponing the vote 48 hours under the body's rules. "Now I'm taking the vote again," he said, and all but four members dropped their objections.

In the session's final hours, several new articles were hastily written up and swiftly voted on to resolve lingering issues. One significant change would reduce the size of the Supreme Constitutional Court by nearly a third to 11 judges, removing several younger, sharply anti-Brotherhood judges.

The voting ended just after sunrise Friday, to a round of applause from the members.

Women have no illusions about what shari'a law demands of them: second-class status, and an even lower rank for Christians.  The marginalisation of one of the largest religious communities signals more violence, which this excellent photo-essay depicts.

[Hanna Nabi Ayub, 31-year-old widow of Feriz Rezik Ayub, a victim of Maspero violence, and her daughter Carolyn. Hanna is eight months pregnant. Photograph by Rena Effendi.]

The only quibble I would offer is the constant reference to "sectarian strife" or "violence," which seems to indicate that the Muslims and Christians are harassing each other and share in the harms. If you notice, the violence is all in one direction: Muslims harassing (and killing) Christians. If there is the slightest indication of Christians chafing or fighting back, the retaliation is horrific: many killed, neighbourhoods torched, and businesses looted on the slightest suspicion (or rumour) of Christain wrong-doing. Technically, this is sectarian violence, but it doesn't really tell the story. Widespread persecution is what's happening, and the draft constitution only cements the attitude.

How the next chapter is written depends on what happens to those who protest it in the coming weeks. We must pray for calm to prevail.

FGM in Egypt

A graphic account:

When Mohamed was 12, nearly all parents from the quarter where she lived brought their daughters of the same age to a hair dresser. "We didn't know why," she says, "but we were all very excited, as each girl had just been given a new, white dress."

In celebration of the day, the girls' hands had been painted with henna. They were ever so proud. But then came the moment of shock: "Suddenly this man, who was really a stranger to us, started to undress us," she recalls. "Then he got out his razor blade." All the girls underwent the procedure which mutilated them for life - without narcotics and without even minimal hygene standards.

Mohamed bled for three days. When it didn't stop, her father went to the local baker for some ashes to cover up the wound. But the dirt only made everything worse. "I still remember asking myself how my family could do this to me," Mohamed says, tears clouding her eyes. Another girl from her neighbourhood, she adds, even died after the procedure.

There are those who argue that FGM has nothing to do with Islam, that it is a cultural construct that has lived side-by-side with the religion. But here we have the rise of traditional Islam in Egypt that seeks to set aside a 2008 law banning the practice (a ban that was honoured out of fear, rather than conviction).

The 47-year-old woman explains:

During the Mubarak regime people used to fear punishment, but these days the medical practitioners in her quarter don't even bother to hide their actions any more: "During the day, they circumcise little boys, and the girls they do at night for twice the money," Mohamed says angrily. "Everybody knows this."

Umm Mohamed openly addresses what for most Egyptian woman is a taboo: Most victims live in chronic pain and have problems with their sexuality, and they also face serious health problems both during pregnancy and giving birth.

Omayma Idris, a Cairo-based gynaecologist, says that more than 90 percent of all married Egyptians today are thought to have undergone mutilation. After the prohibition, she says, one could see a decline, "but since the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists are in power in Egypt, the numbers are on the rise again; they encourage families to do it again."

Although she notes that the practice is not common in Saudi Arabia, many Islamic countries cannot be bothered to step in and stop the practice, knowing that Muhammed commented 1400 years ago that it was good "for the circumcised parts to touch one another" (meaning that men and women should both be cut--and that gave the greatest pleasure to the man, which is paramount).

The new fundamentalism, spear-headed by the Muslim Brotherhood, specifically calls for the ban to be lifted, and is even providing buses to operate as "clinics," which travel about offering free mutilation.

Poor. Dear. Girls.

Compare and contrast

John Paul II wrote of the beauty of the feminine vocation, which is rooted in Christian anthropology:

Let us enter into the setting of the biblical "beginning." In it the revealed truth concerning man as "the image and likeness" of God constitutes the immutable basis of all Christian anthropology."God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Gen 1:27). This concise passage contains the fundamental anthropological truths: man is the highpoint of the whole order of creation in the visible world; the human race, which takes its origin from the calling into existence of man and woman, crowns the whole work of creation; both man and woman are human beings to an equal degree, both are created in God's image. This image and likeness of God, which is essential for the human being, is passed on by the man and woman, as spouses and parents, to their descendants: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it" (Gen 1: 28). The Creator entrusts dominion over the earth to the human race, to all persons, to all men and women, who derive their dignity and vocation from the common "beginning" (Mulieris Dignitatem, 6).

Islam, however, has a different view, which begins with the denial of the fatherhood of God, and is followed by the belief that men and women are not equal:

A recent talk show on the Egyptian station Al Hafiz partially explains why it is that Islam’s clerics are staunchly against discussing Christian or biblical teachings in Egyptian schoolrooms—even as the teaching of the Quran is mandatory, for both Muslim and Christian students.

Discussing Christianity’s teachings concerning women, one of the guests, a sheikh dressed in traditional cleric garb, said they “truly stab the rulings of Islam.” To exemplify, he read from a text that said “the Christian religion does not differentiate between women and men, but it confirms their perfect equality: it gives them an equal share in inheritance, it bans divorce, and it bans polygamy.”

“Now,” said the sheikh, “if my son hears such things while he’s in school, he’ll come home and say to me, ‘Father why do you have many wives? You are unjust—unlike Christianity which is full of justice’!”

He went on to say that such teachings completely contradict “the religion of the prophet,” who of course had many wives—more than the Quran’s prescribed four—made divorce a simple matter for men, and decreed that females only inherit half of what males inherit.

The cleric complained that, based on such Christian teachings, Muslim men who try to exercise their Islamic rights—including polygamy, double-inheritance, and easy divorce (recent examples include via text-messaging)—become “criminals, and the religion [Islam] that taught them such things taught them crimes.”

The cleric concluded by saying it is impermissible “to produce texts that contradict the teachings of the Quran, or the practices we’ve been raising our children on for a million years.”

[While "a million years" may sound like an exaggeration, it is not to Muslims, who believe that everyone from Adam and Eve and afterwards were faithful Muslims. I don't know how long ago they believe man was first created, but although Muhammed was the most perfect Muslim and their revered prophet, he was not the first to live according to Qur'anic principles. According to Muslims, all Old Testament prophets were pious Muslims, as well as John the Baptist and Jesus.]

But back to the initial point, all Muslims are slaves of Allah (not sons and daughters) and the strict hierarchy among persons includes the precedence of men over women, not to mention Muslims over non-believers. Equality doesn't enter into it--only obedience and fidelity to the example of Muhammed.

No other comparative teachings could have a greater impact on the lives of women. Polygamy and the laws related to divorce--which the cleric reminds is are non-negotiable--reveal the lack of dignity enjoyed by Muslim women, for if they cannot find refuge in lasting, exclusive marriages, how can they ever find security?

"One day later..."

What undermines the integrity of Muslims--police, imams, and faithful--is that none of them decry the absurdity of "converting" and disappearing. Even if the conversion were authentic, a religion that undemines family ties, and allows marriage within 24hrs of the "change of heart" cannot garner our respect. Furthermore, the fact that the assault (the punch) in the police station didn't register any response by the authorities who witnessed it clearly reveals the lack of respect for women under Islam.

This is one small anecdote amidst a sea of abductions. It seems doubtful that the West will demand an accounting from Egypt's President Morsi--or any other Middle Eastern officials who let such actions continue without scrutiny. Multiculturalists and feminists, also, are showing their disdain for women when they remain silent.