Pretty Little Thing

I received an email about NYT coverage of female circumcision (FC) in Indonesia. I heard this practice before. But I heard this from small talks with my neighbours or friends in Indonesia. It might have been written in media but unfortunately this news may have been out of my knowledge.

After I read the whole story from NYT, curiosity pushed in and dragged me into google search engine and found several reports on female circumcision in Indonesia. It’s bewildering me to read the story of this cutting-off female genital practice and the reasons why there is a need to take a bit of female organ. As we may have known, female circumcision can be found in African countries, Malaysia and Indonesia.

With the growing awareness of human rights and women’s issues, female circumcision is now becoming a huge concern and is able to draw attention from many parts of society and responded to the matter differently. As alarming as it appears, the global health organisation, WHO and UNICEF put female genital mutilation into their campaign programmes. Likewise, foreign aid organisations such USAID supported topic-related researches in the countries where this practice take place. Academics also show their interests in this discourse and the topic is soon becoming the main theme in the journals of various disciplines.

From what I researched so far, female circumcision in Indonesia fits into type IV within WHO categorisation as it shows below:

Unclassified, which includes: pricking, piercing or incising of the clitoris and/or labia; stretching of the clitoris and/or labia; cauterization by burning of the clitoris and the surrounding tissue; scraping of tissue surrounding the vaginal orifice ('angurya' cuts) or cutting of the vagina ('gishiri cuts'); introduction of corrosive substances or herbs into the vagina to cause bleeding or for the purposes of tightening or narrowing it; and any other procedure that falls under the definition of FGM given above.

A research by Population Council suggests that FC in Indonesia falls into type IV and it is done for religious and traditional belief purposes. Their work, which was aided by USAID and gained support from the minister of health and academics, is very interesting. Its conclusion is contesting the popular belief, which may be suggesting the pivotal role of the Islam doctrines in the practice, arguing that tradition is the rationale behind this practice.

“Parents and religious leaders alike were found to have no significant knowledge on the formal links between FC and Islam. We can conclude that the practice of FC in Indonesia is essentially a tradition which has been passed from one generation to the next with little questioning about its meaning or its basis in Islamic history or law. Many adhere to, and pass down, this tradition simply because elders and grandparents wish to preserve this practice in the younger generations".

If it is generally said that ‘cutting-off’ female clitoris is part of religious duty. However, people will differ in their opinions about female circumcision and would be more likely to broadly interpret the Islamic doctrines that rule this matter.

Similarly, clerics could disagree amongst themselves as to whether FC is obligatory or commendable. Yet, the more likely scenario is that nodding gesture is given when these clerics are asked if female circumcision is harmless. The practices itself differ from one another. Some will involve piercing or incising of the clitoris and some will do it symbolically such as rubbing turmeric on to it.

It is also important to note that this practice typically occurs in the village rather than in the cities. In this respect, it is, therefore, very inviting to take this discussion into modern versus traditional framework. Yet, I don’t subscribe this sort of theorisation as it only allows me to see this in very patronising way. Even if the pace of modernisation quickened in the villages, particularly in the field of medicine and health, it does not necessarily lead to shifting cultural values and practices. As the reports strikingly found, the practices are medicalised, involving more health care practitioners with modern knowledge. Medicalisation presupposes that such practice is more justifiable if it is done by more knowledge of hygienic standards.

Having read this, we might think that this practice is typically non-western tradition. In fact, female genital mutilation occurred during 19th century. According to an archivist and historian, Lesley Hall, an English doctor Isaac Baker Brown carried out ‘unknown number of clitoridectomies’ in order to cure a prevalent masturbation. In modern days America, a surgery is conducted on girls who have large clitoris. The reason behind this operation is to ‘normalise’ the gender. Large clitoris could be similar to penis and having it reduced means that the girls’ genitals are appropriated with their gender.

However dissimilar in its forms, female circumcision in Indonesia and African countries as well as clitoropasty in the US suggest that women’s bodies are a site of battles for society and its culture upon which dominant values can be imposed.