The Politics of Female Circumcision in Egypt by Maria Frederika Malmström

Author:Maria Frederika Malmström [Malmström, Maria Frederika]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784531577
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: 2016-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

Passionate wives and mothers

This chapter has presented a number of women's narrated experiences of sexuality and sexual desire in relation to discourses of sexuality. These women reflect on and reconsider personal sexual experiences and expectations in the light of new ideals.

A pervasive cultural notion that has been explored in this chapter is that women are born with two kinds of sexual desire, one inner and one outer. The latter is seen as superfluous and may be removed without destroying the sexuality of an adult, married woman. Morally correct sexual desire is learnt in order both to make motherhood possible and to create proper Muslim womanhood. The forbidden form of sexual desire is painfully removed in a way that is remembered. As we have seen, female circumcision embodies society's moral values and norms of controlled female sexuality that sanction the inner lust of the adult Egyptian married woman. Female sexual desire must be controlled by female circumcision in order to keep it in balance with men's weaker sexuality.

Local discourse contains a double gender perception. Women are considered to be sexually strong and uncontrollable while men are weak and controlled by women. Women also speak of their superior ability to tolerate suffering and their greater responsibility for the household and family members. However, men are normatively also considered to be powerful and they must therefore protect women, who are weak and coquettish. This double gender perception is also found elsewhere in the region (Evers Rosander 1987). Egyptian women actively control their own sexuality and strive to produce culturally expected sexual lust so that they can control their own emotions. Furthermore, a woman is not considered complete until she has given birth to her first child (ideally a son). In theory, she cannot marry or become a mother if she has not been circumcised, since an uncircumcised woman cannot control her sexual desire. Inner sexual desire is therefore linked to morality, reproduction and motherhood.

One of many practices that contribute to the on-going constitution of a fertile woman among my interlocutors was when women toss their daughters’ excised body parts into the Nile to help the girls grow and flourish. The blending of these tissues with the pure, nourishing water of the Nile enhances fertility. The girls will attain maturity just as the fruits and vegetables of baladî food reach ripeness. The fertility of soil and water is linked to female fertility. When women sacrifice their own body parts, the flowing Nile gives them both reproductive power and perfect female bodies. The Nile is also a trope for Islamic ritual ablutions. It is important in the formation of Muslim identity and also connects female circumcision to Islam. After circumcision, the girl feels her own excised body parts on her left arm for seven days. She also experiences the healing of her wound and this teaches her about womanhood. The Nile combines with the national soil to create authentic, pure baladî food and all of this is associated with fertility, motherhood, and national identity.

The Egyptian

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