(Recommended Artist: Pineapple Thief – Don’t Hate Me)

Female circumcision, or female genital mutilation / modification (FGM), is an emotional topic. I remember, in school, being shown a video of young girls undergoing the practice. It was presented as a barbaric practice that Muslims — all Muslims, I thought at the time — do, as something that should most certainly be abolished for the same reasons we ban rape and slavery.

But, as usual, when ethics and emotions intersect, the arguments are low in quality and ignorance runs high; people speak of that which they do not understand. It is very tempting to say that FGM is a most terrible practice and should most certainly be banned from all countries, that religion or tradition is no excuse for such inhumanity, but things are more complex than this, and I make it my purpose here to clarify the issue to most.

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