Female circumcision retained here for cultural identity

By Ati Nurbaiti

JAKARTA (JP): A bank employee just gave birth earlier this month to her third child, a girl, at the elite Pondok Indah Hospital in South Jakarta.

Back at home in Ciputat, Tangerang, a maid was sent to the local dukun anak, or midwife, to have the placenta, which is believed to be the newborn's sibling, for traditional cleansing and burial.

As Moslems, the bank employee and her husband also had the baby circumcised -- but not by the midwife, whose hygienic practices are considered inferior to that of the hospital.

However the midwife, known as Mamih, says her services are more thorough than the widespread practice of symbolic circumcision.

"Midwives or nurses at hospitals just slightly pierce the `peanut' to let out some blood," she says, referring to the clitoris.

"I used to do that but then I thought to myself that in line with Islam, the haram (forbidden) part should also be removed, to ensure cleanness in performing prayers."

She is convinced that circumcision, which is compulsory for boys, should also be required for girls.

"So I massage the (clitoris) until the tip (the head of the clitoris, or the frenulum) comes out and I snip it off with scissors," Mamih explained.

She says this action releases unclean substances.

"Then I apply Betadine or obat merah (Merchurochrome) with a cotton ball, and the baby is all right in a few days."

She mainly serves surrounding neighbors who prefer her "package" of services to that of much more expensive clinics.

The rites -- the shaving of hair, the formal naming of the child, the piercing of both ears and the circumcision -- are done when the female infant is 40 days old.

The age of girls subject to physical or symbolic excision varies from region to region.

Contemporary parents of newborns in cities like Jakarta request both ear piercing and excision at hospitals or clinics before they take the barely one-week-old baby home, while others stick to tradition, which subject girls of four to 10 years of age to the custom.

Unlike Mamih, not everybody is sure why girls have to be circumcised, except that it is believed to be a requirement of Islam.

But sociologists and experts on Islam say this is not true.

"Nothing in Islam -- the Holy Koran, the Prophet's sayings, or the fiqih Islamic law, says that circumcision is necessary for girls," said Lily Munir, head of the research and development section of the large Muslimat Nahdhatul Ulama, an organization with a strong base in Central Java.

Sociologist Wardah Hafidz refers to the Islamic term taqlid, or obedience without questioning, in defining the actions of those who believe clitoridectomy is a requirement for Moslems.

Lies Marcus, a graduate of the Islamic IAIN college who studies women in Islam, suggests the cause of the misperception that the command for circumcision applies to females.

"The Arabic word kum means the singular "you" for males and is also the plural of "you" for both males and females. So the tradition we have of circumcising girls, physically or symbolically, is supported by the belief that the command for circumcision is also targeted at females."

16th century

A 1979 study done for the research center for history and culture in Yogyakarta, Central Java, confirms that clitoridectomy, locally called tetesan, like male circumcision, was practiced before Islam was introduced into Java in the 16th century. It was later supported by religious interpretations of circumcision requirements.

Although it is essentially an initiation rite, "the tetesan does not carry the heavy significance of initiation as is the case with the circumcision of male children, and is therefore not celebrated as festively as for boys... the most important initiation step for females is marriage," writes Jumeiri Siti Rumidjah.

Mrs. Andy, who grew up in Yogyakarta, also says the custom is not limited to Moslem families.

"Our Christian neighbors also did it to the girls, to prevent them from being binal (overtly sexual) which could happen if theirs (clitoris) were too long," said Mrs. Andy, echoing the traditional explanation for the custom in West Java.

She said she had protested to her mother because she had not been circumcised. He mother explained that circumcision for little girls is optional, at least in her community, and at four years old, Mrs. Andy had refused to have it done.

"Actually, I now realize I would have liked to have been dressed up in wedding dresses like my friends," she said.

Tetesan is often done on the night before the wedding.

In Yogyakarta alone the custom differs.

Sita, who grew up in a kampong there, says the practice in her community was not the same as that in the palace (keraton).

"Elders only pierced a turmeric root which was then placed on the girls' clitoris," she said.

Wardah notes that the custom is more common in hinterland areas where Islam interconnects more with the local customs, such as the syncretism of the Hindu and Javanese traditions in Yogyakarta.

Arni (not her real name), a 34-year-old migrant from Krawang, West Java, which is located along the island's north coast, says the custom is widespread in her area.

She echoed similar perceptions that it is necessary in Islam.

However, unlike in Ciamis and other areas, a larger part of the clitoris is removed, or at least this was so at the time of her childhood.

"Only some of it (frenulum) is left," she said, and added that her younger sister's clitoris was only pricked to let blood, indicating the changing times.

Arni says with a laugh that she quite enjoys intercourse but is not sure whether the circumcision has anything to do with it.

"My husband doesn't know, but he works real hard, maybe because it is so small."

Sexologists G. Paat and Naek L. Tobing confirm that such circumcision "makes no difference" to women and their sexual pleasure.

"It is known now that the entrance to the vagina can also be a source of intensive stimulation," Dr. Paat said.

Appeal

The experts all agreed that there is little possibility that the extreme forms of female genital mutilation found in Africa are carried out here.

The World Health Organization recently appealed that these practices, which have led to health problems from urinary difficulties to infertility, as well as "psychological trauma," be stopped.

A new WHO report cites the most extreme form of female circumcision is infibulation -- the removal of the clitoris and labia minor, and the stitching together of both sides of the vulva to leave only a small opening.

The WHO stressed that the existing forms of female excision are only "culturally transmitted" practices, which no religion requires.

"... we must aim... to convince people, including women, that they can give up a specific practice without giving up meaningful aspects of their own cultures," said WHO director Hiroshi Nakajima as quoted by AFP in a recent report.

It is interesting, Wardah noted, that the practice is found in Islamic countries such as Pakistan, Sudan and other parts of South Asia and Africa.

Lies says her observation of female excision has led her to conclude that it is one custom that Islam has not been able to abolish.

She also said that the traditional view of the need to keep women from being overtly sexual, is not the same as the aim of excision, such as is done in Africa, to make women unable to enjoy intercourse.

Kartono Mohammad, a noted medical doctor and chairman of the Association of Indonesian Doctors (IDI), rules out any assumption that the practice is positive for women's health. Improved hygiene and health is cited as one of the reasons circumcisions is done in the case of males.

The custom of female circumcision is also found among both the local population and migrant ethnic groups in Aceh and other parts of Sumatra and Ujungpandang (formerly Makasar), South Sulawesi.

"I come from a modernist Moslem background, but all my friends in Ciamis, West Java, were circumcised when they were in elementary school," said Lies, adding that she has found recent practices among families of Makasar ethnic background in Jakarta and Bogor.

The custom is called gusaran in Ciamis and is not related to Islam.

But similar to Mamih's practice, it also refers to the removal of the frenulum, locally called the kokotor (dirty part) "to ensure that girls are not gatelan or too sexually-oriented."

Another sociologist, Mely G. Tan, notes that the custom stems from patriarchal values, which assert that women are not entitled to sexual pleasure.

"It is only recently that women have come to know that they also have a right to orgasm," she said.

However, given the diversity of ethnic groups here, Wardah cautions against generalizing.

She does not reject the possibility that there may be circumcision customs which aim for female sexual pleasure.

"This (female circumcision) is a dark area -- there seems there is no problem here because the practice is mostly quite refined, but if there were it would be a taboo for us, particularly women, to talk openly about sex," Wardah said.

Lies is also careful in discussing the reason behind the different practices, and only says that the practice among Makasar families here is done in the name of Islam.

"The baby girls' genitals (in Makasar families) are rubbed with a stone set into a gold ring," she said.

Identity

Besides misperceptions regarding religion and health, it appears that the practice is retained strongly for one reason -- to strengthen ethnic cultural identity.

"This is particularly true for migrants of the upper class," Lies said.

Wardah says further that retaining one's cultural identity is a mental mechanism to counter other influences, especially when one is far from the location of his or her cultural roots, unless the person "is happy wherever he or she is."

Mely Tan says that given cultural needs, symbolic excision is "no problem."

However, Wardah says if findings prove that the assumption of female circumcision here is to control sexuality, "we should be consistent and remove these practices," although they are mostly symbolic.

"Denying a person's sexuality is removing her natural trait," she said.