Female circumcision retained here for cultural identity
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.