Disentangling culture from a religion

The failings of Islamic scholars;

• In Indonesia, according to a 2003 study by the Population Council, an international research group, 96 percent of families surveyed reported that their daughters had undergone some form of circumcision by the time they reached 14.

• “One, it will stabilize her libido,” he said through an interpreter. “Two, it will make a woman look more beautiful in the eyes of her husband. And three, it will balance her psychology.”

• According to the Population Council study, many Indonesians view circumcision for boys and girls as a religious duty.

• Worldwide, female genital cutting affects up to 140 million women and girls in varying degrees of severity,

• The most common form of female genital cutting, representing about 80 percent of cases around the world, includes the excision of the clitoris and the labia minora. A more extreme version of the practice, known as Pharaonic circumcision or infibulation, accounts for 15 percent of cases globally and involves the removal of all external genitalia and a stitching up of the vaginal opening