Shariah’s impact on women’s bodies does not stop at dress codes, guardianship, or sexual “duties.” In many Muslim societies, it literally cuts into the flesh of girls in the name of “purity.” The practice commonly called female genital mutilation (FGM) is often wrapped in religious language and presented as “female circumcision,” a blessed act that allegedly cleanses a girl, tames her desires, and prepares her for marriage.

Muslim apologists sometimes insist that FGM is purely cultural and has nothing to do with Islam. They point out, correctly, that the Quran nowhere commands it explicitly. But that is only half the story. A body of hadith and juristic opinion has given the practice religious credibility for centuries. In many communities, imams support it, scholars defend it, and families justify it as obedience to the Sunnah. The result is a deeply entrenched system where countless girls in places like Egypt, Sudan, and Indonesia are cut in the name of Allah.

From a biblical perspective, mutilating a child’s body under the guise of religion is a direct assault on Jehovah’s handiwork. The Creator formed male and female in His image. He did not design their bodies as raw material for ritual damage. Christ Himself welcomed children, blessed them, and warned that those who cause them to stumble face severe judgment. A system that wounds girls physically and emotionally, then calls it “purification,” stands condemned by the God who made them.

Hadiths Endorsing Female “Circumcision”

To understand why FGM has such a powerful religious standing in many Muslim communities, we have to look at the hadith tradition. While the Quran is silent on the practice, several narrations mention female “circumcision” (khitan for boys, khafd or khitan al-mar’ah for girls) and present it in a positive light.

One often-quoted hadith describes a woman in Medina who performed circumcisions on girls. Muhammad is reported to have addressed her with instructions: he tells her not to cut severely, but to “only touch lightly,” because this is more pleasing for the woman and beloved by the husband. Even when Muslim scholars debate the exact grading of this narration, its basic message is clear: the Prophet does not forbid the practice. He regulates it. Instead of saying, “Do not deal with girls at all,” he says, in effect, “Do it in a moderate way.”

Other narrations link circumcision to fitrah, the “natural disposition” of Islam. Some hadith claim that five things belong to this fitrah: circumcision, trimming the mustache, cutting the nails, plucking the armpit hair, and shaving the pubic region. Many jurists have argued that circumcision here applies primarily to males, but in cultures already practicing cutting of girls, these narrations are taken as religious endorsement for both sexes.

Classical scholars across the madhhabs—legal schools—have taken various positions. Some classify female cutting as obligatory (wajib), others as recommended (mandub), and others as merely permissible (mubah). Very few, historically, have condemned it outright as a forbidden act. Instead, they argue over degree and method. Manuals of fiqh discuss how much tissue may be removed and warn against “excess,” but they do not declare that girls should be left intact.

When religious authorities teach that an action is part of the fitrah or a recommended Sunnah, ordinary believers are inclined to obey. Parents seeking to raise “good Muslim daughters” hear that the Messenger spoke approvingly to the female circumciser and that early Muslims practiced this act. They conclude that cutting a girl is not merely cultural but an act of piety. Even if the state discourages it, they may still pursue it in private, convinced that they are following the Prophet more closely than secularized elites.

From a Christian standpoint, this reveals the danger of grounding morality in fallible human traditions rather than in the unchanging character of Jehovah. The Bible never suggests that mutilating a girl’s genitals is part of holiness. The sign of the new covenant is not circumcision of the flesh but faith in the heart. Christ does not require girls to shed blood to be accepted; He shed His own blood for them. The idea that hadith could sanctify cutting girls, even “lightly,” shows how far Shariah can drift from the Creator’s intent.

Mass Prevalence in Egypt, Sudan, and Indonesia

Because hadith and juristic opinion have given FGM religious prestige, the practice has flourished especially in Muslim-majority regions where religious leaders affirm it. While not every Muslim society practices FGM, some of the highest prevalence rates on earth are found in countries with deeply entrenched Shariah norms and strong clerical support.

Egypt stands as a grim example. For decades, surveys have shown that the vast majority of women aged 15–49 have undergone some form of genital cutting. The procedure is often performed in childhood or early adolescence. Families justify it using religious language: they call it tahara (purification), say it reduces zina (sexual immorality), and sometimes claim that an uncircumcised girl is unclean and unmarriageable. Imams in many communities preach in favor of it or at least refuse to condemn it. Even as civil laws have been passed against FGM, enforcement has been weak, and the habit continues in secret.

Sudan likewise carries a heavy burden of FGM. In some regions, nearly all women undergo severe forms of cutting, including procedures that not only remove sensitive tissue but also stitch or seal the area, leaving only a small opening. Girls are subjected to these acts by older women, midwives, or traditional practitioners, with parents and relatives viewing the ordeal as a necessary passage into respectable womanhood. Once again, Islamic language surrounds the event. Girls are told they are becoming pure, that they will be better Muslims, and that Allah will be pleased.

In Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, female “circumcision” has also been widespread. Though often less extreme than in parts of Africa, it still involves cutting or pricking of the genitals, sometimes in hospitals or clinics and sometimes in ceremonies at home. Religious boards and local clerics have issued fatwas declaring it part of the Sunnah, linking it directly to the Prophet’s example and to the concept of fitrah. Parents are told that even a symbolic cut is superior to leaving a girl untouched.

These three countries illustrate a wider pattern. Where FGM coexists with Islam, religious justifications are almost always present. Even when local customs predate Islam, Shariah has embraced and reinforced them rather than cleansing them. Instead of the Gospel’s power to confront and correct harmful traditions, Islam’s legal and hadith structure has often baptized those traditions and made them harder to challenge.

From Jehovah’s perspective, prevalence does not equal acceptability. The fact that millions of girls are cut every year does not make the practice less evil. It simply highlights how widespread human rebellion against His design can be. The prophets of Israel often had to address sins that had become “normal,” confronting practices like child sacrifice and ritual prostitution that many in society viewed as ordinary. Likewise, Christians today must be willing to stand against FGM even when it is deeply woven into religiously clothed custom.

Severe Health Damage and Lifelong Trauma

Female genital mutilation is often discussed in abstract terms—“procedure,” “custom,” “practice.” But at ground level, it is a screaming child held down by adults while a blade cuts into some of the most sensitive flesh God ever created. It is blood, shock, and terror. Even when performed in clinics under anesthesia, it still involves the deliberate destruction of healthy tissue without medical benefit.

Physically, the consequences can be severe and lifelong. Immediately after cutting, girls may suffer intense pain, heavy bleeding, infection, and problems urinating. When procedures involve stitching or sealing, the wound can take weeks or months to heal, and complications during that time are common. In environments with limited medical care, some girls die from blood loss or infection, their deaths hidden beneath silence and shame.

Long-term, FGM can cause chronic pain, scarring, cysts, and difficulties in menstruation. Intercourse is often painful, especially when the opening has been narrowed. Women may suffer frequent urinary tract infections and have difficulty with childbirth, including obstructed labor, tearing, and increased risk of stillbirth. Many spend their married lives associating intimacy with fear and pain, not with joy or tenderness.

Psychologically, the trauma can be just as deep. Girls often undergo FGM without explanation or consent. They are told they are going to a celebration, taken to a room full of women, and suddenly pinned down. The people they trusted—mothers, grandmothers, aunts—become the ones who hold them still for the cut. This betrayal can fracture trust for life. Nightmares, flashbacks, and anxiety are common.

As they grow older, many women feel a mixture of grief and confusion. They may hear about the bodies of women elsewhere and realize that something natural was taken from them. Yet in their own communities, they are told repeatedly that what happened was good and necessary. To speak of harm is to risk being labeled ungrateful or disrespectful to tradition. The result is often a deep inner conflict: pain and loss on one side, guilt and pressure to accept it on the other.

From a biblical standpoint, this suffering is not a neutral byproduct of an unfortunate custom. It is injustice. Jehovah condemns those who harm the vulnerable, especially children. He hears their cries. The Lord Jesus, who welcomed children and rebuked those who would hinder them, does not look at a sobbing, bleeding girl and say, “This is purification.” He sees a victim. He sees a neighbor wounded by those who should have protected her.

Shariah’s defenders sometimes argue that if cutting is done “properly”—a small snip, a minor removal—then the harm is minimal. This kind of reasoning reveals how hardened the conscience can become. If someone proposed cutting off the tip of a boy’s finger “lightly,” merely to mark him as part of a community, most people would recoil. Yet because the cut is to a girl’s genitals, and because religious texts have given cover, many shrug. Jehovah does not. Every needless wound matters to Him.

Cultural Embedding Despite Quranic Silence

One of the most revealing aspects of FGM in Islamic contexts is how deeply it has taken root despite the Quran’s silence. In theory, Muslims claim that the Quran is the ultimate authority. In practice, hadith, juristic tradition, and cultural momentum often carry more weight.

Because the Quran does not command or forbid FGM, some Muslims assume the practice must be purely cultural and easy to reform. Yet in communities where it is entrenched, simply pointing to Quranic silence does little. People respond, “Our scholars have always recommended it,” or “The Prophet approved it,” or “Our grandmothers did this; who are we to stop?” The absence of a direct Quranic command becomes irrelevant because the web of hadith and social norms is strong enough on its own.

Imams who might personally doubt the practice often hesitate to condemn it openly. They fear backlash from older generations, accusations of betraying tradition, or charges of importing Western ideas. Some adopt a “middle way,” saying that extreme forms of cutting are forbidden but a “mild” form is permissible or recommended. This compromise leaves the door wide open for continued harm. Families hear the word “recommended” and interpret it as religious duty.

Governments that try to outlaw FGM face similar barriers. Laws on paper cannot override religious and cultural authority overnight. In many villages, enforcement is weak or nonexistent. Cutting moves underground, performed in secret by traditional midwives or even by medical professionals willing to ignore the law for a fee. Parents whisper that secular authorities may say what they like, but real Muslims know that circumcision is part of the Sunnah.

This dynamic shows how powerful human traditions can be when they are intertwined with perceived religious obligation. Jesus confronted the religious leaders of His day for binding heavy burdens on people’s shoulders in the name of tradition. He exposed the way they used human customs to override the commands of God. In a similar way, Shariah and culture work together in FGM to create a burden that girls must bear, even though nothing in the true Word of God requires it.

For Christians, this should be a sobering reminder that culture cannot be our guide. Even long-standing “religious” customs must be examined in the light of Scripture. If they contradict the character and commands of Jehovah, they must be rejected, no matter how deeply rooted they are. The Gospel does not baptize every tradition; it judges them.

Defenders Claiming It Reduces Female Desire

Perhaps the most revealing justification offered for FGM is the claim that it reduces female sexual desire and therefore protects against immorality. In this argument, a girl’s natural God-given drives are treated as dangerous and in need of surgical restraint. Religious defenders argue that by cutting a girl, they are saving her from temptation, safeguarding the family’s honor, and making her a more faithful wife.

This reasoning flows from a broader Shariah view of women as potential sources of fitnah, temptation. Many Islamic texts portray women’s bodies as sites of chaos that must be covered, controlled, and, in this case, even cut. When defenders of FGM speak, they often say bluntly that uncut girls will be more inclined to indulge in zina. They argue that a girl whose pleasure has been reduced will be less likely to stray from her husband.

Some hadith and juristic writings echo this attitude. They suggest that a “moderate” circumcision makes a woman more “modest” and lowers her desires without taking them away entirely. Men are reassured that their wives will still be capable of intercourse but less passionate, less likely to seek satisfaction outside the bounds of marriage. In this way, FGM is sold as a form of moral insurance—an invasive hedge against future sin.

From a Christian worldview, this logic is utterly corrupt. The problem of lust and sexual sin does not reside in the amount of nerve tissue a woman possesses. It resides in the human heart. Jesus taught that adultery begins in the thoughts and desires of the inner person, not in the shape of the body. Cutting girls is no more effective at creating holiness than cutting off a thief’s hand is at creating honesty. At best, such measures shift behavior; they do not regenerate the heart.

Moreover, the entire premise treats women as objects whose bodies exist primarily for male control. Rather than calling men to self-discipline, faithfulness, and respect, the system places the burden on girls to be physically altered so that men will not be tempted. It blames the potential victim for the possible future sin of the potential perpetrator. This is the same twisted logic that blames immodesty for rape: it treats men as helpless slaves of desire and women as responsible for managing that desire by sacrificing their own well-being.

Jehovah’s way is different. He commands all people—men and women—to flee sexual immorality, to control their bodies in holiness and honor, and to present themselves as living sacrifices to Him. He does not authorize us to mutilate children to reduce their capacity for pleasure. He calls us to transformation of the heart by His Spirit through His Word.

For the many Muslims who feel uneasy about FGM yet have been told that it is necessary to restrain desire, this contrast is crucial. The Gospel says that Jesus has the power to cleanse the deepest part of us, to forgive sin and change desires from the inside out. Shariah, in this area, confesses its own impotence: instead of offering heart renewal, it offers the blade.

FGM, defended as “purification” and “protection,” is in reality a ritual of fear. It is the fear of men who do not trust women, the fear of families obsessed with honor, and the fear of a religious system that has no true cure for sin. Only when people turn from that fear to Jehovah, who casts out fear with perfect love, will they be able to see that a girl’s body is not an enemy to be subdued but a good gift to be protected.

Until then, countless girls will continue to be led into rooms where relatives hold them down and someone with a blade tells them that pain is piety. And countless parents will continue to believe they are doing God’s will. The task of Christians is to expose this lie, to offer the healing truth of Christ, and to stand with those who refuse to let the bodies of their daughters be sacrificed on the altar of a false “purification.”

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