The Unkindest Cut

By Sangeeth Sebastian

So the Isis is not going to mutilate its women (they only want them to hide behind veils). But why were we quick to believe that a band of ragtag extremist’s, busy carving a caliphate in the Arabian dessert, was capable of doing something like that?

A leading national daily even carried a front page flyer confidently describing the magnitude of horror that has befallen millions of Iraqi women who now have to undergo genital mutilation, despite reports of scepticism raised in the social media about the veracity of the news. (Since extremist organisations are not known for their image building ways, the possibility of receiving a defamatory suit for publishing a false report is minimal.) This article is not a brief for the Isis.

But what prompts us to make such snap judgements when it comes to Islam? Thanks to some of our regional neighbours, we know for a fact that women and their desires have a rotten time under the extremists. So by extrapolation it is easy to conclude that their plight can only be the same, if not worse, be it in Afghanistan or Arabia, after all the idea behind genital mutilation is to reduce a woman’s libido.

For the record, Islam is not an anti-sex religion like Christianity. There is nothing un-Islamic about sexuality for Muslims. Matters of the flesh are not only compatible with Islam but essential elements of faith.

“The exercise of sexuality was a prayer, a gift of oneself, an act of charity,” writes Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, a Tunisian sociologist best known for his 1975 work Sexuality in Islam.

“To rediscover the meaning of sexuality is to rediscover the meaning of God, and conversely,” he adds.

Even prophet Muhammad extols the pleasures of sex, hinting at the importance of foreplay in sexual gratification. “Let none of you come upon his wife like an animal, and let there be an emissary (the kiss and words) between them,” the prophet is believed to have said.

The 10th century Encyclopaedia of Pleasure written by Iraqi author Ali ibn Nasr al-Katib is known to rival the Kamasutra in terms of its breath and depth on the subject. Written in a hilarious tone, the work covers almost all conceivable forms of sexual acts, save internet porn, across its 43 chapters. Rather than curb female libido, the work urges its readers on how to fulfil it.

In fact, the emphasis of Islam on sensuality was so unabashed that medieval Christians derided the new faith as “devils religion” and as a cunning ploy to win new converts and undermine the influence of Christianity, known for its dim view on everything below the belt.

Sexual open-mindedness, tolerance and innovation was a part and parcel of the intellectual blossoming of the tenth century Islamic cities of Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo, which took turns to race ahead of the Western world.

So when did it all get twisted up for the Muslims? Much of the blame lies with the colonial powers that continued to exert their control and influence even late into the 20th century. Modern reinterpretations of Islam are yet another reason. As Bouhdiba, the Tunisian sociologist reckons “a dramatic rethink is in order.”