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Subject:
From:
Kathy Dettwyler <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 11 Mar 1997 09:31:43 -0600
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I'm still trying to puzzle out how Lisa Haider thinks I was
slandering/libelling Muslims in my post pointing out that what the
"official/legal/written" rules of a religion may say are often unknown to
the general populace, and are often conflict with what people *believe*
their religion tells them to do.  I certainly wasn't slandering/libeling
Muslims, in any way.  I work with people in Mali who are devout Muslims in
many ways, and most of them explain their choice to circumcise daughters
based on their beliefs of what it says in the Koran.  Most of these people
cannot read Arabic themselves, and go by the teachings of their local Imams,
who also claim that the Koran supports female circumcision.  Whether it does
or does not is *not* the point, as far as these folks are concerned.  You
can tell them the Koran doesn't say that, and they don't believe you, or
think it is a matter of interpretation, or think you are an idiot (same with
pointing out to Faith Assembly people that the line in the Bible that reads
"A woman's hair is her crowning glory" does not *automatically* translate
into "You can't ever cut your hair." or pointing out to people who handle
snakes that you don't think God meant it literally when he said "You shall
take up serpents.").  The Malians' religious beliefs are very important to
them, and are deeply held, and simply pointing out that the Koran does not,
in fact, say that girls must be circumcized has absolutely no impact on
them.  It is part of their religion, as they define it.  Of course there are
many Muslims who don't practice female circumcision, and there are many who
do.  Of course there are people who practice female circumcision who are not
Muslims (criminy -- they used to do it to women in Victorian England to curb
overactive sexual appetites!).  Those are simple facts.  It isn't slanderous
or libelous, or casting aspersions on anyone.  I certainly have never cast
any aspersions on the people I do research with because they are circumcized
themselves, and circumcize their daughters (or for any other reason, either).

Lighten up folks.  The point of my post was/is that the important point
isn't what technical/legal/actual church writings about a subject are, but
what people *believe* them to be.  And a belief that your religion requires
you to do something (whether female circumcision, or scheduled feedings a la
Ezzo, or anything else) can be very deep-seated and important to people,
whether or not it follows what some scholar of the religion says.








Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.
Texas A&M University

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