The History of Circumcision & Abstinence

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In ancient Egypt the performance of circumcision was at one time limited to the priesthood, who, in addition to the cleanliness that this operation imparted to that class, added the shaving of the whole body as a means of further purification. The nobility, royalty, and the higher warrior class seem to have adopted circumcision as well, either as a hygienic precaution or as an aristocratic prerogative and insignia.

Reference: Science Direct

From its origin in Egypt about 4000 years ago, circumcision spread to many African tribes and to the adherents of religions such as Taoism, Hinduism, Judaism and Islam. Abraham who lived between 20th and 19th century BCE is one of the fathers of Judaism, and historians suggest that Abraham and later his Jews tribe lived in Egypt and probably learnt circumcision from there. Judaism, Islam and Christianity are regarded as Abrahamic religions. The Jews lived in Egypt as slaves and they were rescued by Moses who lived around 1200 BCE

When the Greek and Roman civilizations flourished (700 BCE to CE 1453), they did not allow circumcision because it affects the beauty of human body. People who were colonized were not allowed to circumcise their male children and a parent who went against this law was put to death. The cherished civilization handed down to humanity from Greeks and Romans did not recommend male circumcision. Christianity, which became the guiding light, hand in hand with the Greco-Roman civilization regarded male circumcision as optional.

Male Circumcision

Circumcision is the most common surgical procedure performed in male infants in the newborn period. It originated over 5000 years ago and has become an important ritual in several cultures worldwide. Circumcision has been promoted for its health benefits including protection against urinary tract infection in infancy, penile cancer, and HIV infection. However, it may cause numerous complications, including pain, bleeding, infection, phimosis, meatitis, and other adverse effects. Non-ritual circumcisions are not routinely recommended by medical associations except in very select situations.

During the Egyptian civilization, in which pharaohs ruled, the government was both secular and theocratic. Priests were the custodians of both secular and religious knowledge and they played a significant role in offering sacrifices to the Egyptian gods. Priests were expected to be pure morally and in physical appearance. The presence of the foreskin was regarded as a sign of female sexual organ and impurity and hence it was to be removed. As purity was a status of higher rank and a coveted attribute, the practice of circumcision, which originally was prescribed for the priests, ultimately became adapted by all men.

Some suggest man's sexual desire as a reason that might have prompted God to command Abraham and his male descendants to be circumcised. Sexual desire deprives man the ability to focus on a task and by removing the foreskin the sensitivity of the penis for sexual intercourse is diminished. Christian civilization was enhanced by focusing less on human desires of the flesh, and up to now, human progress can be accounted for in terms of abstinence.


Female Genital Circumcision / Mutilation 

The Egyptian practice of FGC/M and slavery can be correlated for providing an explanation of its origin. Before the advent of Islam, Egyptian rulers expanded their kingdom towards the southern region in search for slaves. As a result, Sudanic slaves were taken to Egypt and the areas nearby. Incidentally, slavery became commonplace with its aim to deliver servants and concubines to the Arabic world. As a result, women with stitched vaginas were in high demand due to the lessening possibilities that they would become impregnated.

It was believed that FGC/M was practiced in ancient Egypt as a sign of distinction amongst the aristocracy. Some believe it started during the slave trade when black slave women entered ancient Arab societies. But after the arrival of Islam in the region, a strict prohibition towards enslaving other Muslims allowed the practice to get extended to other parts of Africa when the slave traders introduced infibulation among the non-Muslims to raise women’s value as slaves. This not only explains the introduction of FGC/M among North-African communities, but also explicates the coincidence of its spread in Africa simultaneous to the rise of Islam.

Gradually, it spread around the contiguous areas of the Red Sea coast among the tribes through the Arabian traders. During the Pharaonic era, the Egyptians believed in gods having bisexual features. These features were believed to reflect upon the mortals, with women’s clitoris representing the masculine soul and men’s prepuce that of the feminine soul. Thus, circumcision was considered to be a marker of womanhood and a way to detach from her masculine soul. As it became a socio-cultural norm, FGC/M became the utmost criteria for women’s marriage, inheritance of property and social acceptance in ancient Egypt.

Reference: The Conversation

Among many of the African tribes, the young maids have an ordeal approaching to circumcision that they must pass when near the age of thirteen. This rite bears precisely the same relation regarding their entrance into the state of womanhood that male circumcision denotes the entrance into manhood on the part of the males among the Bassoutos (African tribe). At the appointed time, the maids are gathered together and conducted to the riverbank; they are placed under the care of expert matrons. They reside here, after having undergone a kind of baptism; they are maltreated, punished, and abused by the old women, with a view of making them hardy and insensible to pain; they are also schooled in the science and art of African household duties. Among the Gallinas of Sierra Leone, in addition to the other observances, the clitoris of the young maid is excised at midnight, while the moon is at its full, after which they receive their name by which they are to be known through life. The initiation of each sex into these mysteries is exclusively for the sex engaged, and it would be as fatal for a man to steal into the camp of the women during the performance of these ceremonies as it would be fatal for a woman to enter a mapato where the young men are undergoing their ordeal. After their initiation into womanhood, the maids live by themselves, similarly to the young men, until they marry.

Population control was also one of the driving forces behind the practice as by controlling a woman’s sexuality, it kept the woman’s desires in check and made her sexually modest. Due to the narrowing of the vaginal orifice through infibulation, women would experience excruciating pain during sexual intercourse and thus, it becomes an effective measure to hinder premarital sex among women and ensure their fidelity. In places like Darfur, sudden desertification of arable lands made infibulation one of the population control measures.

The practice is supported by traditional beliefs, values and attitudes. In some communities it is valued as a rite of passage to womanhood (for example in Kenya and Sierra Leone). Others value it as a means of preserving a girl’s virginity until marriage, (for example in Sudan, Egypt, and Somalia). Although FGC/M is rooted in culture and some believe it is done for religious reasons, but it has not been confined to a particular culture or religion. FGC/M has neither been mentioned in the Quran nor Sunnah.