Call for papers IV FOKO conference on Female Genital Cutting, Panel on Islamic Southeast Asia

January 24, 2007

The 4th FOKO (The Nordic Network for Research on Female Circumcision) Conference - Female Genital Cutting in the Past and Today, organized by the Finnish League for Human Rights at Hanasaari The Swedish-Finish Cultural Centre, Espoo, Finland September 7-8, 2007.

Conference website http://www.ihmisoikeusliitto.fi/projektit/kokonainen/foko

Panel: Female Genital Cutting on the periphery: historical and contemporary discourses and practices in Islamic Southeast Asia

Conveners: Claudia Merli (Uppsala University, Sweden) and William G. Clarence-Smith (SOAS, University of London, UK)

Research on female genital cutting has been concentrated on Africa and the Middle East, where the most extreme forms of intervention occur, not only full clitoridectomy, but also, in some cases, infibulation. We aim at drawing attention to the presence of less extensive, or even purely symbolic, female genital operations carried out among the Muslim populations of Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia, Malaysia, southern Thailand, and the southern Philippines. In this region, where Muslims are overwhelmingly Sunni of the Shafi’i school of law, a variable range of pricking and cuts have long been executed on Muslim girls, and on adult women who convert to Islam. These used to be performed by traditional midwives. With the introduction and increasing use of modern biomedicine in relation to pregnancy and delivery, the role of these elderly women has been restricted, but one of the operations that they still perform is FGC. Differences in the organization and celebration of FGC, as opposed to the male version, suggest that the two need to be considered in relation to one another. In particular, FGC tends to be more secretive and less celebrated than MGC, albeit with many regional variations.

We suggest that panelists should address a number of questions that seem to emerge from the literature. Is it possible to trace a development from ‘traditional’ to ‘modern’ versions of FGC in Islamic Southeast Asia? What has been the role of Islamic scholars in finding scriptural references to support or contest FGC? How has support for MGC affected FGC? How have different strands of Islam in the region (Javanist, millenarian, Sufi, traditionalist, modernist, Islamist, etc) approached the issue? How has the pilgrimage, as well as education in the Middle East and South Asia, influenced attitudes towards FGC in Southeast Asia? How have discourses on FGC in other Islamic countries affected local perceptions through the media? To what extent has Islamist propaganda led to more girls and women undergoing FGC in recent times, and to a physical intensification of procedures? How has biomedicine progressively impacted on the performance of FGC? Have Western views of MGC as a hygienic procedure had knock-on effects on views of FGC?

Contributions are welcome from scholars of different backgrounds: historians, anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, medical professionals, and public health researchers.Deadline for abstract proposals (200-250 words) is 28 February 2007. Please send your proposals to both the panel conveners Claudia.Merli, wc2 and the scientific board janneke.johansson