Female Circumcision deemed Un-Islamic

I don't know about you, but I think this is fantastic news and tremendous progress.

CAIRO, Egypt: A conference of Muslim scholars from around the world declared female circumcision to be contrary to Islam and an attack on women, and called Thursday for those who practice it to be punished.

For those of you who are knew to the idea of "female circumcision," it involves cutting off a young woman's clitoris. Not making it less penis like, but fully detaching it from the surrounding genital area on a young woman.

But it doesn't always stop there. There are some villages who believe in sewing up a young woman's vagina entirely, leaving a small hole for urine to pass through. This often results in infections, not to mention intense pain. The only time a young woman is allowed to be "unsewn" is on her wedding night and then she typically has to endure the pain from her new husband who is the only one allowed to rip the skin back in order for his penis to enter her very sore vagina. Hardly do the woman undergo another "operation" to bring the skin back in a less painful manner.

There are long lasting effects from this "operation", one of them being life long pain and infections are common and come frequently.

The Muslim scholars said female circumcision was an aggression against women and should be stopped.

The scholars stressed that Islam forbid people from inflicting harm on others, explaining that those who circumcise their daughters were doing exactly that.

Because of the above, I am estactic with this decision and the urgance of countries to enforce their laws which forbid female genital mutilation. As they said, Islam gives no justification for it but does say individuals should not bring harm on another person and, of course, having a group of men performing these operations on women and demanding it be done is indeed inflicting harm on an entire group of people: women.