Cleric: Don’t cut too much female genital to avoid sexuality loss

Makassar, NU Online
A Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) cleric said on Friday that circumcision on women was not supposed to cause the loss of their sexuality.
 
“Don’t cut too much. Just cut the small skin on the tip of the clitoris. Otherwise, a woman would lose her sexuality, and you males don’t like that to happen, do you?” prominent cleric KH Mohammad Masyhuri Naim told a press conference.<<>br />  
Masyhuri, also a member of NU Suriah (lawmaking body), said that a proper female circumcision should not cause any damage to woman genitals. “No bleeding, if you do it properly.”
 
He suggested that circumcision was conducted on a female baby at the age of 7 days.
 
One of the topics during commission meetings at NU’s 32nd national congress in Makassar, South Sulawesi on Friday was the Islamic legal perspective on female circumcision.
 
Masyhuri said the meeting concluded that female circumcision “could be sunnah (recommended) but also could be mandatory.”
 
“The main point is that it is not haram [forbidden],” he was quoted by The Jakarta Post as saying.
 
Masyhuri took an example of mass female circumcision in Bandung in the past which had triggered opposition from many Islam communities, some of which then considered female circumcision haram.
 
“That was not a good example of the way to conduct a female circumcision. The bad thing was that the media had blown the issue out of proportion,” he said.
 
Although the meeting concluded female circumcision was recommended, Masyhuri said NU would not force all female followers to undergo circumcision. (dar)