Wednesday, August 17, the President of the coordination centre of North Caucasus Muslims Ismail Berdiyev said about the need to carry out the procedure of female circumcision in Russia, explaining that such operations “reduce women’s sexuality and prevent corruption.”
The word Berdiev threw the country into a heated debate, the majority of participants which considered female circumcision barbaric. However, the mufti was and supporters. Sam Ismail Berdiyev after a flurry of outraged comments stated that “joke.”
The reality in Russia
The topic of female circumcision in Russia before Berdiev raised Foundation “Legal initiative in Russia”. According to its report, the procedure of removing the clitoris and labia is prevalent in some South-Eastern districts of Dagestan. Often circumcision is carried out ‘in house’ by people without medical education.
One of the few voices of support to mufti was made by the Archpriest of the Russian Orthodox Church Vsevolod Chaplin. He expressed his sympathy Ismail Berdiev and supported his words, “woman was created to bear and raise children.”
Because of the intensity of emotions in social networks and the media, statements by human rights activists and representatives of authorities topic had to comment on the Council of Muftis of Russia. There rejected linking female circumcision with Islam, which “prohibits any mutilation of his body.” A picket at the Moscow Cathedral mosque held and activist, candidate to deputies of the state Duma Maria Baronova, and Berdieva actually had to take it back.
Whether legal prohibition of circumcision?
The debate has led to calls to ban female circumcision by law. Such prohibitions apply in some countries, for example in Egypt and several African States, where such treatments are most common.
The intention to legislate the prohibition of female circumcision in Russia in an interview with DW said a member of the Committee for culture, state Duma Deputy Maria Maksakova-Igenbergs: “This is barbarism. This butchers, not the people. Although the UK is already an act of mutilation, apparently, you need a separate law on female circumcision. Surprising even that there are people with an alternative point of view.”
Women of Dagestan have other problems
In turn, the member of the Council on human rights (HRC) under the President of Russia and an expert on the Caucasus, Maxim Shevchenko in an interview with DW expressed confidence that the issue is overblown and the practice of female circumcision in Dagestan is extremely rare: “I am now in Makhachkala, I specifically interviewed local residents, including those from mountain regions. No one can confirm such facts, and these statements are insulting to local women.”
According to Shevchenko, at the Dagestan women have enough problems, but they are not associated with circumcision. “In the mountains there are no kindergartens, schools, hospitals. Pregnant women can’t do a proper examination. To Makhachkala to go a few hours and it is very expensive,” explained a member of the HRC.
“The blame for this criminal gang system of local government, which plunder the budget, which local residents are the crumbs on a residual basis. So if someone violates the rights of Dagestani women, so it is local government,” – said Maxim Shevchenko. However, in the Council on human rights decided to send to the Prosecutor the data about practice of female circumcision in Dagestan. This was announced by the head of the HRC Mikhail Fedotov.
