Male and female genital cutting among Southern Thailand's Muslims: rituals, biomedical practice and local discourses

Abstract

This paper explores how local people in a province in southern Thailand perceive the practice of male and female genital cutting. In order to understand the importance placed on these practices, a comparison is drawn between the two and also between the male circumcision and the Buddhist ordination of monks as rites of passage. Discourses on the exposure or concealment of male and female bodies, respectively, witness to the relevance of both the local political-historical context and biomedical hegemony to gendered bodies. The comparisons evince the need to reflect upon the theoretical and ethical implications of studying genital cutting and focusing exclusively on one of the two practices rather than, as this paper claims to be necessary, considering them as inextricably connected.

Cet article explore comment les personnes locales vivant dans une province du Sud de la Thaïlande perçoivent la pratique des mutilations génitales masculines et féminines. Afin de comprendre l'importance accordée à ces pratiques, une comparaison est établie entre les deux types de mutilations, et aussi entre la circoncision et l'ordination des moines bouddhistes en tant que rites initiatiques. Les discours sur l'exposition ou la dissimulation des corps masculins et féminins, respectivement, attestent de la pertinence à la fois du contexte politico-historique local et de l'hégémonie biomédicale vis-à-vis des corps « genrés ». Les comparaisons mettent à jour la nécessité d'une réflexion sur les implications théoriques et éthiques de l'étude de la mutilation génitale et de la focalisation exclusive sur l'une des deux pratiques plutôt que sur les deux ensemble, comme le recommande cet article qui les considère comme étant inextricablement connectées.

En este artículo analizamos cómo perciben los gente locales de una provincia del sur de Tailandia la practica de la ablación genital masculina y femenina. A fin de entender la importancia que se le da a estas prácticas, cotejamos ambos tipos de ablación, y también hacemos una comparación entre la circuncisión masculina y la ordenación budista de los monjes como ritos del paso a la madurez. Los discursos sobre la exposición u ocultación de los cuerpos masculinos y femeninos respectivamente muestran la relevancia del contexto político-histórico local y la hegemonía biomédica hacia los cuerpos sexuados. Las comparaciones ponen en evidencia que es necesario reflejar qué efectos teóricos y éticos tiene un estudio de la ablación genital que se centra exclusivamente en una de las dos prácticas en vez de, tal como en este artículo defendemos que es necesario, considerar que están conectadas inextricablemente.

Keywords:

• Southern Thailand
• male circumcision
• female genital cutting

Acknowledgements

Part of this material was collected during doctoral fieldwork research funded by Uppsala University and the Donner Institute at Åbo Academy. The Lars Hierta Memorial Foundation generously supported the project with a research grant in 2007–2009. I am grateful to Ing-Britt Trankell and Jan Ovesen for their support and encouragement and to Soraya Tremayne for inviting me to give a presentation at ISCA in Oxford. Thanks to the three anonymous reviewers for their detailed comments. My deepest gratitude goes to my assistant and friend Anyavalee Srichanapai and to the people of Satun.

Notes

^1. On 28 April, 2004, clashes at Krue-Ze mosque in Pattani, in which demonstrators had taken refuge, left 32 insurgents and three members of the Thai army forces dead. On the same day, ten coordinated attacks were carried out in different locations. In total there were 106 victims among the insurgents and five among the security forces. On 25 October 2004, a huge demonstration in front of Tak Bai police station in Narathiwat province ended with the killing of seven demonstrators who were shot on the spot. Other 78 died suffocated or crushed due to the inhumane conditions of transportation of more than 1000 demonstrators to a military camp in Pattani.

^2. The new definition reads: ‘Female genital mutilation (FGM), often referred to as “female circumcision”, comprises all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs whether for cultural, religious or other non-therapeutic reasons’.

^3. In addition adult men who convert to Islam must be circumcised, although not in public rituals.

^4. It is probably not a coincidence that the position of childbirth has changed in the same way, from squatting to supine.

^5. A pseudonym.

^6. I keep here the usual spelling kathoey ().

^7. The term kathoey refers to feminised men, men who may cross dress and live as women, and is also extended to some male homosexuals, although this latter use is much debated (Jackson and Sullivan 1999).

^8. There is no upper age limit as adult women converting to Islam can also be circumcised, although not compulsorily.

^9. Bidan here means an indigenous midwife, whether she has attended or not a formal training with medical authorities. Since bidans' activity and care extend well beyond childbirth, I refuse the reductive term Traditional Birth Attendant.