Circumcision for both sexes, along with female infanticide, was old tribal traditions practiced by the primitive patriarchal pagans in Arabian. Islam adopted the circumcision and changed its status into a religious ritual. And as such was imposed upon the territories, as Iran, occupied by the Islamic troupes.
Female circumcision, apart from some cases in southern areas, is not practiced in Iran, but the Shi'ite sect considers male circumcision obligatory and tends to lean the extreme side on the issue.
Sacrifice like cannibalism and infanticide is older than all main monotheist religions. It has been an act of worship. Human/ animal sacrifice was a routine ritual ceremony, in which young victims were killed to please their gods or spirit. In exchange for the wanton sacrifice, the human victims were baptised martyrs and were promised holly rewards like the paradise in the next world.
The human victim was not only offered to satisfy the gods and consequently the group, but as a martyr, became a promoted status of sacred. This concept of divine victim is very similar to the concept of martyrdom in Shiism.
At the early ancient cultures human/animal sacrifice was a routine ritual in times of natural disaster; even for the rise of the sun a person should be sacrificed.
Human sacrifice or mutilation still happens today as in underground practice in some traditional religions in some cultures in South Africa.
The occasions of human sacrifice and human mutilations are associated with some ritual ceremonies. In ancient Egypt, less brutal than widow-burial, ceremonial, sacrificial circumcision, for both sexes, was practiced to please their god of fertility.
In ancient Mesopotamian there were ritual festivities in which the genital organ of a young boy was brutally cut off and was offered to the goddess of fertility.
The punishment which very often means ritual purification is attributed to tone down sexual pleasure. Human sexuality has been seen in many primitive cultures as dirty or impure and needs ritual purification, Circumcision, in this case, was the obvious way to “purify” someone.
Circumcision in Sharia is an order to cut the skin that covers the male genital and/or to cut the upper end of the skin that covers the clitoris on the female genital part. It has been considered by many Islamic judges that circumcision is compulsory on both males and females.
Considering the case of the Abraham’s self-circumcision, to be believed or not, it reflexes that a very important combined factor of circumcision is to be self-injury, a pathological practice to relieve overwhelming emotional tension. It can be practiced from a little common cut of skin to self-flagellation or self-stabbing.
Ritual practice of self-injury is a usually symbolic act. It connects the individual to the group or community.
Some practices like piercing and tattoos, or like in this case circumcision are also socially preconditioned. These practices are done to identify with a particular group. The social respect of collective practice can be also a practice of self-injury like circumcision, and is socially approved.
The self-injury in its ritual practice often focuses on the sexual organs and can be regarded as a copy mechanism for the origin of circumcision.
To conclude my article and my purpose, I point out the following traits:
– Circumcision, an old practice, has no clear references concerning its history, motive and origin.
– Circumcision is a ritual practice of primitive cultures and can be rooted in the factors of sexual punishment, ritual sacrifice and self-injury.
– Circumcision has no preventive or medical benefits.
– Circumcision, as an act of genital mutilation for both sexes, is morally not acceptable >>> Persian translation
