In January 2021, Egypt took a historic legal step: its parliament passed a bill imposing some of the world’s toughest penalties for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) – khitan sunat perempuan. Under the new amendments, doctors and medical staff who perform the practice can face up to 20 years in prison, and anyone who transports a girl to undergo FGM can also be punished.
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For Egypt — a country with a deep Muslim legacy and a long history of FGM rooted in Shafi‘i jurisprudence — this shift marks a major transformation. It represents a convergence of religious reasoning, medical evidence, public health advocacy, and legal urgency.
But while Egypt has moved decisively toward eliminating the practice, Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country and also historically shaped by the Shafi‘i school, remains deeply divided. Competing fatwas, contrasting interpretations, cultural fears, and political caution have created a situation where female circumcision (called khitan perempuan or P2GP) is neither clearly banned nor universally discouraged.
Indonesia today stands at a crossroads — between medical science, evolving religious scholarship, global human-rights standards, and traditional interpretations that continue to hold significant influence.
Egypt: From Shafi‘i Tradition to Modern National Prohibition
Egypt’s modern stance is the result of decades of work from religious institutions, medical authorities, and women’s rights advocates.
Today:
- Al-Azhar has declared that FGM has no basis in the Qur’an
- Dar al-Iftaa states that it is not required in Islam
- The Ministry of Health confirms it is medically harmful
- The Parliament criminalizes the practice
Egypt has demonstrated that a conservative, traditionally Shafi‘i society can still shift toward protecting women and children by integrating scripture, modern science, and legal reform.
Indonesia: A Nation Still Pulled in Two Directions
Similar to Egypt, Indonesia’s traditional Islamic scholarship has been heavily influenced by Shafi‘i jurisprudence. However, the country’s response to female circumcision remains fragmented and inconsistent.
Three major forces shape the debate today:
1. Government & Medical Authorities: Strongly Against FGM
Indonesia’s Ministry of Religious Affairs and Ministry of Health have repeatedly warned against female circumcision. Health clinics and public hospitals (puskesmas) refuse to perform the procedure, and many healthcare providers explicitly tell mothers:
“Female circumcision is medically unnecessary and should not be done.”
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Yet the reality is troubling:
Much of female circumcision in Indonesia is still performed by traditional birth attendants (dukun sunat)
These practitioners:
- have no professional medical training
- use improvised tools or razor blades
- often perform the procedure without anesthesia
- typically operate on babies aged 1–6 months old
The result is a practice outside medical supervision, driven by cultural expectation rather than informed consent or evidence-based health care.
Indonesia’s doctors have strongly condemned the procedure because:
- It has no medical benefit
- It can cause bleeding, infection, and trauma
- It risks damaging the clitoris, which contains dense nerve endings
- It is based on outdated anatomical assumptions
- It violates modern health ethics
2. KUPI: Indonesia’s Women Ulama Declare FGM Haram
The Congress of Indonesian Women Ulama (KUPI) has taken one of the strongest positions in the Muslim world:
Female circumcision (P2GP) is haram.
Their reasoning includes:
- The Qur’an does not mandate it
- It harms children physically and psychologically
- It violates the maqāṣid (objectives) of protecting life and dignity
- It conflicts with modern medical science
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KUPI’s fatwa aligns with Egypt’s modern religious stance and with global medical standards.
3. NU’s Traditional Position: Still Defending Female Circumcision
At the same time, Indonesia’s largest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), continues to argue that female circumcision should not be prohibited — though they reject extreme forms of cutting.
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PBNU: Sunat Pada Perempuan Tidak Boleh Dilarang
NU’s reasoning is heavily based on classical fiqh texts, especially within the Shafi‘i tradition. However, this position has caused tension because:
- It does not fully incorporate modern medical knowledge
- It repeats old assumptions without anatomical updates
- It reinforces harmful cultural practices among rural communities
- It creates confusion between “mild symbolic touch” and harmful cutting
- It contradicts the Ministry of Health’s official warnings
The absence of structured outreach to traditional birth attendants has also contributed to the persistence of unsafe practices.
For many Indonesian families, this mixed messaging leads to deep fear, such as:
- fear that a girl’s prayer will not be valid unless circumcised
- fear she may grow up to be “hyper-sexual”
- fear that refusing circumcision is rejecting tradition
These fears persist despite being scientifically and theologically unfounded.
Modern Anatomy: Why Female Circumcision Is Far More Dangerous Than Once Believed
A crucial scientific fact often unknown to traditional practitioners is the embryological development of genitalia:
Male and female genital structures begin from the same tissue in the early weeks of fetal development.
- The clitoris in girls
- The glans penis in boys
…originate from the exact same embryonic structure.
As the fetus grows:
- Male genitalia undergo dramatic structural changes
- Female genitalia do not
- The clitoris remains exposed, small, and full of nerve endings
Therefore:
Cutting a baby girl’s clitoris is anatomically equivalent to cutting the tip of a baby boy’s penis.
Not “just skin,” not “symbolic,” but removal of highly sensitive neurological tissue.
This explains why Western medical professionals, who understand genital development deeply, strongly condemn the practice.
Ethnic Phenotype: The Asian Context
Another overlooked scientific point:
Many Asian women (including Indonesians) have clitoral phenotypes that are smaller and more recessed
compared to populations in the Middle East or Africa.
This means:
- The clitoris is harder to see
- Attempts to “cut” often involve guesswork
- Traditional practitioners may accidentally cut essential nerve tissue
- The risk of harm is even higher in this phenotype group
This reinforces why medical professionals reject any form of cutting on baby girls.
A Call for MUI to Lead With Knowledge and Compassion
Given the medical evidence, the religious debate, and the cultural confusion, Indonesia urgently needs a definitive stance from the national religious body, MUI.
A decisive fatwa, based on:
- Qur’anic analysis
- modern medical science
- embryology
- anatomy
- child protection principles
…would guide millions of Indonesian families and prevent unnecessary harm.
As you wrote:
“MUI should issue a fatwa after consulting competent medical doctors, not merely echoing older Shafi‘i interpretations.”
Egypt has shown that religious transformation is possible when:
religion, medicine, and law work together.
Indonesia can follow the same path — but only if its religious leaders are willing to listen to modern knowledge.
Conclusion: Two Muslim Nations, One Issue, Two Different Futures
Egypt and Indonesia share a Shafi‘i heritage, centuries of Islamic scholarship, deeply rooted cultural practices, and majority-Muslim populations. Yet their trajectories on female circumcision diverge sharply. Egypt has moved decisively toward banning FGM and protecting girls, integrating religious clarity, medical evidence, and strong legal enforcement. Indonesia, meanwhile, remains caught between science, evolving scholarship, and cultural anxiety, with no unified national stance.
The scale of the challenge becomes clearer when comparing national data: Egypt’s 87% lifetime prevalence among adult women (EHIS 2015) underscores how deeply rooted the practice once was — which makes the country’s modern legal reforms all the more remarkable. Indonesia, meanwhile, records a 49% prevalence among girls aged 0–11 (RISKESDAS 2013, UNICEF), reflecting a society still in transition, where cultural and religious debates remain unresolved.
The question now is whether Indonesia will choose the path Egypt has taken — integrating scriptural understanding with scientific evidence — or remain at a crossroads where tradition outweighs health and compassion. The future well-being of millions of girls depends on the answer.