#expctations

2nd Post

Religion has its own culture. People are expected to practice and perform their religion in a certain way. For example, in the Eritrean Orthodox Church, women are supposed to wear a long dress to their ankles. They are also expected to cover their head separately inside their scarf and they are expected to wear a white scarf called a netsela. No one reminds the women what to wear everyday. It is a cultural expectation. It's the culture of the religion. Sometimes culture within the religion can get very complicated. In my opinion, it is okay when people ask and are aware of their actions or their expectations. At times I believe we are like animals in following a culture. We follow it just because it's expected of us. People tend to be unquestioning and, as a result, we may end up positively supporting actions and practices that harm us or our loved ones. 

For many years, the practice of FGM has been practiced within Ethiopian society because people have accepted the idea of “purity”. People associate the word “purity” with the FGM procedure and as a result Ethiopian young girls have been victims of the procedure. According to Weiss, “ Scholarly review of Biblical passages with a scientific surgical background reveals three fascinating findings regarding Abraham, Moses’s and Zipporah’s actions that substantiate the thesis that circumcision emanated from the Hebrew’s desire to prevent disease”(729). From the quote, it can be easily concluded that staying pure is healthy and to prevent disease and stay healthy someone needs to go under circumcision. I believe the idea of purity evolved from the ancient people of the Bible and over time evolved to Female Genital Mutilation.

The interesting part of the action is that people have been approving of this practice even though they don't have evidence from the Bible that supports the procedure. Weiss explained the biblical interpretation of FGM. Weiss states that, “ In the beginning of the Holy Scriptures it is recorded that Abraham at 99 year of age circumcised himself and Ishmael his 13-year-old son. Subsequently Sarah after many barren years with Abraham, her husband, became impregnated by him and bore their son, Isaac” (729). However the Bible does not say that Sarah was the one who got circumcised. If Sarah is not the one that got the procedure, it is complicated and difficult to get an answer on how the idea of religion is applicable to FGM.