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This passage has been oddly interpreted today to require that Muslim women wear the hijab outside of the home. Certainly, this passage does not suggest that all women must be veiled. Indeed, one could argue that this Koranic verse is merely a statement about tact and privacy and is quite feasible.
Through reexamination and reinterpretation of religious doctrine, women may begin to question their culture. Women''s education must be supplemented, however, with financial support so that women may have an alternative to the gender roles that society has assigned to them. For instance, women in many of the cultures that perform genital operations derive much of their social status and economic security as mothers and wives. Submission to the genital operations is often a prerequisite to marriage. Consequently, if women do not submit to the operations, they have no means of economic sustenance. By making alternative roles available to women, women will be more likely to reject these disfiguring operations. Moreover, with new alternatives women will begin to see their culture from a different perspective and the women''s movements'' objectives will be incrementally achieved.
Chapter Three
In determining how to effect this tremendous change, women should look to the early Women''s Movement in the United States. Many of the difficulties overcome by American women from the late eighteenth century through the twentieth century are very similar to the same ones facing women in other countries all over the world today. It complies with the general pattern which I mentioned in the second chapter, i.e through organizing and struggling on an internal basis.
While western nations are limited in the way that they may directly effectuate change in other cultures, they may still play a significant role in the domestic treatment of culturally-based discrimination, on this aspect France and Canada explored their own approaches:
For example, French officials effectuated change domestically by criminalizing genital operations. Because many Africans immigrate to France, the practice of genital operations has become a problem for French authorities, who deem the practice contrary to notions of decency and morality in France. To address this problem, French courts have used a pre-existing statute prohibiting child mutilation to criminalize genital operations. Under this statute, the French courts have prosecuted parents who have ordered the operations, as well as "surgeons" who have performed them. On March 7, 1991, for example, Aramata Keita, a Malian woman, was sentenced to five years in prison by French courts for performing six genital operations.
Typically, in these types of cases the parents and practitioners argue that they were simply adhering to the cultural practices of their homeland. However, as a sovereign nation, France has the authority to create and maintain the laws that its courts and legislature deem to be appropriate and necessary. Universalists/Westerners would agree with France''s assertion, claiming that a duty exists because the operations are unjustifiable and in violation of international law. And even if the Universalist/Western perspective is rejected, however, France would not be justified in affording immigrant Muslim children a lesser degree of state protection from child mutilation simply because of their cultural backgrounds.
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