Resolution of the Senior Council for Islamic Affairs in the Province of Afar

17.11.1422 H (03/02/2002 AD) - No. 303/94

In the name of gracious and merciful God!

The Administration of the Senior Council for Islamic Affairs in the Province of Afar (Ethiopia) hereby declares that the ancient, inherited, bad tradition of the Afar peoples of female circumcision and treatment of the genitals is not compatible with the Islamic Shari'a and general human nature. It is outside Islamic law.

This harmful tradition, which marks women from the beginning to the end of their lives and vitiates religious and other circumstances, must be actively combated. All Muslim sons and daughters of the Afar and the religious scholars, the judges and the committees of the Senior Council for Islamic Affairs in the Afar Province, are bound to this purpose. They must combat this horrible tradition in cooperation with the institutions for human rights.

It is the judges of the religious courts in particular who must do their duty with regard to the appeal and implementation of all measures to prevent this surgical interference, which affects the lives of the Afar women. This will stop damage to the women's lives, their psyches and their fertility.

Preventing threatened harm and avoiding vitiation are far more important than the realisation of all other interests according to religious law.

Sheikh Ismail Abdallah Ismail
Senior Council for Islamic Affairs for the Afar Province