Forced circumcision
Encyclopedia
Forced circumcision most commonly refers to the circumcision
of a male
who has not given his consent
. In a biblical
context the term is used especially in relation to Paul the Apostle and his polemic
s against the forced circumcision of gentile Christians
. More often, forced circumcisions have occurred in a wide range of situations, most notably in the compulsory conversion
of non-Muslims to Islam
and the forced circumcision of Teso, Turkana
and Luo men in Kenya
, as well as the abduction of South-African
teenage boys to so-called circumcision schools ("bush schools"). In South Africa, custom allows uncircumcised Xhosa-speaking men past the age of circumcision (i.e., 25 years or older) to be overpowered by other men and forcibly circumcised.
England
and Europe
, the growing persecution of Jews
came to be accompanied by freely invented stories of forced circumcisions and even murder
s of Christian boys. Similarly, there are examples from India
that stories of forced circumcisions have been fabricated or exaggerated to incriminate Muslim
s.
relates the story of how Mattathias
(ca. 166 BC) forcibly circumcised the sons of Jewish
parents who had abandoned the rite. Forced circumcision of Gentiles by Jews is attested from the second century BC onwards. In 125 BC John Hyrcanus
conquered Edom
, which the Romans
called Idumea; and the Idumeans were converted to Judaism. As reported by Josephus
, circumcision was required of the Idumeans as a token of their acceptance of Judaism:
Scholars disagree on the interpretation of the sources. For example, Steven Weitzman believes the Idumeans were forcibly circumcised for political, not religious, reasons. According to Shaye J. D. Cohen, "Ptolemy
's claim, that the Idumaeans were compelled to be circumcised and to adopt Jewish ways, is a simplified account of what these urban Idumaeans experienced."
During the short reign of Hyrcanus' eldest son, Aristobulus I (104-103 BC), the Hasmonean
s gained control of Galilee
. In this case, too, sources indicate that the residents were subjected to forced circumcision. Archaeological
evidence suggests that, during this period, Gentiles fled from Galilee to avoid being forcibly circumcised.
until the second century of the Christian era. There was a circumcision controversy in Early Christianity
but this was resolved at the Council of Jerusalem
c.50 which made it clear that circumcision of gentile converts to Christianity was not required. Josephus (who changed his allegiance from the Jews to the Roman Flavians) reports that two Roman officers who had taken refuge with Galileans during the war with Rome (early 67 AD) were put under pressure to convert to Judaism. Josephus, declaring that "every one should worship God in accordance with the dictates of his own conscience," claims to have saved the two Gentiles from forced circumcision. After the First Roman-Jewish War, a head tax, the Fiscus Judaicus
, was levied against all Jews. According to Suetonius
, Domitian
(c.90) also applied this tax to those who were circumcisied, even if they claimed they were not Jews. Titus Flavius Clemens (consul)
was put to death in 95 for adopting Jewish customs. In 96 Nerva
relaxed the Jewish tax as applying only to those who professed to be Jews. Sometime between 128 and 132 AD, the emperor Hadrian
seems to have temporarily banned circumcision, on pain of death. Antoninus Pius
exempted Jews from the ban,, as well as Egyptian priests, and Origen
(d. ca. 253) says that in his time only Jews were permitted to practice circumcision. Legislation under Constantine
, the first Christian emperor, freed any slave who was subjected to circumcision; in the year 339, circumcising a slave became punishable by death.
Although Greco-Roman writers view circumcision as an identifying characteristic of Jews, they believed the practice to have originated in Egypt, and recorded it among peoples they identified as Arab
, Syrian
, Phoenician, Colchian
, and Ethiopian; circumcision was a marker of "the Other
". Diaspora Jews
might circumcise their male slaves as well as adult male converts
and Jewish male infants. According to Catherine Hezser, it is an open question whether Jews of late antiquity
refrained from forcibly circumcising their Gentile slaves and whether Romans avoided selling their slaves to Jews in reaction to the prohibition. The Mishnah
(compiled about 200 AD) is silent on this point, whereas the Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael
(written at the end of the fourth century or later) suggests that Jews might indeed possess uncircumcised slaves.
literature spanning the entire history of Islam. Scholars conclude that, during the Islamic conquest of the Middle East and North Africa
, forced conversion to Islam through violence or threat of violence did not play a key role. However, tax
es and regulations requiring the holders of prestigious positions to become Muslims have been regarded as a form of forced conversion.
, 7,000 British soldiers were held imprisoned by Haidar Ali
and Tipu Sultan in the fortress of Seringapatnam
. Of these, more than 300 were forcibly circumcised. Cromwell Massey, who kept a secret diary during his captivity, wrote: "I lost with the foreskin of my yard all those benefits of a Christian and Englishman which were and ever shall be my greatest glory." Adolescent
captives were, in addition to being circumcised, made to wear female clothes. James Bristow, a teenage artillery
man, revenged himself by circumcising dog
s, believing that this would harm the religious feelings of the Muslim warders. The prospect of punishment did not deter him, because "compelling us to undergo an abhorred operation [was] so base and barbarous an act of aggression, that it was impossible to reflect on it with temper." James Scurry
, also a prisoner of war, confirms in his book, The Captivity, Sufferings, and Escape of James Scurry (1824), that English soldiers, Mangalorean Catholics, and other prisoners were forcibly circumcised.
In 1784, when Tipu returned from Mangalore
, he brought back tens of thousands of Mangalorean Catholics from Kanara
and subjected them to forced circumcision. A Hindi idiom 'Mar-mar ke Musalman bana' (meaning 'make muslim by repeated beating') can be traced to originate from forcible conversion of Hindus.
According to Kativa Daiya, during the 1947 partition of India
"[f]orced circumcision, shaving facial and head hair (for Sikh
men), and shaving off the Hindu Brahmin
's traditional, short, plaited hair (on an otherwise bald head) were routine Muslim conversion tactics for men and boys." Asia News reported in 2004 that the Justice and Peace Commission of Lahor spoke out against young non-Muslim men in Pakistan
being converted and circumcised against their will. In 2005, the Gulf Times discussed a case of forced circumcision of Nepal
ese boys in Mumbai
in the context of sex trade in large Indian cities.
i Mandaeans
, residing almost exclusively in Baghdad
and Basra
, do not circumcise. However, their religious sensitivity on this issue has not prevented hostile rulers from subjecting Mandaean men and boys to forced circumcision. Mandaean communities, especially after the invasion of Iraq, have been subject to "murder, kidnapping, rape, forced conversion, forced circumcision and destruction of religious property."
In Iraq in 2003, shortly after the fall of the Saddam regime, the thirty-five families who made up the Mandean community in Fallujia were ordered at gunpoint to adopt Islam; the men were forcibly circumcised.
In 2007 the US Committee on International Religious Freedom heard testimony reporting: "Forced conversion is happening in an alarming degree. Boys are being kidnapped, forcibly circumcised - a major sin in the Mandaean religion - and forcibly converted to Islam."
There are accounts of Christian boys abducted and forcibly circumcised even in the nineteenth century.
It is well established that, before and during the Armenian Genocide
, forced conversions (involving forced circumcisions) of Armenia
n boys and men were frequent. "In many cases young Armenian children were spared from deportation by local Turks who took them from their families. The children were coerced into denouncing Christianity and becoming Muslims, and were then given new Turkish names. For Armenian boys the forced conversion meant they each had to endure painful circumcision as required by Islamic custom."
During the Istanbul Pogrom
in September 1955, "many Greek
men, including at least one priest
, were subjected to forced circumcision." As a result of the pogrom, the Greek minority eventually emigrated from Turkey
. In 2002 there was a report that non-Muslim army recruits in Turkey had been threatened with forced circumcision. Cases are documented where Syro-Orthodox men serving in the Turkish military forces have been threatened with forced circumcision. In 1991, a young Christian Turk, fleeing from forced circumcision in the Turkish military forces, was granted asylum in Germany
.
The Yazidi
(not all of whom are circumcised) in Turkey have for years been subjected to direct state persecution, including compulsory religious instruction at school, forced conversion, forced circumcision, and mistreatment during military service. In 1999 there was a report of the forced circumcision of Yedizi men in Turkish Kurdistan.
of North Africa. Rawlins later reported that, after being taken to Algiers, two younger men were "by force and torment ... compelled ... to turn Turks," which means that they were forcibly circumcised. By organizing a successful mutiny
, he was able to return home in 1622.
The Portuguese Friar Jaono dos Sanctos claimed that, annually in Algiers in the 1620s, more than nine hundred Christian slaves were converted to Islam, "besides about fifty boys yearly circumcised against their wills."
Thousands of Christians were forcibly circumcised in the Moluccas
from December 1999 to January 2001. The Sydney Morning Herald reported in detail on this, stating that "almost all" of 3,928 villagers forced to convert to Islam were circumcised. Razors and knives were reused, causing infections. One of those circumcised, Kostantinus Idi, reported: "I could not escape," he said. "One of them held up my foreskin between pieces of wood while another cut me with a razor ...the third man held my head back, ready to pour water down my throat if I screamed. But I couldn't help but scream and he poured the water. I kept screaming aloud and vomited. I couldn't stand the pain." He further reported that one of the clerics urinated on his wound, saying it would stop infection. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the forced conversions and forced circumcisions had been condemned by moderate Muslim leaders who said they were contrary to Islamic teachings. The local governor had also investigated the incidents.
, in his Travels, relates how a Christian king of Ethiopia
took revenge on the Sultan of Aden, who had forcibly circumcised a bishop
.
, a district commissioner instructed the police to "crack down on traditional surgeons involved in forcible circumcision."
In November 2005, the Kenyan Human Rights Commission announced that it would seek prosecutions against politicians for inciting such violence. In one instance, a cabinet minister had said, “Those who are not circumcised should be taken for a circumcision ceremony.” The Commission said this amounted to an incitement to violence.
In late January 2008, a disputed election in which circumcision became an issue between President Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu and opposition candidate Raila Odinga, a Luo, "the fact that Odinga was uncircumcised became an issue: He was seen by some Kikuyus as a 'child' unfit to rule because he had not passed through circumcision and initiation." Post-election violence reportedly "focused on tribal animosities", and included several cases of forced circumcision. AFP reported one Kenyan man's experience: "A group of eight men with pangas (machetes) entered. They asked for my ID [to determine what tribe he belonged to] They slashed me and they circumcised me by force. I screamed a lot and cried for help...' He complained that police left him in a pool of blood, taking weapons left behind by the Kikuyu gang.
In September 2010, at Malaba, West Kenya, a 21 year old Teso man was lured to a hotel, drugged, smeared with fermented millet flour and was being led away by several Bukusu to be circumcised when the police intervened. The Teso man, who agreed to a medical circumcision, condemned the Bukusu youths for trying to impose their culture on the Teso. Three weeks previously, village neighbours in Aedomoru sub location in Teso north armed themselves with clubs and prevented a 35 year old man from being forcibly circumcised.
In 2004, a 22 year old Rastafarian
convert was seized by relatives and forcibly circumcised by group of Xhosa tribal elders and relatives.
In December 2004, 45 year old Nceba Cekiso was caught and circumcised against his will. The report in the Cape Argus
noted,
Despite being medically circumcised, a Christian Xhosa was forcibly recircumcised by his father and community leaders in 2007. He laid a charge of unfair discrimination on the grounds of his religious beliefs, seeking an apology from his father and the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa. In the settlement that was reached, and which was made an order of the Equality Court, the Congress of Traditional Leaders accepted the right of adult males to choose whether to attend traditional circumcision schools according to their religious beliefs. It apologised for the comments made by its former chairman encouraging the ostracism of teenagers who refused to undergo traditional circumcision. The judge declared, "What is important in terms of the Constitution and law is that no one can be forced to submit to circumcision without his consent."
According to South African newspapers, the subsequent trial became "a landmark case around forced circumcision." In October 2009, the Bhisho Equality Court (High Court) ruled that, in South Africa, circumcision is unlawful unless done with the full consent of the initiate. According to Thembela Kepe, traditional leaders allege that the ban on forced circumcision is "a violation of cultural rights enshrined in the Constitution."
and elsewhere in Sudan
have been forcefully converted to Islam, and that Christian men and boys have been forcibly circumcised. Examples of Dinka boys having been forcibly circumcised in the 1990s and 2000s are known from the context of traditional slavery, still endemic in Sudan.
ordered the murders of Bishop James Hannington
and many local Christians. During the following period, Islamization led to several Christians being forcibly circumcised.
As discussed by anthropologist
Suzette Heald and other scholars, the Gisu (alternatively, Bagishu) of Uganda
"take pride in not tolerating uncircumcised men." For this reason, in Gisu society, any boy or man who has been able to escape ritual circumcision (called "imbalu") faces the prospect of being forcibly circumcised. Voice of America, referring to the same practice, reports: "Among the Bagishu, uncircumcised men are treated with contempt; they are not allowed in society and in most cases they are seen as failing to get local women for marriage. This is supported by all the Bagishu including women who often report uncircumcised men to tribal elders. It's considered traditional that no male is to escape the ritual regardless of where he lives, what he does or what kind of security he has."
In 2004 a father of seven was seized and forcibly circumcised after his wife told Bagishu tribal circumcisers that he was uncircumcised. A local official said the authorities could not intervene in a cultural ritual. Other forced circumcisions occurred in September 2006 and June 2008. In all these cases, family members of the victims approved of the forced circumcision. Other tribal groups in Uganda and the Ugandan Foundation for Human Rights Initiative regard forced circumcision as a human rights abuse. The Ugandan Government and the President of the Ugandan Law Society condemned the incident, but the victim refused to press charges.
. Linguist and anthropologist Peter Sutton, commenting on forced circumcision and the absence of law enforcement in remote settlements, claims that Australian law has been applied in a patchy way: "Involuntary circumcision has long been widely accepted as being de facto outside the scope of Australian law." Late in 1996, 34 year old Irwin Brookdale was drinking with a group of Australian Aborigines
on the banks of a river in far north Queensland. After he passed out, a woman in the group felt down his pants, found that he was not circumcised and called on her companions to "make a man out of him." They attempted to circumcise him with a broken beer bottle. Brookdale ended up in hospital, one of his assailants was convicted of unlawful wounding and Brookdale was awarded $A10,000 compensation for nervous shock.
The US Department of State reported that Muslim and Mujahedin irregular troops "had routinely performed crude, disfiguring, nonmedical circumcisions on Bosnian Serb soldiers." One 18-year-old Bosnian Serb soldier "was so brutally circumcised that eventually the entire organ required amputation."
Circumcision
Male circumcision is the surgical removal of some or all of the foreskin from the penis. The word "circumcision" comes from Latin and ....
of a male
Man
The term man is used for an adult human male . However, man is sometimes used to refer to humanity as a whole...
who has not given his consent
Consent
Consent refers to the provision of approval or agreement, particularly and especially after thoughtful consideration.- Types of consent :*Implied consent is a controversial form of consent which is not expressly granted by a person, but rather inferred from a person's actions and the facts and...
. In a biblical
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
context the term is used especially in relation to Paul the Apostle and his polemic
Polemic
A polemic is a variety of arguments or controversies made against one opinion, doctrine, or person. Other variations of argument are debate and discussion...
s against the forced circumcision of gentile Christians
Circumcision controversy in early Christianity
There is evidence of a controversy over religious male circumcision in Early Christianity. A Council of Jerusalem, possibly held in approximately 50 AD, decreed that male circumcision was not a requirement for Gentile converts. This became known as the "Apostolic Decree" and may be one of the...
. More often, forced circumcisions have occurred in a wide range of situations, most notably in the compulsory conversion
Forced conversion
A forced conversion is the religious conversion or acceptance of a philosophy against the will of the subject, often with the threatened consequence of earthly penalties or harm. These consequences range from job loss and social isolation to incarceration, torture or death...
of non-Muslims to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
and the forced circumcision of Teso, Turkana
Turkana people
The Turkana are a Nilotic people native to the Turkana District in northwest Kenya, a dry and hot region bordering Lake Turkana in the east, Pokot, Rendille and Samburuto the south, Uganda to the west, and Sudan and Ethiopia to the north...
and Luo men in Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
, as well as the abduction of South-African
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
teenage boys to so-called circumcision schools ("bush schools"). In South Africa, custom allows uncircumcised Xhosa-speaking men past the age of circumcision (i.e., 25 years or older) to be overpowered by other men and forcibly circumcised.
Misleading sources
In medievalMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the growing persecution of Jews
Persecution of Jews
Persecution of Jews has occurred on numerous occasions and at widely different geographical locations. As well as being a major component in Jewish history, it has significantly affected the general history and social development of the countries and societies in which the persecuted Jews...
came to be accompanied by freely invented stories of forced circumcisions and even murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
s of Christian boys. Similarly, there are examples from India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
that stories of forced circumcisions have been fabricated or exaggerated to incriminate Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s.
Hasmonean Kingdom (140 BCE–37 BCE)
1 Maccabees1 Maccabees
The First book of Maccabees is a book written in Hebrew by a Jewish author after the restoration of an independent Jewish kingdom, about the latter part of the 2nd century BC. The original Hebrew is lost and the most important surviving version is the Greek translation contained in the Septuagint...
relates the story of how Mattathias
Mattathias
Mattathias ben Johanan was a Jewish priest whose role in the Jewish revolt against the Syrian Greeks is related in the Books of the Maccabees...
(ca. 166 BC) forcibly circumcised the sons of Jewish
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
parents who had abandoned the rite. Forced circumcision of Gentiles by Jews is attested from the second century BC onwards. In 125 BC John Hyrcanus
John Hyrcanus
John Hyrcanus was a Hasmonean leader of the 2nd century BC.-Name:...
conquered Edom
Edom
Edom or Idumea was a historical region of the Southern Levant located south of Judea and the Dead Sea. It is mentioned in biblical records as a 1st millennium BC Iron Age kingdom of Edom, and in classical antiquity the cognate name Idumea was used to refer to a smaller area in the same region...
, which the Romans
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
called Idumea; and the Idumeans were converted to Judaism. As reported by Josephus
Josephus
Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...
, circumcision was required of the Idumeans as a token of their acceptance of Judaism:
Scholars disagree on the interpretation of the sources. For example, Steven Weitzman believes the Idumeans were forcibly circumcised for political, not religious, reasons. According to Shaye J. D. Cohen, "Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
's claim, that the Idumaeans were compelled to be circumcised and to adopt Jewish ways, is a simplified account of what these urban Idumaeans experienced."
During the short reign of Hyrcanus' eldest son, Aristobulus I (104-103 BC), the Hasmonean
Hasmonean
The Hasmonean dynasty , was the ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during classical antiquity. Between c. 140 and c. 116 BCE, the dynasty ruled semi-autonomously from the Seleucids in the region of Judea...
s gained control of Galilee
Galilee
Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the...
. In this case, too, sources indicate that the residents were subjected to forced circumcision. Archaeological
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
evidence suggests that, during this period, Gentiles fled from Galilee to avoid being forcibly circumcised.
Roman Empire
Greeks and Romans regarded circumcision as a mutilation of the male genitalia, but the practice is little discussed in Roman literary sourcesLatin literature
Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings of the ancient Romans. In many ways, it seems to be a continuation of Greek literature, using many of the same forms...
until the second century of the Christian era. There was a circumcision controversy in Early Christianity
Circumcision controversy in early Christianity
There is evidence of a controversy over religious male circumcision in Early Christianity. A Council of Jerusalem, possibly held in approximately 50 AD, decreed that male circumcision was not a requirement for Gentile converts. This became known as the "Apostolic Decree" and may be one of the...
but this was resolved at the Council of Jerusalem
Council of Jerusalem
The Council of Jerusalem is a name applied by historians and theologians to an Early Christian council that was held in Jerusalem and dated to around the year 50. It is considered by Catholics and Orthodox to be a prototype and forerunner of the later Ecumenical Councils...
c.50 which made it clear that circumcision of gentile converts to Christianity was not required. Josephus (who changed his allegiance from the Jews to the Roman Flavians) reports that two Roman officers who had taken refuge with Galileans during the war with Rome (early 67 AD) were put under pressure to convert to Judaism. Josephus, declaring that "every one should worship God in accordance with the dictates of his own conscience," claims to have saved the two Gentiles from forced circumcision. After the First Roman-Jewish War, a head tax, the Fiscus Judaicus
Fiscus Judaicus
The Fiscus Iudaicus or Fiscus Judaicus was a tax collecting agency instituted to collect the tax imposed on Jews in the Roman Empire after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in 70 CE in favor of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in Rome.-Imposition:The tax was initially imposed by Roman...
, was levied against all Jews. According to Suetonius
Suetonius
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius , was a Roman historian belonging to the equestrian order in the early Imperial era....
, Domitian
Domitian
Domitian was Roman Emperor from 81 to 96. Domitian was the third and last emperor of the Flavian dynasty.Domitian's youth and early career were largely spent in the shadow of his brother Titus, who gained military renown during the First Jewish-Roman War...
(c.90) also applied this tax to those who were circumcisied, even if they claimed they were not Jews. Titus Flavius Clemens (consul)
Titus Flavius Clemens (consul)
Titus Flavius Clemens was a great-nephew of the Roman Emperor Vespasian. He was the son of Titus Flavius Sabinus , brother to Titus Flavius Sabinus and a second cousin to Roman Emperors to Titus and Domitian.-In classical sources:...
was put to death in 95 for adopting Jewish customs. In 96 Nerva
Nerva
Nerva , was Roman Emperor from 96 to 98. Nerva became Emperor at the age of sixty-five, after a lifetime of imperial service under Nero and the rulers of the Flavian dynasty. Under Nero, he was a member of the imperial entourage and played a vital part in exposing the Pisonian conspiracy of 65...
relaxed the Jewish tax as applying only to those who professed to be Jews. Sometime between 128 and 132 AD, the emperor Hadrian
Hadrian
Hadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...
seems to have temporarily banned circumcision, on pain of death. Antoninus Pius
Antoninus Pius
Antoninus Pius , also known as Antoninus, was Roman Emperor from 138 to 161. He was a member of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty and the Aurelii. He did not possess the sobriquet "Pius" until after his accession to the throne...
exempted Jews from the ban,, as well as Egyptian priests, and Origen
Origen
Origen , or Origen Adamantius, 184/5–253/4, was an early Christian Alexandrian scholar and theologian, and one of the most distinguished writers of the early Church. As early as the fourth century, his orthodoxy was suspect, in part because he believed in the pre-existence of souls...
(d. ca. 253) says that in his time only Jews were permitted to practice circumcision. Legislation under Constantine
Constantine I
Constantine the Great , also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine, was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well known for being the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance of all...
, the first Christian emperor, freed any slave who was subjected to circumcision; in the year 339, circumcising a slave became punishable by death.
Although Greco-Roman writers view circumcision as an identifying characteristic of Jews, they believed the practice to have originated in Egypt, and recorded it among peoples they identified as Arab
Pre-Islamic Arabia
Pre-Islamic Arabia refers to the Arabic civilization which existed in the Arabian Plate before the rise of Islam in the 630s. The study of Pre-Islamic Arabia is important to Islamic studies as it provides the context for the development of Islam.-Studies:...
, Syrian
Syria (Roman province)
Syria was a Roman province, annexed in 64 BC by Pompey, as a consequence of his military presence after pursuing victory in the Third Mithridatic War. It remained under Roman, and subsequently Byzantine, rule for seven centuries, until 637 when it fell to the Islamic conquests.- Principate :The...
, Phoenician, Colchian
Colchis
In ancient geography, Colchis or Kolkhis was an ancient Georgian state kingdom and region in Western Georgia, which played an important role in the ethnic and cultural formation of the Georgian nation.The Kingdom of Colchis contributed significantly to the development of medieval Georgian...
, and Ethiopian; circumcision was a marker of "the Other
The Other
The Other is a 1972 psychological horror film directed by Robert Mulligan, adapted for film by Tom Tryon, from his bestselling novel. It stars Uta Hagen, Diana Muldaur, and Chris & Martin Udvarnoky.-Plot:...
". Diaspora Jews
Jewish diaspora
The Jewish diaspora is the English term used to describe the Galut גלות , or 'exile', of the Jews from the region of the Kingdom of Judah and Roman Iudaea and later emigration from wider Eretz Israel....
might circumcise their male slaves as well as adult male converts
Conversion to Judaism
Conversion to Judaism is a formal act undertaken by a non-Jewish person who wishes to be recognised as a full member of the Jewish community. A Jewish conversion is both a religious act and an expression of association with the Jewish people...
and Jewish male infants. According to Catherine Hezser, it is an open question whether Jews of late antiquity
Late Antiquity
Late Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the time of transition from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world. Precise boundaries for the period are a matter of debate, but noted historian of the period Peter Brown proposed...
refrained from forcibly circumcising their Gentile slaves and whether Romans avoided selling their slaves to Jews in reaction to the prohibition. The Mishnah
Mishnah
The Mishnah or Mishna is the first major written redaction of the Jewish oral traditions called the "Oral Torah". It is also the first major work of Rabbinic Judaism. It was redacted c...
(compiled about 200 AD) is silent on this point, whereas the Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael
Mekhilta
This article refers to the Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael. There is a separate article on the Mekhilta de-Rabbi ShimonMekhilta or Mekilta is a halakic midrash to the Book of Exodus...
(written at the end of the fourth century or later) suggests that Jews might indeed possess uncircumcised slaves.
Asia and North Africa
Forced conversions, involving forced circumcision, are echoed in a vast body of scholarlyScholarly method
Scholarly method or scholarship is the body of principles and practices used by scholars to make their claims about the world as valid and trustworthy as possible, and to make them known to the scholarly public.-Methods:...
literature spanning the entire history of Islam. Scholars conclude that, during the Islamic conquest of the Middle East and North Africa
Umayyad conquest of North Africa
The Umayyad conquest of North Africa continued the century of rapid Arab Muslim expansion following the death of Muhammad in 632 CE. By 640 the Arabs controlled Mesopotamia, had invaded Armenia, and were concluding their conquest of Byzantine Syria. Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad caliphate....
, forced conversion to Islam through violence or threat of violence did not play a key role. However, tax
Tax
To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
es and regulations requiring the holders of prestigious positions to become Muslims have been regarded as a form of forced conversion.
South Asia
In the aftermath of the 1780 Battle of PollilurBattle of Pollilur
The Battle of Pollilur, also known as the Battle of Polilore or Battle of Perambakam, took place on 10 September 1780 at Pollilur near the city of Kanchipuram in present-day Tamil Nadu state, India as part of the Second Anglo-Mysore War...
, 7,000 British soldiers were held imprisoned by Haidar Ali
Hyder Ali
Hyder Ali was the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India. Born Hyder Naik, he distinguished himself militarily, eventually drawing the attention of Mysore's rulers...
and Tipu Sultan in the fortress of Seringapatnam
Srirangapatna
Srirangapatna is a town in Mandya district of the Indian state of Karnataka...
. Of these, more than 300 were forcibly circumcised. Cromwell Massey, who kept a secret diary during his captivity, wrote: "I lost with the foreskin of my yard all those benefits of a Christian and Englishman which were and ever shall be my greatest glory." Adolescent
Adolescence
Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood , but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage...
captives were, in addition to being circumcised, made to wear female clothes. James Bristow, a teenage artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
man, revenged himself by circumcising dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
s, believing that this would harm the religious feelings of the Muslim warders. The prospect of punishment did not deter him, because "compelling us to undergo an abhorred operation [was] so base and barbarous an act of aggression, that it was impossible to reflect on it with temper." James Scurry
James Scurry
James Scurry was a British soldier and memoirist. He was held captive by Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan for 10 years at Seringapatam. He had been kept as a guest at the fort. After his release from Seringapatam he reached an English camp...
, also a prisoner of war, confirms in his book, The Captivity, Sufferings, and Escape of James Scurry (1824), that English soldiers, Mangalorean Catholics, and other prisoners were forcibly circumcised.
In 1784, when Tipu returned from Mangalore
Mangalore
Mangalore is the chief port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located about west of the state capital, Bangalore. Mangalore lies between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghat mountain ranges, and is the administrative headquarters of the Dakshina Kannada district in south western...
, he brought back tens of thousands of Mangalorean Catholics from Kanara
Kanara
The Kanara or Canara region comprises three coastal districts of Karnataka, namely Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada and Kasaragod district of Kerala in southwestern India. Kanara forms the southern part of the Konkan coast...
and subjected them to forced circumcision. A Hindi idiom 'Mar-mar ke Musalman bana' (meaning 'make muslim by repeated beating') can be traced to originate from forcible conversion of Hindus.
According to Kativa Daiya, during the 1947 partition of India
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
"[f]orced circumcision, shaving facial and head hair (for Sikh
Sikh
A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...
men), and shaving off the Hindu Brahmin
Brahmin
Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
's traditional, short, plaited hair (on an otherwise bald head) were routine Muslim conversion tactics for men and boys." Asia News reported in 2004 that the Justice and Peace Commission of Lahor spoke out against young non-Muslim men in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
being converted and circumcised against their will. In 2005, the Gulf Times discussed a case of forced circumcision of Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
ese boys in Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
in the context of sex trade in large Indian cities.
Iraq
IraqIraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
i Mandaeans
Mandaeism
Mandaeism or Mandaeanism is a Gnostic religion with a strongly dualistic worldview. Its adherents, the Mandaeans, revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enosh, Noah, Shem, Aram and especially John the Baptist...
, residing almost exclusively in Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
and Basra
Basra
Basra is the capital of Basra Governorate, in southern Iraq near Kuwait and Iran. It had an estimated population of two million as of 2009...
, do not circumcise. However, their religious sensitivity on this issue has not prevented hostile rulers from subjecting Mandaean men and boys to forced circumcision. Mandaean communities, especially after the invasion of Iraq, have been subject to "murder, kidnapping, rape, forced conversion, forced circumcision and destruction of religious property."
In Iraq in 2003, shortly after the fall of the Saddam regime, the thirty-five families who made up the Mandean community in Fallujia were ordered at gunpoint to adopt Islam; the men were forcibly circumcised.
In 2007 the US Committee on International Religious Freedom heard testimony reporting: "Forced conversion is happening in an alarming degree. Boys are being kidnapped, forcibly circumcised - a major sin in the Mandaean religion - and forcibly converted to Islam."
The Ottoman Empire
There are accounts of Christian boys abducted and forcibly circumcised even in the nineteenth century.
It is well established that, before and during the Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
, forced conversions (involving forced circumcisions) of Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
n boys and men were frequent. "In many cases young Armenian children were spared from deportation by local Turks who took them from their families. The children were coerced into denouncing Christianity and becoming Muslims, and were then given new Turkish names. For Armenian boys the forced conversion meant they each had to endure painful circumcision as required by Islamic custom."
Turkey
During the Istanbul Pogrom
Istanbul Pogrom
The Istanbul riots , were mob attacks directed primarily at Istanbul's Greek minority on 6–7 September 1955. The riots were orchestrated by the Turkish government under Adnan Menderes. The events were triggered by the false news that the Turkish consulate in Thessaloniki, north Greece—the...
in September 1955, "many Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
men, including at least one priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
, were subjected to forced circumcision." As a result of the pogrom, the Greek minority eventually emigrated from Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. In 2002 there was a report that non-Muslim army recruits in Turkey had been threatened with forced circumcision. Cases are documented where Syro-Orthodox men serving in the Turkish military forces have been threatened with forced circumcision. In 1991, a young Christian Turk, fleeing from forced circumcision in the Turkish military forces, was granted asylum in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
The Yazidi
Yazidi
The Yazidi are members of a Kurdish religion with ancient Indo-Iranian roots. They are primarily a Kurdish-speaking people living in the Mosul region of northern Iraq, with additional communities in Transcaucasia, Armenia, Turkey, and Syria in decline since the 1990s – their members emigrating to...
(not all of whom are circumcised) in Turkey have for years been subjected to direct state persecution, including compulsory religious instruction at school, forced conversion, forced circumcision, and mistreatment during military service. In 1999 there was a report of the forced circumcision of Yedizi men in Turkish Kurdistan.
The Arab world
John Rawlins had sailed for 23 years without incident when, in 1621, he and his crew were kidnapped by pirates from the Barbary CoastBarbary Coast
The Barbary Coast, or Barbary, was the term used by Europeans from the 16th until the 19th century to refer to much of the collective land of the Berber people. Today, the terms Maghreb and "Tamazgha" correspond roughly to "Barbary"...
of North Africa. Rawlins later reported that, after being taken to Algiers, two younger men were "by force and torment ... compelled ... to turn Turks," which means that they were forcibly circumcised. By organizing a successful mutiny
Mutiny
Mutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an authority to which they are subject...
, he was able to return home in 1622.
The Portuguese Friar Jaono dos Sanctos claimed that, annually in Algiers in the 1620s, more than nine hundred Christian slaves were converted to Islam, "besides about fifty boys yearly circumcised against their wills."
Maluku Islands
Thousands of Christians were forcibly circumcised in the Moluccas
Maluku Islands
The Maluku Islands are an archipelago that is part of Indonesia, and part of the larger Maritime Southeast Asia region. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone...
from December 1999 to January 2001. The Sydney Morning Herald reported in detail on this, stating that "almost all" of 3,928 villagers forced to convert to Islam were circumcised. Razors and knives were reused, causing infections. One of those circumcised, Kostantinus Idi, reported: "I could not escape," he said. "One of them held up my foreskin between pieces of wood while another cut me with a razor ...the third man held my head back, ready to pour water down my throat if I screamed. But I couldn't help but scream and he poured the water. I kept screaming aloud and vomited. I couldn't stand the pain." He further reported that one of the clerics urinated on his wound, saying it would stop infection. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the forced conversions and forced circumcisions had been condemned by moderate Muslim leaders who said they were contrary to Islamic teachings. The local governor had also investigated the incidents.
Ethiopia
Marco PoloMarco Polo
Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant traveler from the Venetian Republic whose travels are recorded in Il Milione, a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, travelled through Asia and apparently...
, in his Travels, relates how a Christian king of Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
took revenge on the Sultan of Aden, who had forcibly circumcised a bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
.
Kenya
In Kenya, most tribes circumcise. Luo men from Western Kenya are a significant exception, for which reason they have regularly been subjected to forced circumcision. In August 2002, following a violent incident in Butere/Mumias DistrictButere/Mumias District
Butere/Mumias District is an administrative district in the Western Province of Kenya. Its capital town is Butere. The district has a population of 476,928 and an area of 939 km² .The district has four constituencies:*Butere Constituency...
, a district commissioner instructed the police to "crack down on traditional surgeons involved in forcible circumcision."
In November 2005, the Kenyan Human Rights Commission announced that it would seek prosecutions against politicians for inciting such violence. In one instance, a cabinet minister had said, “Those who are not circumcised should be taken for a circumcision ceremony.” The Commission said this amounted to an incitement to violence.
In late January 2008, a disputed election in which circumcision became an issue between President Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu and opposition candidate Raila Odinga, a Luo, "the fact that Odinga was uncircumcised became an issue: He was seen by some Kikuyus as a 'child' unfit to rule because he had not passed through circumcision and initiation." Post-election violence reportedly "focused on tribal animosities", and included several cases of forced circumcision. AFP reported one Kenyan man's experience: "A group of eight men with pangas (machetes) entered. They asked for my ID [to determine what tribe he belonged to] They slashed me and they circumcised me by force. I screamed a lot and cried for help...' He complained that police left him in a pool of blood, taking weapons left behind by the Kikuyu gang.
In September 2010, at Malaba, West Kenya, a 21 year old Teso man was lured to a hotel, drugged, smeared with fermented millet flour and was being led away by several Bukusu to be circumcised when the police intervened. The Teso man, who agreed to a medical circumcision, condemned the Bukusu youths for trying to impose their culture on the Teso. Three weeks previously, village neighbours in Aedomoru sub location in Teso north armed themselves with clubs and prevented a 35 year old man from being forcibly circumcised.
South Africa
In 1999, a woman who was feared throughout the Vaal Triangle district of South Africa, controlled a gang of kidnappers that abducted young people, forcibly circumcising the boys and extorting ransoms from their parents for their release. A local police officer said as many as 10 teenagers had been snatched every day.In 2004, a 22 year old Rastafarian
Rastafari movement
The Rastafari movement or Rasta is a new religious movement that arose in the 1930s in Jamaica, which at the time was a country with a predominantly Christian culture where 98% of the people were the black descendants of slaves. Its adherents worship Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia , as God...
convert was seized by relatives and forcibly circumcised by group of Xhosa tribal elders and relatives.
In December 2004, 45 year old Nceba Cekiso was caught and circumcised against his will. The report in the Cape Argus
Cape Argus
Founded in 1857 by Saul Solomon, the Cape Argus is a daily newspaper published by Independent News & Media in Cape Town, South Africa. It is commonly referred to simply as "The Argus"....
noted,
"Xhosa culture allows people to forcibly circumcise boys deemed to be past the age of initiation... Forcing people do undergo the ancient ritual ... has, in recent times, caused concern among human rights organisations... (In) one instance two Rastafarians objected to the procedure on religious grounds. The incident has sparked a debate on whether or not traditionalists should still be allowed to force people against their will into the bush to undergo initiation.
Despite being medically circumcised, a Christian Xhosa was forcibly recircumcised by his father and community leaders in 2007. He laid a charge of unfair discrimination on the grounds of his religious beliefs, seeking an apology from his father and the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa. In the settlement that was reached, and which was made an order of the Equality Court, the Congress of Traditional Leaders accepted the right of adult males to choose whether to attend traditional circumcision schools according to their religious beliefs. It apologised for the comments made by its former chairman encouraging the ostracism of teenagers who refused to undergo traditional circumcision. The judge declared, "What is important in terms of the Constitution and law is that no one can be forced to submit to circumcision without his consent."
According to South African newspapers, the subsequent trial became "a landmark case around forced circumcision." In October 2009, the Bhisho Equality Court (High Court) ruled that, in South Africa, circumcision is unlawful unless done with the full consent of the initiate. According to Thembela Kepe, traditional leaders allege that the ban on forced circumcision is "a violation of cultural rights enshrined in the Constitution."
Sudan
There is ample evidence that, for years, Christians of KhartoumKhartoum
Khartoum is the capital and largest city of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia. The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran"...
and elsewhere in Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
have been forcefully converted to Islam, and that Christian men and boys have been forcibly circumcised. Examples of Dinka boys having been forcibly circumcised in the 1990s and 2000s are known from the context of traditional slavery, still endemic in Sudan.
Uganda
In 1885, Kabaka MwangaMwanga II of Buganda
Danieri Basammula-Ekkere Mwanga II Mukasa was Kabaka from 1884 until 1888 and from 1889 until 1897. He was the thirty-first Kabaka of Buganda.-Claim to the throne:...
ordered the murders of Bishop James Hannington
James Hannington
James Hannington was an Anglican missionary, saint and martyr.-Life:Hannington was born at Hurstpierpoint in Sussex, England, on 3 September 1847. A poor scholar, he left school at fifteen to work in his father's Brighton counting house. At twenty-one, Hannington decided to pursue a clerical...
and many local Christians. During the following period, Islamization led to several Christians being forcibly circumcised.
As discussed by anthropologist
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
Suzette Heald and other scholars, the Gisu (alternatively, Bagishu) of Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
"take pride in not tolerating uncircumcised men." For this reason, in Gisu society, any boy or man who has been able to escape ritual circumcision (called "imbalu") faces the prospect of being forcibly circumcised. Voice of America, referring to the same practice, reports: "Among the Bagishu, uncircumcised men are treated with contempt; they are not allowed in society and in most cases they are seen as failing to get local women for marriage. This is supported by all the Bagishu including women who often report uncircumcised men to tribal elders. It's considered traditional that no male is to escape the ritual regardless of where he lives, what he does or what kind of security he has."
In 2004 a father of seven was seized and forcibly circumcised after his wife told Bagishu tribal circumcisers that he was uncircumcised. A local official said the authorities could not intervene in a cultural ritual. Other forced circumcisions occurred in September 2006 and June 2008. In all these cases, family members of the victims approved of the forced circumcision. Other tribal groups in Uganda and the Ugandan Foundation for Human Rights Initiative regard forced circumcision as a human rights abuse. The Ugandan Government and the President of the Ugandan Law Society condemned the incident, but the victim refused to press charges.
Australia
Traditional circumcision is still practised in some tribal areas of AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Linguist and anthropologist Peter Sutton, commenting on forced circumcision and the absence of law enforcement in remote settlements, claims that Australian law has been applied in a patchy way: "Involuntary circumcision has long been widely accepted as being de facto outside the scope of Australian law." Late in 1996, 34 year old Irwin Brookdale was drinking with a group of Australian Aborigines
Australian Aborigines
Australian Aborigines , also called Aboriginal Australians, from the latin ab originem , are people who are indigenous to most of the Australian continentthat is, to mainland Australia and the island of Tasmania...
on the banks of a river in far north Queensland. After he passed out, a woman in the group felt down his pants, found that he was not circumcised and called on her companions to "make a man out of him." They attempted to circumcise him with a broken beer bottle. Brookdale ended up in hospital, one of his assailants was convicted of unlawful wounding and Brookdale was awarded $A10,000 compensation for nervous shock.
The breakup of Yugoslavia
The breakup of Yugoslavia, according to Milica Z. Bookman, "was extremely violent, producing some two million refugees, over 100,000 killed, and evidence of gang rape, impaling, dismemberment and forced circumcision."The US Department of State reported that Muslim and Mujahedin irregular troops "had routinely performed crude, disfiguring, nonmedical circumcisions on Bosnian Serb soldiers." One 18-year-old Bosnian Serb soldier "was so brutally circumcised that eventually the entire organ required amputation."
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