The removal, in various forms, of female genitalia – the clitoris, in whole or in part, as well as the labia minora – whether or not accompanied by sutures, is indeed a form of sexual mutilation. It is practiced in a traditional manner for various reasons that reflect a humiliating and degrading view of women, who are treated in this way to ensure they do not experience sexual desire.

Under French law, mutilation resulting in permanent disability is punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of €150,000 ($162,000). When committed against a minor under the age of 15, the sentence can reach 15 years’ imprisonment or even more depending on aggravating circumstances.

The practice is far from rare, even though there are reportedly no active cases in France, where it is estimated that 139,000 women have undergone such mutilation. The women affected are predominantly from sub-Saharan African countries – often former colonies – which account for a significant portion of the immigrant population settling in France.

Mali, for example, is particularly affected: approximately 89% of women aged 15 to 49 have undergone excision (female genital mutilation), according to the latest available national demographic and health survey. When young girls whose families are originally from Mali and now live in France return there for vacation, they are expected to undergo the procedure to comply with tradition – a practice linked to Islam, but not exclusively so. A series of images is currently circulating throughout the country, highlighting the support for female genital mutilation expressed by prominent Malian political or spiritual figures.

The internet is rife with chilling accounts and harrowing testimonies from young girls or very young children – sometimes as young as 5 – handed over to their elders to be mutilated with razor blades or broken bottles. The consequences can be dramatic: recurrent urinary tract infections, obstetric complications, dyspareunia and, in some cases, death if bleeding is not properly managed during the mutilation.

When Feminism Collides With Cultural Relativism

In the era of #MeToo and feminist activism, this phenomenon should elicit universal and unequivocal condemnation. But that is without the paradoxes of progressivism. Female genital mutilation primarily affects African populations – whether Muslim or not. It is therefore considered a cultural practice that, for some, must be respected in the name of cultural relativism elevated to an absolute. Condemning it would thus be seen as yet another manifestation of Western domination.

The practice of female genital mutilation is not an isolated phenomenon. It is embedded in an entire system of beliefs, values and practices that reinforce and support one another: female genital mutilation, polygamy and child marriage. Online, some women explain that their husbands demanded they undergo FGM because, having multiple wives, he was unable to “satisfy them all”.

Denouncing all of these practices – as Western colonizers did when they abolished the slave markets between African kings and tribes in the second half of the 19th century – requires a form of firmness, part of a discourse determined to acknowledge the hierarchy of cultural practices. But this is a view considered today not only unpopular but dangerous.

In the eyes of the new censors, the condemnation that should be obvious is no longer so. For some of the most ardent intersectional progressives, denouncing female genital mutilation amounts to “promoting racist and Islamophobic rhetoric”. If we add the feminist component, female genital mutilation might even be seen as a good thing, since “giving a woman pleasure”, as can be read on the accounts of certain activists, perpetuates the male fantasy of domination. Feminism taken to the point of absurdity: one must deny female sexuality because a woman’s orgasm is the product of patriarchy.

Overton Window Shifts Backwards

It is always possible to reassure oneself by saying that these viewpoints represent an ultra-minority. They certainly do. But the fact that they dare to be voiced in the public sphere is deeply disturbing. It is important to bear in mind that the Overton window – which is sometimes celebrated in conservative circles for having shifted to the point where topics that would have subjected their critics to public condemnation just a few years ago are now considered acceptable in the public sphere – is also shifting for progressives.