Clitoridectomy and the Economics of Islamic Marriage & Divorce Law

Ryan M. Riegg, University of California - Los Angeles

Abstract

This article examines the legal and economic incentives created by the Islamic Marriage and Divorce System (“IMDS”) to develop an empirical model regarding the relative prevalence and severity of clitoridectomy practices in different Muslim societies and considers how those practices may be eliminated from an economic perspective.

Part I of the article establishes the economic link between the IMDS and clitoridectomy and compares the IMDS and the American Marriage & Divorce System (“AMDS”) in terms of their relative efficiency. Part II operationalizes and refines the basic theory outlined in Part I by creating a falsifiable model regarding the relative prevalence and severity of clitoridectomy practices in a given Muslim society. Part II then tests this model against empirical data regarding the clitoridectomy practices of approximately 20 tribes in Islamic Northeastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Based on the model in Part II, Part III then proposes and examines several potential methods for eradicating clitoridectomy through the use of Islamic law.