‘Why do we have to circumcise our son?’ Meanings behind male circumcision in the life stories of mixed couples with a Muslim partner

Abstract

Circumcision is an important symbolic practice that involves parenting and intergenerational transmission.Nevertheless, previous research has not investigated what it actually means to the partners, its significance in countries where Muslims are minorities andabove allif people marry outside their own religious group.Through an analysis of partners' narratives, the article explores the meaning attributed to circumcision by mixed couples (where one partner has a Muslim background and the other a Christian one) living in Belgium, France and Italy. A kaleidoscope of meanings shapes the choice to circumcise: medicalisation, patrilineality, ethnicity and religion. The findings demonstrate how: 1) through the medicalisation of the practice, partners apparently 'de-culturalise' circumcision, 'universalising' its benefit for the male body. Thanks to the role of a medical expert they legitimate their choice recalling the 'authority of science'; 2) when the Muslim partner is the man, circumcision represents a physical connection that the father wants to maintain; 3) circumcision is a 'strong' marker of ethnicity, often disentangled from religion. It therefore emerges as a tangible act that connects social rites, the family of origin and cultural belonging. These motivations offer a new insight into the partners' practices to counter the 'losing' of the minority background.

Displaying Difference, Displaying Sameness: Mixed Couples’ Reflexivity and the Narrative-Making of the Family

“…The circumcision of a son represents, often, one of these symbolic moments in which partners have to question what is taken for granted by each other. As I have extensively discussed elsewhere (Cerchiaro and Odasso, 2021), circumcision is indeed often interpreted as an important parenting choice that, in this case, incorporates ethnic and gender elements that Mohammed aims to pass down to their sons: My children are both circumcised. At first, Giovanna didn’t agree.…”

‘When I told my parents I was going to marry a Muslim…’: Social perception and attitudes towards intermarriage in Italy, France and Belgium

“…For its part, qualitative research has approached mixed families mainly as a ‘social laboratory’ (Barbara, 1993) in which to observe the intercultural practices of family members, transmission and the challenges of parenting. The majority of research into religiously and ethnically mixed marriages has thus focused on couples’ interactions and parenting transmission as the main analytical dimensions in exploring how partners deal with their different heritage (Arweck and Nesbitt, 2010; Cerchiaro, 2016, 2019; Cerchiaro and Odasso, 2021; Collet, 2015; McCarthy, 2007; Odasso, 2016; Therrien and Le Gall, 2012; Varro, 2003). The two resulting bodies of literature have frequently not related to each other and have produced somehow parallel understandings about mixed families.…”

“…In France, Belgium and Italy, on the other hand, the rhetoric of the populist right-wing political parties (respectively Le Front National , Vlaams Belang , Lega and Fratelli d’Italia ) has particularly targeted Muslim minorities as ‘the enemy within’ (Ribberink et al, 2017). Since 9/11 and subsequent acts of terrorism, these political statements have acquired greater legitimacy, creating both widespread anger and hatred directed at Muslim minorities (Cerchiaro, 2020; Cerchiaro and Odasso, 2021) and a general demand that they ‘identify with (…) the core values and norms’ (Statham and Tillie, 2016: 179) of the country of residence. In turn, these have direct consequences for social perceptions about mixed marriages, specifically those between native Europeans and migrant or second-generation Muslims (Allievi, 2012; Croucher, 2013; Gottschalk and Greenberg, 2008; Laurence and Vaisse, 2007; Meer, 2013).…”

Re-imagining Moralities and Masculinities in the Context of Male Circumcision and Marriage in South-Western Kenya Communities

“…This implies that the two rites of passage (circumcision and marriage) punctuate the life projects of persons within practicing communities. While the practices differ from community to community, the key meaning and functions of these rites are common: they serve to affirm/provide identities and social belonging, moral personhood, as well as individual and social wellbeing (Cerchiaro & Odasso 2021;Sifuna, 2021).…”