© Alexei Druzhinin/AFP/Getty ImagesIsmail Berdiyev, seen here with president Vladimir Putin in 2015, has prompted controversy by urging universal female genital mutilation.
Two prominent religious leaders in Russia have provoked outrage after suggesting female genital mutilation could help reduce sexual promiscuity.
The scandal erupted on Wednesday when Vsevolod Chaplin, a former spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church, rushed to the defence of Ismail Berdiyev, a senior Muslim cleric from Dagestan who said
"all women" should be subjected to the practice to eliminate sexual depravity.Mr Berdiyev, chairman of the Coordination Centre of North Caucasus Muslims, made the controversial comments when asked to comment on a report into the practice published earlier this week.
All women should be circumcised so there would be no debauchery on earth, so that sexuality is minimisedIsmail Berdiyev, senior Muslim cleric
"All women should be circumcised so there would be no debauchery on earth, so that sexuality is minimised," Mr Berdiyev, a prominent figure in Dagestan, told a correspondent from
Interfax, a Russian news agency.
"The Almighty created woman to bear and raise children," he added. "[Circumcision] would not affect that. Women would not stop giving birth. But there would be less promiscuity."
He went on to clarify that although Islam does not prescribe the practice,
"it is necessary to reduce female sexuality. If it was done to all women, it would be very good."
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