Patriarchy allows child marriage and female genital mutilation to flourish

[theHandpuppet]

24. No, it doesn't predate them, but then it was not part of Abrahamic practice.

FGM was first recorded by the Greeks as an Egyptian ritual by the second century B.C. Though the cultural reasons are unclear and still debated, all theories point to patriarchal control and fear of female sexuality as commonalities. As I speculated earlier, FGM does not appear to have arisen as part of some religious dogma but was adopted into and exploited by patriarchal religion, radical Islam in the sub-Sahara being the most obvious example.

It is not uncommon for local, cultural and indigenous rituals to be incorporated into the prevailing (dominant) religion of an area -- look how many Christian holidays and rituals have their roots (or are direct rip-offs, if you like) in paganism. Ergo, when Islam became the dominant religion in Sub-Saharan Africa the FGM culture was adopted into their religious practice whereas in the Middle East it was not, as the latter had no history of FGM to incorporate.