FGC in Asia:

• Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting in Asia Remain a Neglected Problem 
• FGC in Asia and the Middle East Map
• Following our report, Facebook removes ‘Islamic Female Circumcision’ page promoting FGM
• Report on Female Genital Mutilation in Dagestan Sparks Controversy in Russia
• Factbox: The hidden cut: female genital mutilation in Asia
• UNESCAP: Harmful Traditional Practices in Three Countries of South Asia: culture, human rights and violence against women
• Courageous Alumna Speaks Out for Maldivian Women
• A Truly Global Effort is Needed to Eradicate FGM by 2030
• Activist push for end to female genital mutilation
• Southeast Asia’s Hidden Female Genital Mutilation Challenge
• Asia Network to End Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting Consultation Report

FGC in Australia:

• Women Speak Out on Female Genital Mutilation in Australia
• Genital mutilation convictions overturned after new evidence showing victims remain intact
• High Court to hear appeal on female genital mutilation and prosecutors’ push for retrial
• High Court upholds NSW genital mutilation convictions

FGC in Canada:

• Canada lifts silence on FGM
• It’s Time for Canada To Play Its Part In Ending Female Genital Mutilation
• FGM, A Bitter Reality: Canada Needs To Do More
• Female Genital Mutilation in Canada and the Limits to Criminalization 

FGC in Colombia:

• Female genital mutilation in Colombia more common than assumed: UN
• ‘Cut with a blade’: Colombia indigenous groups discuss FGM

FGC and COVID:

• Is the Pandemic Causing a Surge in Female Genital Mutilation

FGC in Egypt:

• Egypt: The Law and FGM

FGC and Islam:

• Islam and female circumcision
• Muslim doctors against female circumcision
• Debunking the Myth that Islam Requires Female Genital Circumcision
• Unmuting the Tabooed: FGM and Muslim Women’s Rights

Nari Samata Manch has been working on gender issues for last 30 years. Gender-based violence is the core area of Nari Samata Manch work. The organization has institutionalized an award ‘Daughter of Maharashtra’ to honor women who have contributed significantly for the cause of gender equality.

The name of the award is a byproduct of a documentary project that Nari Samata Manch undertook titled, ‘Daughters of Maharashtra’ which captured the contributions of women of Maharashtra in different fields. The Maharashtra Foundation funded the project and so this award was named after the foundation and the documentary.

This year, Nari Smata Manch has felicitated ‘Sahiyo’ for its contributions to build a dialogue around the practice of khatna or FGC.

On January 20th, the Modern Abolitionist Global Campaign will start a two day campaign, with a kick -off event that will be a screening of movies dealing with gender violence and discrimination against women.

The following day, on January 21st, the Modern Abolitionist Global Campaign will hold the Frankfurt Women’s March on Washington.

Sahiyo will support the kick-off event, in which there will be a screening of A Pinch of Skin, a documentary produced by Sahiyo’s co-founder Priya Goswami, on the topic of female genital cutting in the Dawoodi Bohra community.

During the event, Sahiyo co-founders will be be joining via Skype for a Q&A session with audience members. The documentary, Girl Rising, about the importance of educating girls to break the cycle of poverty will also be screened. To learn more, contact the organizers here.

Sahiyo is pleased to announce that Mariya and Shaheeda will be attending the upcoming Tostan Training Centre (TTC) in Senegal this July as Orchid Project Fellows.

Over the past 25 years, Tostan has witnessed positive social transformation in thousands of communities in eight African countries. Although contributing to the abandonment of FGC was not one of Tostan’s original goals, it has become a rallying point for social change. So far over 7,200 communities from Djibouti, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Somalia, and The Gambia have publicly declared their decision to abandon both FGC and child/forced marriage. As Tostan has always explained and as their external evaluations have shown, public declarations are critical in the process for total abandonment and necessary for building critical mass, eventually leading FGC to becoming a thing of the past.

They are now offering individuals and organizations the opportunity to learn from their decades of experience in leading human rights-based education programs. The TTC  is designed to provide the theoretical and practical backing that people working in community development can use to reflect upon their own practices and better realize their communities’ aspiration

Their unique set of of trainings use a participatory, learner-centered approach that draws its strength from the expertise of trainers with extensive experience in rural Africa, implementing the Tostan Community Empowerment Program. Their trainings serve individuals and groups who share a commitment to human dignity, transformative learning, holistic empowerment, and collective action.

When asked about what learnings they hoped to gain from attending the TTC training, Mariya and Shaheeda provided the following replies:

 Mariya: I have spoken to Molly Melching about visiting Tostan to learn for years since I first earned of Tostan’s existence and since I first became interested in addressing FGC within the Dawoodi Borha community (the community I was raised in). On a personal level, it will feel like a huge accomplishment to finally witness how a successful program operates to end human rights violations. On a professional level, I hope that the training will help guide the direction that Sahiyo takes to form its own programs in India and amongst diaspora Indian communities. I also hope to be able to connect with other, more experienced, and knowledgeable individuals who can serve as mentors or advisors for Sahiyo as we plan the activities of our nascent organization.

Shaheeda: I am very interested in learning about the success of Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program (CEP) in driving community-led change on human rights and gender-based violations. I want to understand how the CEP model employs diverse concepts of Health, Hygiene, Peace & Security, Problem-Solving, Literacy etc. for creating a holistic activities to engage with the local communities. From the research perspective, I am especially keen to explore and learn about the monitoring and evaluation methods for measuring program success and communication strategies employed by Tostan for creating a dialogue on change. Lastly, I want to understand the complexities that Tostan faces in terms of program implementation, as we would like to be able to predict and preempt similar problems that might arise during the course of Sahiyo’s work in India.

Sahiyo looks forward to hearing back from Mariya and Shaheeda after the training! Stay tuned to our blog to learn more about their experiences as well!

Sahiyo is delighted to announce that our organization was awarded a grant by the International Association of Women in Radio and Television ( IAWRT, www.iawrt.org) to conduct a media training workshop in Mumbai, this August.

Media has played crucial role in informing people at large about the practice of female genital cutting or khatna In India and bringing this critical issues to the forefront. Yet, we have also seen how facts on FGC within the Bohra community have been misunderstood or misportrayed by journalists, leading to unintentional harm to survivors and those women and girls who might be at risk. This media workshop will then allow Sahiyo to have a dialogue with the media on how to approach the topic of khatna or FGC in a culturally sensitive, non-sensationalized portrayal.  

We wish to empower the media about the nuances of FGC practiced by the Dawoodi Bohra community, provide resources to the media about how to report on gender violence in a beneficial way, as well as speak of the challenges FGC activists have encountered or are likely to encounter in this line of work.

The media training workshop in August will be Sahiyo’s first workshop of this kind in Mumbai. Watch our website for more details.

On Sunday September 4th, Sahiyo’s cofounder, Mariya Taher, participated on a panel entitled, “Gender Justice: A Discussion with Policymakers, Religious Actors, and Activists” at the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

 The Secretary’s Office of Religion and Global Affairs at the U.S. Department of State partnered with Muslim community leaders and organizations to promote gender justice in issues ranging from calls for greater inclusion of women of faith in peace-building to advocating against gender-based violence, including female genital cutting. The panel brought together a diverse set of religious actors, policymakers, and civil society activists to address promoting gender justice within Muslim communities, both domestically and globally. The panel was moderated by Arsalan Suleman and the speakers included Maryum Saifee, Hind Makki, Mariya Taher, Reyhana Patel.

Both Mariya and Reyhana addressed the topic of FGC and how their organizations are working towards shedding light on this form of gender violence, often misperceived as a practice rooted in religion. Mariya discussed Sahiyo’s storytelling platform that has crowdsourced testimonials from members of the Dawoodi Bohra community on FGC. Rehyana, from Islamic Relief Canada discussed her report on FGC in Indonesia. The panel also addressed the powerful work of women religious leaders in peace-building and humanitarian assistance.

To learn about the “Gender Justice” panel, read more here on the U.S. Department of State Official Blog in a write-up by Maryum Saifee.

And as Maryum writes:

Panel discussions like the one at ISNA are important platforms. They highlight both the structural challenges and limitations Muslim women continue to face, but also show how they are on the frontlines promoting gender justice in their communities.

To view a video of the panel discussion, click here.

Sahiyo is excited to announce that the Wallace Global Fund has awarded a $30,000 grant to Orchid Project, as support for the organizational setup of Sahiyo. The Orchid Project has a vision of a world free from FGC and Sahiyo is a transnational organization with the mission to empower Dawoodi Bohra and other Asian communities to end FGC and create positive social change through dialogue, education and collaboration based on community involvement. Both Orchid Project and Sahiyo want to put Asian communities on the map of areas affected by FGC.

Sahiyo’s founding group includes a social worker, a researcher, two filmmakers and a journalist, all of whom had already been speaking out, in their own ways, against the practice of khatna or FGC. As the collaboration grew, Sahiyo’s founders realized the need for an organized, informed forum within the community that could help drive a movement to bring an end to FGC. That is how Sahiyo, the organization, was born. Sahiyo is the Bohra Gujarati word for ‘saheliyo’, or friends, and reflects our organization’s mission to engage in dialogue with the community to find a collective solution towards ending the practice of FGC.

For generations, the practice was clouded in secrecy, and thus a first goal of Sahiyo’s was to break the silence shrouding the continuation of the practice. In July 2015, Sahiyo launched an exploratory online survey to understand the purpose, extent and impact of khatna among Bohras. The survey was created with inputs from experts like Dr. Gerry Mackie, Molly Melching (Tostan), and members of the German-Iraqi NGO Wadi. More than 400 women completed the survey in the six months that the survey was open. Preliminary results indicated that close to 80% of respondents stated that khatna was performed on them. Survey results also showed a definite need for community awareness and engagement programs to bring the subject of FGC out of the realm of secrecy and promote discussions about its adverse effects. As a result Sahiyo began community mobilization to end FGC by engaging in the following activities: peer-to-peer counselling, storytelling and undertaking extensive online outreach programs through various public awareness and advocacy campaigns.

With support from the Wallace Global Fund, Sahiyo is moving towards the development of sustainable programs that can both strengthen Sahiyo organizationally and increase our capacity to work on FGC in a meaningful way.

Thank you Wallace Global Fund for your support!