On Oct 21st in Berkeley, CA, a team of Sahiyo activists organized the first California Bay Area Thaal Pe Charcha (TPC). This Sahiyo flagship program allows Bohra women to come together in a private, informal setting so that they can bond over food and discuss issues that affect their lives, like Female Genital Cutting or Khatna. The program started in Mumbai, India in 2017 and is being piloted in the United States in 2018 in New York and California. For the organizers of the California Bay Area TPC, the weeks leading up to the event were full of excitement and anticipation for what they hoped would be the start of new friendships in the Bay Area.  

This is what one organizer, Sabiha Basrai, has to say about the program:

“Sharing space with an inter-generational group of Bohra women was healing and inspiring. I was able to embrace my Bohra identity in a new way and celebrate the special bonds that we build in our community, take pride in our cultural and religious history, and of course, enjoy a shared meal around a thaal. It is difficult to talk about the patriarchy that exists within our jamaats and I am grateful that TPC created a safe and confidential space to hear each other’s stories and to remind one another that we are not alone in these struggles.  We are all figuring out how to practice our faith with feminist values. This means challenging certain social norms that are oppressive to women, such as khatna or female genital cutting while recognizing that empowering women is a very Muslim thing to do.

I am grateful for the patient and supportive work of Sahiyo and look forward to the continued work bringing about gender justice in our communities.” 

By Saleha 

Country of Residence: Canada
Age: 45

Having lived in South-East Asia, and being exposed to multiple races and cultures, I grew up in a very open-minded family. As a child, my family and I occasionally went to the local Bohra mosque to socialize with others in the community. I loved going to the “masjid” – there I got a chance to meet my best friend and also eat delicious Bohri food. It was wonderful to see all the aunties dressed up in “onna ghagra” which are colourful skirts with matching chiffon scarves draped around the head. After the prayers, everyone congregated outside and chatted into the late hours of the night.

Then suddenly in the early 90s it all changed. The upper echelons of the Bohra clergy instated new rules. The progressive Dawoodi Bohras were no more; instead, women were forced to wear a form of hijab called “rida” and men were made to sport a beard, wear a kurta, and “topi” or a cap on their heads. The clergy, headed by the Syedna, began to exert control over everything. Permission from Syedna was required not only for religious matters but in daily life as well. For example, permission was needed to start a business, get married or even to be buried. Female Genital Cutting or khatna was deemed necessary, even though that act of it is not prescribed in the Koran. If any of the rules were not followed, or if you protested and spoke against them, you were excommunicated or threatened to be. You’d lose all your ties to friends and family forever.

I can never forget the awful day, when I was seven, while on a holiday in India, my aunt asked me to go shopping with her. She took me to a dingy place where a Bohri man and woman took me inside. They asked me to undress waist down, and when I protested, the man held my hands while the woman removed my jeans and underwear and forced me to lie down. I saw the man take out a blade and I struggled and screamed for help, while they proceeded to cut me. I lay bleeding on the floor, unable to comprehend what had happened to me. It was horrific, painful, and demeaning. I hated what was done to me. I hated that my mom was not there. I was angry at my aunt for allowing them to hurt me.

I remember that experience vividly and to this day I am infuriated that I had to go through this ordeal as a child in the name of religion. While the majority of the Muslim communities around the world have spoken against this, the Dawoodi Bohra religious authorities urge continuing FGC under the guise of cleanliness. The worst part is that some women push this practise on vulnerable children too young to give consent, instead of protecting them as adults should.

It was a difficult time for me. Having grown up with all the freedom in the world, it was  suddenly being taken away from me and I grew cynical of my Bohra culture and wanted no part of it. Today, I am happy I decided to leave the fold. It was not hard to leave. In fact, it was liberating. I was not comfortable with the more rigorous path that my community was taking. I am sure there are many other Bohri people out there who are quietly questioning many of the beliefs handed down to them – some so silly, useless, and others very damaging – Bohris must refrain from using Western toilets; Bohris cannot host or attend wedding functions in secular, non-Bohra venues; brides can apply mehndi only an inch below the wrist and cannot hold the traditional “haldi” functions; and all Bohris must carry a RFID photo ID which will monitor attendance to the mosque.  

Humanity has achieved such remarkable progress. We have ventured into space, developed cloning and gene editing technologies, and most importantly, the Internet has resulted in globalization and interconnection between various cultures and communities. In this light, I wonder why we are still talking about FGC and the right to choose to do it to our daughters in this day and age? I am thankful that organizations like Sahiyo and We Speak Out have become a voice for children who are being hurt in the name of religion.

I look at my children and I see the most informed, connected, and progressive generation. Imposing impractical, harmful religious rules such as continuing FGM on such a generation will only drive them further from our culture. More and more Bohri women and men are speaking out against this harmful practise because whenever religion becomes too rigid, too corrupt, it begins to crack. My hope is that our community can find the strength to break free from all the rigid practices and once again become the most progressive community among the Muslims.

On October 7, Sahiyo co-founder Aarefa Johari and We Speak Out founder Masooma Ranalvi participated in a panel discussion on Female Genital Cutting in India, at the We the Women summit organised by veteran journalist Barkha Dutt in Bangalore. Prominent human rights activist Srilatha Batliwala moderated the discussion.

The event was attended by more than 200 people in Bangalore and was streamed live on social media. Ranalvi and Johari shared their personal experiences of being subjected to FGC and discussed various aspects of the problem from the need to engage with the community to end the practice and the significance of a law against it.

You can watch the complete video of the discussion here.

The event was a follow up to a similar We the Women summit in Mumbai in December 2017, when Sahiyo co-founder Insia Dariwala spoke about the practice along with Mubaraka and Zohra, two survivors of FGC. You can watch last year’s video here.

Sahiyo is pleased to introduce our inaugural U.S. Advisory Board. As our U.S. operations and programs have grown, the advisory board will provide strategic advice to the management of our organization, and ensure that we continue fulfilling our mission to empower communities to end Female Genital Cutting and create positive social change through dialogue, education, and collaboration based on community involvement. Advisory board members will be supporting a human rights driven organization dedicated to creating a world without Female Genital Cutting through dialogue, education and direct community involvement.

Join us in welcoming the team: Maria Akhter, Renee Bergstrom, Alisha Bhagat, Insia Dariwala, Dr. Melody Eckardt, Joanne Golden, Priya Goswami, Aarefa Johari, Zehra Patwa, Maryum Saifee, and Joanna Vergoth.

A new change.org petition calling for an end to Female Genital Cutting in the Bohra community was started in September by Ranjana Sehgal and Umi Saran.

The petition is addressed to Dr. Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, the spiritual leader of the Bohra community, and was started in response to the Syedna’s visit to Indore to give sermons during the first ten holy days of Muharram.

As the petition mentions, “Although the matter is already in the Apex Court if the directive to end FGM comes from the spiritual head of the Bohra community, it will be easier to put an end to this violent practice. The Government of India’s WCD Ministry has said that FGM is in clear contravention of our laws, the Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO).”

Over 16,000 supporters have already signed, and the campaign’s next goal is reaching 25,000 signatures.  If you would like to support by signing, click here.

By Brionna Wiggins

Earlier this year I had no idea about female genital cutting (FGC). None whatsoever. I mean, events happen all the time around the world and I’m not aware of the dozens of happenings that occur day-to-day. But for FGC to go on without so much as a whisper of this harmful practice, I thought was rather strange. 

I learned about FGC when I was given an assignment during my junior year in high school. It was a Pre-Senior Project, which was essentially a practice before our year-long project we had to do for our final year of high school. Ideally, we were to choose a topic that pertained to our passions or a problem related to us on some level. I was at a loss for what to choose. Everyone around me jotted down several potential ideas, but my ideas were comparatively vague. By day two or so, I sat with my teacher to make a final decision. My teacher wrenched out my distaste for injustice and helped me narrow the target of people who undergo it. She typed online in the search bar something along the lines of “issues involving women and children” and there it popped up–female genital cutting.

I was appalled when I first learned about it. To reiterate, I had no idea this tradition existed and I wondered how it continued to go on. Why did women and men subject their daughters to this? What was the appeal? I dug deeper, finding out the reasons behind FGC. In some communities, while the intention was to keep daughters clean or marriageable, it was done at the cost of carrying out a potentially traumatic procedure that could leave the woman or girl with a handful of health issues afterward.

However, the concept of cultural relativism impeded criticism and questioning, while justifying the tradition. The idea that because one has not lived in a certain community or society, they can’t truly pass judgment on the cultural practices of others. Two people living in two different places across the world from each other naturally grow up with different experiences. Who is to say that another’s culture and traditional practices are objectively wrong? What is considered wrong when it comes to culture? Outsiders may feel as if they do not have a voice in regard to scrutinizing FGC because it’s an issue beyond their homes. Therefore, proponents of FGC claim that the divide or differences between two groups is too great to judge each other. Admittedly, I initially agreed with the notion of cultural relativism. Who was I to criticize people who carry out FGC in their communities when I knew nothing of their lives? Even so, remaining in place and staying quiet, doesn’t sit well with me, especially if I could be a person who brings awareness to FGC being a human rights violation. The excuse of cultural relativism shouldn’t be used when people are being harmed.

I continued researching FGC for my project the next school year, my senior year in high school. This time, the project had to be more extensive, including a longer research paper, another presentation, and some sort of final product. This ranges from documentaries to creating design plans. With all this work I was doing, I thought maybe I could make some sort of difference. I needed a mentor for guidance, one who is an expert on the topic. I sent out an email or two before finding Mariya, a co-founder of Sahiyo. The organization specializes in advocacy regarding FGC, even working with affected communities to diminish the practice. By sharing the stories of women involved with FGC, a wider audience becomes aware of the issue with a deeper understanding. With the combined efforts of multiple organizations and people from different walks of life, the perception of practicing communities will change. Then, I believe, FGC will become part of the past.

Over the course of my project, I hope to improve my advocacy skills and fully understand the issue that I’ve been invested in for the past couple of months. So far, researching FGC and looking into multiple perspectives has encouraged me to consider my own views on the topic. By the end, I will have figured out my ethical priorities. For the rest of my blog posts, I want to look into a handful of countries where FGC is practiced and talk about the circumstances around them. Until next time!

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Brionna is currently a high school senior in the District of Columbia. She likes drawing, helping others, and being able to contribute to great causes.