(Article originally posted in Scroll.in on Feb 11, 2016) 

By Aarefa Johari

Three months after a group of Dawoodi Bohras was held guilty for female genital mutilation in a landmark verdict by an Australian court, community authorities have issued a notice to all Bohras in Australia asking them to obey the law of the land and stop the practice of khatna or female circumcision.

The notice has drawn cheers from Bohra activists campaigning to bring an end to the ancient ritual of female genital mutilation that is meant to moderate a woman’s sexual urges.

In November 2015, the Supreme Court of New South Wales found a Bohra mother, a retired nurse and a senior clergy member called Shabbir Vaziri guilty of carrying out genital cutting on two minor sisters between 2010 and 2012, when the girls were six and seven years old respectively.

The three people could face a maximum penalty of seven years in prison. Hearings to determine the quantum of punishment began on February 5 and are expected to go on for a while.

The Bohra ritual of khatna involves snipping off the tip of a young girl’s clitoris, which is defined by the World Health Organisation as Type I FGM. Even though female genital mutilation has been illegal in Australia since 1997, the Bohra case is the first to actually make it to the nation’s courtrooms.

It is also the first instance of anyone being arrested for khatna in the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community, whose members predominantly hail from Gujarat in India. The Bohras are the only community known to practice female genital cutting in India, and so far, many have continued to cut their girls even when they migrate to other countries where female genital mutilation is illegal.

The notice issued to Australian community members on February 9, however, could significantly alter this trend.

Obey the law of the land

The notice, emailed to all Australian Bohras in the form a resolution letter, came a day after the Anjuman-e-Burhani (Sydney) – a trust managing Bohra affairs in Australia – held a meeting to discuss khatna.

The letter begins by quoting a hadith (text comprising the teachings of Prophet Mohammed) which states that “love for the land of abode is part of faith”, making it part of Islamic tradition to “remain loyal to the country of abode and to be law abiding and contributory citizens”.

The letter goes on to state:

If the community follows the instructions of this notice, it would mean that Bohra girls in Australia will henceforth escape a painful ritual that has been practiced in the community for centuries. It could also mean that Bohra authorities might issue similar notices in other countries where female genital mutilation is illegal, including the US, UK and Canada.

No law in India yet

The notice has come at a time when a judge presiding over the female genital mutilation case pointed out, during a sentencing hearing on February 5, that the convicted mother and retired nurse have not expressed any remorse about performing genital cutting on the girls. They have not, he said, made any statement indicating that they now reject the practice or would be willing to speak out against it in their community.

The notice could also be seen as a reaction to the growing negative media attention to the practice of khatna among Bohras in the past year, as more and more women from the community have come forward to demand an end to the erstwhile secret ritual. In December, 17 Bohra women from around the world (disclosure: this reporter is among them) launched an online petition asking the Indian government to act against female genital cutting, which is not yet illegal in India. The petition has garnered more than 44,000 signatures so far.

‘A small victory’

Community members, particularly those in Australia, have welcomed the notice and are now eager to see the rest of the Bohra population around the world follow suit.

Zarine Hashim, a hospital administrator from Melbourne, reacted to the notice with a mix of emotions. “I felt happiness and elation as it was a small victory in the whole scheme of things, but also anger that it has taken a court case to make this happen,” said Hashim. “I really feel that the community, worldwide, needs to take this as an example and reassess the legal, physical and mental health consequences of the practice before performing it.”

To read the original article, click here. 

For far too long, FGC has been misunderstood and misrepresented as only an “African” problem. Indeed, we hear terrifying stories about the practice of FGC and the horrific physical and mental consequences on women and girls from those countries. Yet, there has been a huge silence on the occurrence of FGC in other parts of the globe, including Asia.

We are well aware that the practice occurs in India and amongst Diaspora Dawoodi Bohra communities around the globe. FGC is also known to occur in other asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan, amongst others. Just this past year, the United States conducted reported that around half a million women and girls are at risk of FGC in their country. Another 2015 report estimates that 137,000 women and girls are living with FGC in England and Wales.

Recognizing the prevalence of FGC, world leaders for the first time have prioritized the elimination of FGC under the goal of achieving gender equality as part of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals—a 15-year plan to help guide global development and funding in the “areas of critical importance for humanity and the planet.” To guide governments’ commitment to the goals, a UN expert group has proposed global indicators to hold states accountable. Prior to the implementation of U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, only “relevant countries” were asked to track this type of data. Meaning that the occurrence of FGC was only measured in 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East where UNICEF collected data. Thus for decades millions of other women and girls suffering from this ordeal who lived in countries not viewed as a “relevant countries” were ignored. However, now, we must commend the UN for recognizing the need to collect FGC data on a global scale as this will allow the UN to identify where else on the planet women and girls are affected and to what degree. A truly great step forward to bringing about an end to this form of gender violence.

(Trigger Warning: The story here is another woman’s experience of FGC. We thank her for being brave enough to share it with us.)

By Insiya Lokhandwala

Age: 33

Country: Mumbai, India

I remember going to Pune for vacation when I was seven. Once there, my eldest masi (aunt) took me to a building where there was an old woman who asked me to lay down and open my legs. I remember being scared. Then I saw a razor in her hand and I screamed at her to let me go. My aunt and mom pinned me down on the ground and said, “It will be over in a minute”. I remember the unbearable pain and then the old woman bandaged me down there and told me that I would be OK in a day or two. On our way home my aunt bought me a balloon and ice cream. She told me not to mention what had to me to my brothers who were around my age. Honestly, I have hated balloons since then and I don’t think I can forgive what they did to me.

No religion in the world can ask mothers to put their little girls through this pain. I wonder how so many mothers can do this to their own girl children. No matter the consequences of what might happen to me for telling my story, this practice must be stopped. The practice was a way of controlling women in ancient times. I think our community has advanced enough to know what’s right and what’s wrong. Khatna is wrong. What happened to me can’t be undone, but we can stop this from happening to future girls. Let our children be children without trauma. Don’t tarnish their childhood memories by having girls undergo unforgiving situations. They say jannat lies at the foot of a mother, but if this practice continues, no child will be able to trust in this saying.

(Trigger Warning: The story below is a powerful account of one woman’s memory of FGC. We are grateful to her for sharing with us the details of her experience.)

By Saleha Paatwala

Country: Noida, India 

Age: 23

I was 7 years of age when one day my grandma took me to an unfamiliar place. I was informed that it would be a huge gathering and children like me would come as well. We came to the second floor where we were advised to sit by a woman as old as my grandma. It didn’t appear to be exceptionally happening, and out of sheer interest I asked her why we were there – to which she just grinned and said that everybody was en route. What happened next will continue to haunt me until the end of time.

After an hour, one more woman came in and asked us to follow her. It was a miserable room on the terrace, small and messy. My grandma and I sat on the little bed. The woman took out some cotton, blade and some harsh fabric and I just couldn’t comprehend what was occurring. She asked me to lie down, but I was very young and could never have imagined anything terrible could happen. I just couldn’t understand what was happening. I believed my grandma and sat down when she insisted. The other woman now began removing my underwear. This sickened the hellfire out of me. I began fighting back, at which every one of the women, including my grandma, held my hands and feet tight so that I could not move. I was yelling as loud as possible, but no one was listening. After she had successfully taken off my underwear, the second woman spread my legs, grabbed the blade and cut something between my legs. The pain was anguishing and intolerable and it gave me an injury. She then put some cotton on that part and put my clothing back on. My grandma and two other women began giggling and saying, “Mubarak ho, iska khatna ho gaya hai.” (Congratulations, she has been circumcised).

At that age, who has ever considered going through such an agony in the most intimate area that no youngster would even like anybody to see or touch? I didn’t really see the amount of blood that had gushed out because I had no courage to. Only after I reached home and went to pee, I saw the cotton and figured it out. I couldn’t urinate properly for three days as it tormented me that much.

All these years, I never had the boldness to open up and discuss this. My grandma told me that ladies get to be devout after completing khatna, and I accepted that. Then one day, we were shown a film on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) at my college. It gave me goosebumps and took me all the way back to my childhood when I had been through this assault. In that film, my own community members were spreading awareness and battling this practice. It made me realise, unmistakably, that what happened wasn’t beneficial for me, wasn’t useful for anyone. That little film gave me so much courage that I can now share my dim story with everybody, even though it is still a taboo.

There is no religious aspect to this ritual. It is only a practice, a hazardous and destructive custom which is being perpetuated by individuals. It wasn’t just a little piece. It was a piece of me, my private area that no one has a right to touch without my consent. If Allah has sent us whole, why should we cut for the sake of god, to make a lady pious?

Voices against the practice of female genital cutting in the Bohra community seem to be getting louder and more numerous. The latest to speak out is an anonymous Bohra woman from the United Kingdom who was subjected to khatna as a child and remembers it as a traumatic incident. She has now launched a petition under the pseudonym “Luv Shabbir”, asking Nicky Morgan, a Member of Parliament in the UK, to do more to stop Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the Bohra community.

This is the third online petition started by women from within the community to demand a ban on khatna for girls. The first was by the anonymous ‘Tasleem’ in 2011; the second, ongoing petition by 17 women from ‘Speak Out on FGM’ has already gained almost 30,000 supporters. Both these petitions emerged from India, where there is no law against female genital cutting and where Bohras are the only known group following the practice.

In the United Kingdom, where several expat communities from Africa, the Middle-East and Asia follow various forms of FGC, the practice has been illegal since 1985. In recent years, the British government ahs been making concerted efforts to crack down on the practice. In this context, this latest petition by “Luv Shabbir” is indicative of two things: One, there is a growing desire among Bohra women to break the silence around khatna and speak out against it. Two, even in countries where there are laws against FGC, we have a long way to go before the practice meets its end.

To support the UK petition, sign here.