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09 May 2017 - NPWJ News Digest on FGM & women's rights
Articles
Supreme Court seeks govt's response on PIL for ban on female circumcision
by The Times of India, 09 May 2017
Days before final hearings on petitions challenging the validity of 'triple talaq', the Supreme Court sought on Monday the Centre's and four states' response on a PIL seeking a ban on the ritual of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the Dawoodi Bohra community. A bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul issued notice to four central ministries — law and justice; health and family welfare; social justice and empowerment; and women and child development — and the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Delhi. While entertaining a PIL filed by advocate and social activist Sunita Tiwari, the bench said, "The petition has highlighted an extremely important yet sensitive issue." The petitioner said the practice of 'khatna' or 'female circumcision' or 'khafd' carried out on minor girls amounted to a "serious violation of the rights of children as even minors have a right of security of person, right to privacy, bodily integrity and the freedom from cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment". The petition said though the Dawoodi Bohras were among the most educated in India, yet "it is the only Muslim community in India to practise FGM... The practice has nothing to do with religion and is more of a cultural practice". Seeking a complete ban on the "extremely secretive" ritual and its classification as a criminal offence, Tiwari said that, in the name of an archaic ritual, a lot of physical and psychological damage was being inflicted on each girl and woman of the community.
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How Muslim Activists Are Working To End Female Genital Mutilation In The U.S.
By The Huffington Post, 08 May 2017
Female genital mutilation is an internationally recognized violation of the human rights of girls. In the United States, it’s considered a federal sex crime. For Dawoodi Bohras, a small, insular sect within Shia Islam, it’s still a deeply-engrained cultural tradition. The recent arrest of a Dawoodi Bohra physician in the U.S. for FGM is highlighting just how important the work of activists within the community is to putting a stop to this long-held cultural practice. The Dawoodi Bohras are an about 1.2 million member sect based primarily in the western Indian city of Mumbai. For generations, Bohras have practiced a form of FGM called khatna, or khafz. The practice has continued in secret after members immigrated to countries around the world, like Pakistan, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. An exploratory online survey suggested that khatna is very common for Bohra women ― 80 percent of respondents to the global survey said that they had undergone the procedure.Khatna is understood as a religious requirement for Bohras, but is rarely spoken about in mosques. But over the past few years, a number of Bohra men and women have started campaigning against the practice. In 2015, a group of five women who had already been speaking out against FGM individually came together to form a group called Sahiyo (a Bohra Guajrati word for “friends.”) Through social media campaigns, workshops, and videos, the group seeks to end female genital mutilation in the Bohra community in India and around the world. In the days following Nagarwala’s arrest, activists at Sahiyo said they’ve been flooded with support from members of the community. Stories and blogs have been pouring in, as Bohras sought to share their reactions to the arrest. The writers shared feelings of vindication, anxiety, and significantly, hope ― that the high profile case would finally compel more people in the community to stop this ancient form of gender violence.
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Kenya: Karen Hospital Helps Restore Women's Dignity
by AllAfrica, 08 May 2017
The Karen Hospital will for the next few days be offering free surgery to reconstruct the sexual organs of women who have undergone female genital mutilation. In a drive dubbed 'Restore Pink Plus', FGM survivors will undergo clitoroplasty surgery, a clitoral reconstructive operation, with the aim of restoring the function of the clitoris and the women's dignity. Surgeons carrying out the procedure say the operation could stop pain, help women feel sexual pleasure and restore their identity and femininity. "The initiative has been designed to assist FGM victims undergo clitoral reconstruction in order to restore their identity and dignity and rejuvenate the clitoris's sensation," Dr Abdullahi Adan, who is pioneering the initiative, said. Dr Adan, the Grand Round Coordinator, Department of Surgery at the University of Nairobi and plastic, aesthetic and reconstructive Surgeon at The Karen and Kenyatta National hospitals, and Dr Marci Bowers, Clitoraid's obstetrics/gynaecology surgeon from the USA, will be the lead surgeons. The procedure being pro-bono, patients will not be charged the doctor's fee but will only pay for consumables. This will be the first time such a surgery is being conducted in Kenya. Most FGM survivors suffer painful side-effects and a loss of sexual pleasure.
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If you want to know about Muslim women's rights, ask Muslim women
by The Guardian, 07 May 2017
Within minutes of arriving to collect my professionally bound thesis, I found myself on the receiving end of an unsolicited and impenetrable rant about female genital mutilation. “What’s your paper on?” the shop owner inquired. “It’s on Muslim women and … ,” I began, but before I could finish my sentence, he had launched into the subject. The fact that I hadn’t even mentioned the words “female genital mutilation” was irrelevant; merely saying “Muslim women” was a wide enough rabbit hole for him to dart down. My presence as a Muslim woman and my half-delivered topic were the only encouragement he needed. That he felt authorised to deliver a lecture to me about his understanding of the allegedly sexist treatment of women in Islam, the very subject of my years-long PhD dissertation, didn’t surprise me. This was not the first time a stranger had felt entitled to raise the potential religious interference of my genitals with me. It’s uncanny how often people try to demonstrate their concern about the alleged oppression of Muslim women by humiliating them. Even finding out the details of my research findings doesn’t seem to deter them from baldly sharing opinions. When I was neck-deep in my doctoral research, I attended a black-tie journalism-industry dinner on a windy Sydney night. Some of Australia’s most intelligent and perceptive thinkers were in the well-dressed crowd. I had grown accustomed to answering questions about my subject. I had also grown quite used to the standard responses I received to my thesis, and habitually gave ambiguous answers to avoid them.
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