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23 May 2017 - NPWJ News Digest on FGM and women´s rights
Articles
Indian activists hail minister's call to end female genital mutilation
By Reuters, 22 May 2017
MUMBAI - Women activists campaigning to end female genital mutilation (FGM) in a minority Muslim community in India hailed a minister's pledge to introduce a law to end the centuries-old custom. FGM is secretly carried out by the close-knit Dawoodi Bohra community, a Shi'ite Muslim sect thought to number up to 2 million worldwide that considers the practice a religious obligation. Maneka Gandhi, the minister for women and child development, told the Hindustan Times newspaper this weekend she would write to state governments and the Bohra spiritual leader - the Syedna - to issue an edict to end FGM because it is a crime. "If the Syedna does not respond, then we will bring in a law to ban the practice in India," she was quoted as saying.
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South Africa: Thousands March Against Violence Against Women
By All Africa , 22 May 2017
Thousands of people participated in a mass demonstration against gender based violence in the capital Pretoria on Saturday under the slogan #notinmyname. People gathered at Church Square and marched to the Union Buildings. In a symbolic gesture the crowd was led by a barefoot woman dressed fully in white who organisers said was representative of all the women who have suffered abuse at the hands of men. Some held up signs bearing the names of women who have lost their lives in violent attacks by men. Among those marching was twenty four year old Bukelwa Moerane who recently survived an abduction. In February this year Bukelwa was threatened with harm and forced into a man's car at the Bara taxi rank in Diepkloof, Soweto. "While I was in the car I tried not to panic and looked for a way to escape. I noticed the doors were unlocked and decided to jump out," said Moerane.
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Female genital mutilation is a religious right claim lawyers in first US case on the practice
By The Independent, 22 May 2017
Defence lawyers will argue female genital mutilation is a religious right in the first ever federal case on the practice in the US. Two Detroit doctors and one of their wives have been charged with subjecting two seven-year-old girls to genital cutting. The defendants are part of a religious and cultural community called Dawoodi Bohra, an Islamic sect based in India, which is accused of practicing FGM. It is the first federal case of its kind in the US, where FGM was banned in 1996. Dr Jumana Nargarwala, 44, is alleged to have carried out the practice on young children for 12 years. Dr Fakhruddin Attar, 53, is accused of letting Nargarwala use his clinic to carry out the procedure, while his wife Farida Attar, 50, is accused of holding the hands of at least two victims during the cutting procedures to comfort them.
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House widens effort to fight female genital mutilation
By The Detroit News, 22 May 2017
House lawmakers are widening the effort to deter female genital mutilation in Michigan by expanding the scope of legislative proposals beyond criminalizing the practice. The House package would offer legal recourse to victims, extend the statute of limitations for survivors and revoke health care licenses for those convicted after two suburban Detroit doctors were charged federally with cutting 7-year-old girls. Nearly two-thirds of House members already support the package, said one bill sponsor, Rep. Michele Hoitenga, R-Manton. Fellow sponsor Rep. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit, said the House package would make the practice illegal under state law in addition to offering new education programs and updating a police training program, among other changes.
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Ivanka Trump praises Saudi Arabia on women's rights after country donates $100 million to her cause
By The Independent, 22 May 2017
Ivanka Trump has praised the progress of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia after the country and the United Arab Emirates pledged to donate $100 million to the first World Bank's global project for women entrepreneurs. Speaking in Saudi Arabia as her father met with Arab and Islam leaders, Ms Trump said progress in the nation was “encouraging” but said there was “still a lot of work to be done”. "In every country around the world women and girls continue to face unique systematic, institutional, cultural barriers, which hinder us from fully engaging in and achieving true parity of opportunity within our communities," she said at a roundtable of women leaders in society, businesswomen and elected government officials.
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