20 Jun 2017 - NPWJ News Digest on FGM & women's rights

Inside the Afghan School Where Girls Can Dress Like Girls
By National Geographic, 19 Jun 2017

In Afghanistan, obtaining a formal education can be a near-impossible goal for girls. Having grown up in Afghanistan—and having become one of the few women to go to college—Shabana Basij-Rasikh, a 2014 National Geographic Explorer, knows firsthand the challenges that some young girls face just to make it to and from the classroom. As a child, Basij-Rasikh dressed as a boy to walk to school in Taliban-held Afghanistan where no schools existed for girls. The practice is known as “bacha posh”—the literal translation from Dari is used to describe a girl “dressed like a boy” in Afghanistan. The tradition—highlighted in tonight’s episode of Explorer—allows girls to live in disguise as boys in the deeply conservative society where men and boys hold almost all the privileges, including accessing an education.

4th person charged in Detroit genital mutilation case
By CNN, 14 Jun 2017

A Detroit-area wife and mother accused of being involved in a federal female genital mutilation case was arrested Wednesday near her home and released hours later, under the condition that she doesn't talk to members of her religious community or attend her mosque. Tahera Shafiq, 48, is charged with conspiracy to commit female genital mutilation and aiding and abetting female genital mutilation. She is accused of entering the Burhani Medical Clinic, a Detroit-area clinic owned by Dr. Fakhruddin Attar and his wife, Farida, in February, when federal prosecutors allege the Attars allowed another Detroit-area doctor, Jumana Nagarwala, to perform female genital mutilation on two 7-year-old girls from Minnesota. Female genital mutilation is the cutting of part of a girl's genitals and has been illegal in the United States for decades, but this is the first federal case of its kind.