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Yearly Archives: 2015
BBC: Indian women who are fighting to stop genital mutilation
23.1.2015. The cruel practice of female genital mutilation is banned in many countries globally, but it remains widespread among the Bohras – a small Muslim community in India. Now, some Bohra women have started a campaign demanding an end to the ritual, writes the BBC’s Geeta Pandey in Delhi.
When Masooma Ranalvi was seven years old, her grandmother took her out promising to buy her an ice-cream and some candies.
“I was very excited so I went along happily with her,” she told me.
“When she took me to a decrepit old building, I started to wonder what kind of an ice-cream parlour it was. Then she took me to a room, made me lie down on a rug on the floor and pulled my pants down.
Read whole article
Study in Iran: They call it tradition because they believe it is a prophetic tradition
14.12.2015. By Rayehe Mozafarian
For most of the people, it is surprising that Female Genital Mutilation is still happened in Iran and African countries have created in their minds when they hear the term of FGM/C for the first time. While it can be found in most parts of the world with different percentages. The main cause of the widespread prevalence of FGM/C is the migration. Many studies have been done in Iran. Some Iranian researchers believe that FGM/C has fallen sharply but is still common. There are no figures from the past. Therefore, there is no way to measure how much this practice has declined in Iran. So it is important to point out that Iranian girls are the victims of FGM/C in some parts of the south and west. (more…)
Petition to End FGM in India
At the age of seven, I was subjected to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Mumbai, in a most unhygienic and clandestine manner. The shock and trauma of that day are still with me.
Like me, there are thousands of my Dawoodi Bohra sisters who have been subjected to genital cutting as children and even today thousands of Bohra girls are being subjected to this practice, since it has been ordained by the clergy of our community. (more…)
Vagabomb: In Historic Protest, 17 Women Fight against Female Genital Mutilation in India
7.12.2015. By Sukhmani Waraich
While reading about female genital mutilation, most people picture an impoverished African country where such a heinous practice could only be carried out in cut-off, uneducated tribal areas, far away from “civilisation.” Never do we think that little girls go through this torture much closer to home, in India. But it is a reality for women of the predominantly Muslim Dawoodi Bohra community in Gujarat and Mumbai. The practice entails circumcision with a razor blade, without anaesthesia and is done on girls before they turn five. (more…)
Annual Report 2015 out
18.11.2015. Read in our annual report 2015 about our networking and advocacy work last year and the many activities taking place in Iran. (more…)
The logical Indian: Female Genital Mutilation – A Barbaric Practice Leaving Scars On Millions Of Women Worldwide
14.10.2015. By Richa Verma.
It is what my grandmother called the three feminine sorrows.
She said the day of circumcision, the wedding night and the births of a baby are the triple feminine sorrows.
Feminine Pains (poem, 1998)
-Dahabo Ali Muse, Somali.
Independent: Isis may have issued a fatwa introducing FGM in Mosul – but cutting in the Middle East is not new
11.10.2015. By John Chua.
Nearly a decade ago, the NGO I work with began to document Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Iraqi Kurdistan. At first people there wouldn’t talk about the issue and some denied its existence. Kurdish grandmothers even told us their own sons would beat or kill them if people found out they spoke about this taboo subject.
When we published the result of our surveys that showed the overall mutilation rate across most of Kurdistan was 72 per cent of women. Experts in the West were shocked. Few had realised the problem even existed in this region before, let alone the extent we had been able to expose. (more…)
New Study from Iran: Female Genital Mutilation Impedes Men’s Well-Being
9.10.2015. By Stop FGM Middle East.
A new study about psychological and psycho-physical consequences of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Iran found that FGM has negative effects for both wife and husband. The study “Couples Victim of FGM” brings a new aspect into the discussion about consequences of FGM because men have so far not been an object of empirical research in connection with FGM. As concluded by the psychologist and researcher Osman Mahmoudi, husbands married to women who have undergone FGM suffer from sexual dysfunction, marital dissatisfaction and have a lower level of mental health. (more…)
Cutting the clitoris: Indonesia continues practice to prevent women from having sex
5.10.2015. by Kate Walton. One reason piercing the clitoris is popular in Indonesia is because it is believed to reduce women’s sexual desire and libido
A friend of mine recently messaged me in shock: “I just read a UNICEF brief that says millions of women in Indonesia have undergone female circumcision. I had no idea.”
Jakarta Globe: Despite Ban, Female Genital Mutilation widespread in Indonesia
18.9.2015. By Bastian Scheerpen.
More than 140 million women worldwide have experienced female genital mutilation, but not everybody knows that many of them live in Indonesia, where over half of girls under 11 are subjected to the dangerous practice that is widely condemned internationally.
Now, with research indicating that government regulations and religious decrees have little to no impact on the prevalence of FGM, activists and officials are making themselves heard once more, to call for a comprehensive solution. (more…)