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.
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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…)