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Yearly Archives: 2016
Short film: Razor and Tradition
26.10.16. Our partner Rayehe Mozafarian made a short film about FGM in Iran which shows that it is still done in the villages to curb a girl’s lust and desire. But the tradition is fading because apparently some Mollahs have recommended to stop it (with English subtitles).
Survey: Majority of religious leaders pro FGM in Kermansheh, Iran
11.8.2016. By Stop FGM Middle East. A recent survey among Sunni religous scholars in the Iranian province of Kermansheh shows that a majority of them (67%) believe that “female circumcision” is religiously obligatory or at least recommended for girls and women. In this province in the West of Iran, female genital mutilation (FGM) is practiced by Sunni Kurds who adhere to the Shafi’i law school. Many of them believe that Islam commands them to have their girls cut. (more…)
How a religious ruling seems to have stopped FGM in the 1950s in Ahwaz, Iran
9.8.2016 By Stop FGM Middle East. Two new studies shed more light on the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the Middle East. For the first time, a study explores whether FGM is practiced in Syria – and comes to the conclusion that no evidence of its existence can be found.
Another study explores the history of FGM in the region of Ahwaz in the South-Western Iranian state of Khuzestan. Through talking to older women the PhD-student Susie Latham found that FGM was common in this region but has been abandoned completely without any official program in place. Furthermore, she found that it was first replaced by a milder form before the practice was stopped entirely.
Iran: New book about FGM is distributed among health workers
5.7.2016. By Osman Mahmoudi. The practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) affects Kurdish women and girls in the Iranian province of Kermanshah and continues within a complex web of social, cultural and economic justification. It is medically unnecessary and has adverse physical, sexual and psychosocial consequences. (more…)
Sahiyo: No, even ‘symbolic’ or ‘mild’ female genital cutting is NOT okay
2.7.2016. Should mild forms of Female Genital Cutting (FGC) be legalised? Should supposedly “harmless” nicking or slicing of clitoral tissue be medicalised, simply because getting communities to completely stop FGC happens to be a very difficult task?
There has always been some support for mild, medicalised FGC, chiefly from communities that claim to practice female “circumcision” and see it as completely different and divorced from any form of genital “mutilation”. And for years, this view has been firmly refuted by survivors and activists who don’t want any girl to experience the trauma, betrayal and potential harm that even the least severe forms of FGC can cause. (more…)
Sahiyo: Bohra Men Speak Out to Save Their Daughters from Female Genital Mutilation
27.6.2016. The fatwa given during the Zikra majlis by Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin in favor of female genital cutting dug up the wound in my heart, which is also the reason I am writing this post.
Looking at parts from the audio clip leaked from the majlis, at one point, Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin says what translates to English as:
“It must be done. If it is a man, it can be done openly and if it is a woman it must be discreet. But the act must be done. Do you understand what I am saying? Let people say what they want.”
Malaysia: female genital mutilation on the rise
22.6.2016. By Zofia Reych
Walls in the reception of the Global Ikhwan clinic in Rawang, north of Kuala Lumpur, are pale pink and a nice, if medical, scent is hanging in the air. A fashionable headscarf conceals the black hair of Najwa, a 24-year old woman, standing at the counter. She is wearing high heels and light blue denim trousers. Holding her five-year-old daugher firmly by the hand, Najwa is making an appointment with Dr. Mighilia Aziza, an obstetrician and a gynecologist. (more…)
LA Times: A rebellion inside a small Indian sect seeks to end a brutal custom: female genital mutilation
12.6.2016. By Shashank Bengali and Parth M.N.
When she was 7, Saleha Paatwala’s grandmother took her out for what she thought would be a party.
“I was told it would be a huge gathering where kids like me would also be,” Paatwala said.
Instead she found herself in a dark, messy room where three other women were waiting. They pulled her down, held her hands and feet so she couldn’t move and slipped off her underwear as she screamed.
Promosaik: Genitalverstümmelung macht die ganze Gesellschaft krank
25.04.2016. Von Milena Rampoldi
Hannah Wettig, Projektleiterin bei Stop FGM Middle East gibt uns ein eindrückliches Interview. Es ist wichtig hervorzuheben, wie FGM (female genital mutilation – Weibliche Genitalverstümmelung) ein schwerer Verstoß gegen die Kinder- und Frauenrechte ist und dass FGM uns alle als Gesellschaft weltweit betrifft. Wir müssen aufdecken, wie FGM gerechtfertigt und sogar mit Religion gedeckt wird. Aber FGM bleibt eine brutale Tradition, die Frauen ihr Leben kaputtmacht. Deshalb müssen wir das Tabu brechen und darüber sprechen, dass es eine FGM-freie Welt braucht. (more…)
Culture and Rights: The Struggle From Within to End Female Genital Cutting
April 25, 2016. By Anubha Bhonsle
Ashraf and Shazia use the word “guilt” often.* Their voices tremble as they rewind to the day when they read an article in an Indian magazine, Manorama, that opened their eyes to the reality of khatna – the practice of female genital mutilation among their community. “We felt guilt – immense, powerful guilt – when we realized that this was not needed, that we didn’t need to put our elder daughter through this,” the parents say. “We had no idea this was just going on, prevalent, generation after generation.” (more…)