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Uncut Voices: FGM where you wouldn’t expect to find it – in IRAN
6.2.2016. by Uncut Voices. When Kameel Ahmady, an aid worker in Africa, encountered FGM, he was at first unsuspecting of the discovery that awaited him on return to his native Iran. Yes, he knew ‘circumcision’ of girls took place in his country, but the secret had been so well-kept that he “was shocked to discover [it among] the closest members of [his] own family.”1 (more…)
FGM: Slow progress when talking to the UN about numbers
5.2.2016, by Stop FGM Middle East
UNICEF just came out with new numbers on FGM. Instead of 140 million, the United Nations Children’s fund now estimates the number of women and girls having undergone female genital mutilation worldwide to be at least 200 million. Those extra 60 million come from adding Indonesia to the list of countries “where FGM is most concentrated”.
But FGM in Indonesia is no news. Everybody who is concerned with FGM knows that the practice is widespread not only in Indonesia, but also in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Brunei. In the case of Indonesia, there were several small and large studies showing how widespread FGM was. In 2003, a large-scale study by the Population Council and USAID found that 86-100% of girls aged 19 reported to be “circumcised” (number of households surveyed: 1694). (more…)
Day of Zero Tolerance: Campaign in Kurdistan in danger
Stop FGM Middle East Press Release, Suleymaniah and Berlin, February 6th 2016
After a most successful year campaigning against female genital mutilation (FGM) in Iraqi Kurdistan and many countries in the Middle East and Asia, WADI has to announce that large parts of the campaign will not continue. (more…)
United Nations Population Fund: Speaking out against female genital mutilation in Indonesia
4.2.2016 Source: United Nations Population Fund – Press Release/Statement
JAKARTA, Indonesia – “The day before I was discharged by the midwife, my daughter was circumcised. She is now three weeks old. When she becomes an adult, she will pray five times a day and read the Al Quran,” says Rosa, a young woman living in Jakarta, before expressing a common misconception in the country. “According to religion, an uncircumcised girl is considered dirty.” (more…)
India Today: Women Slam Cruel Tradition Of Female Circumcision
4.2.2016. Women from Dawoodi Bohra community have petitioned the government to ban the medieval and unscientific practice of female genital mutilation.
Female Genital Mutilation footmark in south of Iran
3.2.2015. On the occasion of International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM, we are featuring a background on the practice of FGM in the province of Hormozgan in Southern Iran. Our partner Rayehe Mozafarian who has done a study in that region is reporting about her encounters with traditional midwifes. (more…)
Beyond the Hijab: Let’s Talk About “Sunat Perempuan”
2.2.2016. On the occasion of International Day of Zero Tolerance towards FGM, women activists in Singapore have started a series on “sunat perempuan” on their blog “Beyond the Hijab”. This is the first entry which also talks about the workshop and regional meeting WADI and AWARE orgnized together in Singapore. (more…)
Unicef: Abandoning female genital mutilation, one village at a time
MURTKA, Iraq, 26 January 2016 — They remembered the day they were cut as if it was yesterday. Most said it happened around the age of five or six. To them, it’s the day they lost their trust in the person who brought them into this world — their mothers. (more…)
Wadi and Aware organize first ever conference on Female Genital Mutilation/ Cutting in Singapore
9.1.2016. By Hannah Wettig. Women from Malaysia, Thailand, India and Singapore joined on Thursday in Singapore to present their perspectives on FGM/C in their countries and discuss ways to eliminate the practice. It is the first time that such a meeting took place in Singapore and even in South East Asia as a whole, assumes Vivienne Wee, a founding member of the Singaporean women’s organization Aware. The Singaporean feminist organization organized the conference together with WADI as part of WADI’s Stop FGM in the Middle East & Asia campaign. (more…)
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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