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Day of Zero Tolerance to FGM: Progress in Asia
Press release by WADI / Stop FGM Middle East & Asia
February 6th 2017. On the seventh official International Day of Zero Tolerance to female genital mutilation (FGM), it has been 13 years, that WADI first brought the issue FGM happening in Asia, in this case Iraq, to the international agenda. In this last decade WADI’s campaign against FGM in Iraq has yielded great success as a recent study by the Heartland Alliance in cooperation with Unicef and the High Council of Women Affairs shows. The rates of FGM in Northern Iraq have decreased dramatically when comparing mothers and daughters. Among mothers surveyed 44,8% reported to be cut compared to 10,7% of their daughters. The success of a comprehensive campaign becomes even more evident when looking at the figures of regions where WADI’s campaign started and has been going on since more than ten years: In the region of Halabja only 1.1% of daughters are cut today in comparison to 40% of mothers. (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.
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…)
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.
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…)
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…)
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.
In Australia, three Dawoodi Bohras face Supreme Court trial for circumcising their daughters
17.9.2015. By Areefa Johari. Female genital mutilation is illegal in Australia. But in India, where Dawoodi Bohras are the only known community to practice the ritual, there is no law against it.
In the first case of its kind for the Dawoodi Bohra community, three Bohras living in Australia are facing a Supreme Court trial for practicing genital mutilation on two minor girls. (more…)
DIWA: Nigeria bans Female Genital Mutilation: Shouldn’t India follow suit?
16.9.2015. Nigeria made history by outlawing female genital mutilation. The act falls under the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act 2015 and the bill, which was passed in May was recently enacted into the law.
While Nigeria joins hands with a worldwide movement that aims to eradicate the practice from all countries – U.N. eradicated the practice worldwide in 2012 – India, along with several Asian and African countries still continue the unlawful practice. The barbaric act, defined by WHO as the act of partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, continues to be carried out in tiny bylanes of the country, well hidden not only by those who do it, but also those who are exposed to it.