'I was crying with unbearable pain': study reveals extent of FGM in India. By Angel L Martínez Cantera
Just weeks after the
Indian government declared that there was no
data to support the existence of female genital mutilation in the
country, a small study has shown a 75% incidence across the Bohra Muslim
community. “My mum told me that a
lady would come to remove some extra skin from down there. When the day came,
my great-grandmother was holding me tight on her bed,” said 26-year-old “SH”, a
law student cited in the report, recalling how she had been cut at the age of
seven.
She remembers “sitting
on the toilet, crying of unbearable pain, too scared to even pee”. Her mother
had reassured her that “everyone in the building has undergone this procedure”,
referring to the blocks of flats in Byculla, in the heart of Mumbai, where the
Bohra Muslim community has lived for decades. Her account and those
of 83 women and 11 men across five Indian states are included in the first-ever
study about female genital mutilation (FGM) in India, compiled by
three independent researchers and a coalition of Bohra women against FGM.
The qualitative
research, which was released in February, shows the prevalence of FGM among
India’s Bohra Muslims – 75% of respondents said they had subjected their
daughters to the practice. The survey was conducted with respondents in
communities across the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Rajasthan and Kerala.
One of the most recent
instances of FGM mentioned in the study was in May 2017, when a 41-year-old
woman was reported to have taken her daughter to the hospital because she was
“bleeding so heavily [that] the blood had soaked three bedsheets”. In accordance with the
World Health Organization classification,
the study reveals that all the affected women had undergone FGM type 1, the
partial or total removal of the clitoris… read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/mar/06/study-reveals-fgm-india-female-genital-mutilationsee also
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