Pakistani girls from Dawoodi Bohra community continue to grapple with secretive practice of FGM: Report

Karachi [Pakistan], January 1 (ANI): Female genital mutilation (FGM) remains a prevalent yet largely unacknowledged practice among Pakistan's Dawoodi Bohra community, a Shia Muslim sect primarily originating from Gujarat, with estimates indicating that 75 per cent to 85 per cent of Dawoodi Bohra women in Pakistan undergo FGM, according to a report by Al Jazeera.
The FGM is often performed in private homes by older women using unsterilised tools and without anaesthesia, or by medical professionals in urban centres like Karachi. With an estimated 1,00,000 Dawoodi Bohras in Pakistan, the practice continues in secrecy.
According to the report, despite FGM receiving international attention in parts of Africa, most Pakistanis are unaware of its prevalence within their own borders. Lack of silence, public scrutiny or legal action allows the practice to persist unchecked. Comprehensive national data on FGM in Pakistan is nonexistent, and within the Dawoodi Bohra community, the procedure is referred to as "circumcision" rather than "mutilation."
Girls often undergo the procedure at a young age. Mariam, a 27-year-old survivor, recalls undergoing FGM at the age of seven and still grapples with its impact.
Mariam said as quoted by Al Jazeera, "When you question an authority, you are shown the way out. I feel like something is missing inside me. It's as if something has been taken away, and that has turned into a negative part of my body."
In 2016, Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, the global leader of the Dawoodi Bohra community, reaffirmed support for the practice, describing it as beneficial for the body and soul. He emphasised that female circumcision, or khatna, should be performed discreetly.
Saifuddin had said, "It must be done... if it is a woman, it must be discreet."
Citing the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey of 2017-18, Al Jazeera reported that 28 per cent of the country's women aged 15-49 have experienced physical violence, and 6 per cent have faced sexual violence. Additionally, 34 per cent of women who have ever been married have endured spousal physical, sexual, or emotional violence.
Despite these alarming statistics, Pakistan has no specific legislation criminalising FGM. While existing laws under the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), such as Sections 328A (child cruelty), 333 (amputation or dismemberment), and 337F (causing lacerations), could be applied, no known prosecutions have occurred, according to the report.
Domestic violence and child protection laws address physical harm but fail to include FGM. Although the government acknowledged the issue in a 2006 National Plan of Action, no steps have been taken to eradicate the practice.
As per the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in Pakistan, mainly in Karachi, the Bohra community has the practice of FGM but this practice takes place secretly with Bohri girls when they are just seven years old.
It is reported that these are not only Pakistani Bohri girls who suffer through this agony but young British girls of Pakistani origin are brought by their Bohri parents to Pakistan for a couple of weeks to carry out the FGM procedure. The practice is also found in Muslim communities near the Iran-Pakistan border.
It is claimed that nearly "90 per cent of Bohra girls are forced to undergo female genital mutilation." If 90 per cent of girls in the community go through this, the Institute for Social Justice (ISJ) Pakistan believes that (as given the size of the community in Karachi) every year about 1000 girls undergo the practice of FGM, as reported by Al Jazeera.
According to the World Health Organisation, more than 230 million girls and women alive today have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) in 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where FGM is practised. FGM is mostly carried out on young girls between infancy and age 15.
FGM has no health benefits, and it harms girls and women in many ways. The practice involves removing and injuring healthy and normal female genital tissue, interfering with the natural functions of girls' and women's bodies. It can lead to immediate health risks, as well as a variety of long-term complications affecting women's physical, mental and sexual health and well-being throughout the life course. All forms of FGM are associated with increased health risk in the short- and long-term. (ANI)