Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is also known as khatna or khafz in the Bohra Muslim Community. Many of these communities practice FGM on all the girls below the age of ten. It involves the elder women of the community cutting off the cli****s of the young girls before they hit puberty.
India has a number of laws waiting to be addressed and surprisingly enough FGM is not one of them. In a shocking revelation 75% of the women from the Bohra community have been subjected to this horrific custom done in the name of culture. The United Nations strictly declared FMG as a human rights violation.
FMG was declared a human rights violation after it was proved mutilating that part is not in the best interest of the woman. In fact, the mutilation is done by inexperienced housewives causing it to get infected over time. Many women who were subjected to this have suffered continuous health problems like urinary tract infections.
The Bohra Muslims have settled in western cities of India, Yemen, Pakistan, East Africa and some parts of Australia and America. Legal actions has been taken against FGM among the Bohras in the U.S. and Australia. In 2017, two doctors were arrested in Detroit in the U.S., for cutting the private parts of six girls. In 2016, three Dawoodi Bohras were sentenced to 15 months in jail in Australia under the FGM law.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor pointed out that the Government is pushing for Triple Talaq to gain political points when FGM is a bigger threat to women in the country. He said, “In this particular case (FGM), it is a specific wrong done within a specific community…Therefore, it should be seen as a human rights issue involving the rights and dignity of Indian women. It doesn’t matter to me which community is doing it.”
In India, there is no record of FGM in the official records of the country. India has become a hub for FGM as the law fails to take action against the people practising this horrible custom.
