August 15, 2016
ASIA / PACIFIC
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
The
JEWELRY
CRYSTALS
SEPTEMBER 2, 3, 4
TRAUMATIC TRADITION. Sameena, 22, a member of the Indian Dawoodi Bohra community, overlooks
Amsterdam Avenue from a bridge during an interview with The Associated Press in New York. While living her
dream of being a graduate student at an Ivy League school in America, Sameena is also gradually coming to
terms with the knowledge that she was circumcised at age seven. At least 200 million girls and women alive
today have undergone some form of female genital cutting, according to the United Nations, 70 million more
than in 2014 because of increases in both population and reporting. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
Battle within tiny Indian Muslim
sect on circumcising girls
By Muneeza Naqvi
The Associated Press
UMBAI, India — When Bilqis
talks about having circumcised
her daughter, she goes back and
forth on how she feels — sometimes within
the same sentence.
The 50-year-old doctor defends what is
widely known as female genital mutilation
within her small, prosperous Shia Muslim
sect in India, saying it’s a mild version that
amounts to “just a little nick, no harm
done.” Yet she also acknowledges regret
and guilt at putting her daughter through
a practice the United Nations calls a
violation of girls’ rights.
“It’s really nothing, it changes nothing,”
repeats Bilqis, who asks to be anonymous
except for her religious name because of
the personal nature of the subject. But she
adds: “I have no doubt in my mind that it is
not helpful. ... If I had a young daughter
now there’s no way I would have her
circumcised.”
The struggle within Bilqis and her
Dawoodi Bohra community reflects a
growing debate over the best way to
address a custom that is proving
stubbornly hard to eradicate. At least 200
million girls and women alive today have
undergone some form of female genital
cutting, according to the U.N. — 70 million
more than in 2014 because of increases in
both population and reporting. And the
U.N. predicts the number of victims will
increase significantly over the next 15
years because of population growth.
Faced with this prospect, experts in the
respected international Journal of
Medical Ethics in February proposed
permitting small female genital cuts that
“uphold cultural and religious traditions
without sacrificing the health and
wellbeing of girls and young women.” But
this approach is already carried out in the
Bohra community and is proving highly
controversial.
“They always say it’s just a nick and a
touch, but there are incidents where
things have gone horribly wrong,” says
Masooma Ranalvi, who broke the silence
around female genital mutilation in her
community last year with a series of online
petitions that sought to ban it.
Ranalvi remembers when she was seven
years old, her grandmother promised her
candy and ice cream. Instead, she was
taken to a dingy room in a back alley. Her
dress was pulled up and her legs and arms
held down. A sharp pain followed. She
came home in tears.
She only understood what had happened
in her 30s, when she read about female
genital mutilation.
The Dawoodi Bohras are an affluent
trading community of about a million
people concentrated mostly in Mumbai,
M
but also seen across the United States and
Europe. Observant men wear white and
gold embroidered caps, and women a long,
colorful tunic and a scarf over their hair.
The Bohras are known for their liberal
attitude toward the education of women,
yet the community is also tightly con-
trolled by an entirely male clergy. From
Mumbai
to
New
York,
medical
professionals perform circumcision for
girls, or khatna, with the blessings of the
religious head known as the Syedna. The
procedure goes back to the community’s
roots in Yemen.
Circumcision
has
become
a
battleground for the two Bohra men vying
for succession, the half-brother and the son
of the former Syedna. The half-brother
says it is time to end the practice. The son
says the tradition must continue and notes
that Bohra men are also circumcised.
Activists protest that the two cannot be
compared because male circumcision has
some health benefits.
Alefiya, a 34-year-old social worker in
the United States, remembers the khatna
being done by her grandmother’s sister in
a cold basement in New York. It was
awkward and painful, she says.
Alefiya, who asked for her full name not
to be used for privacy, objects as much to
the message sent as to the act itself. Older
Dawoodi women call the clitoris haraam ki
boti or sinful flesh — the flesh that can lead
a woman astray.
“It’s horrible, it’s disgusting, that these
completely natural experiences are made
to feel dirty,” she says. “The guilt of
sexuality is always on our heads.”
Bilqis was circumcised as a child and
has only the faintest memory of it. It was
neither harmful nor traumatic for her, she
says. As a doctor, however, she remembers
a child coming to her after being cut too
deep, requiring blood vessels to be
cauterized.
Fifteen years ago, she circumcised her
daughter out of a sense of religious obliga-
tion. When it was done, she remembers
thinking, “One social milestone passed.
One responsibility dealt with.”
Sameena, now 22, is a graduate student
at an Ivy League school in America. She is
gradually coming to terms with her clear
memory of being circumcised at age seven.
It didn’t hurt, but the memory makes her
uncomfortable, although she can’t say
exactly why.
The next time it came up was when she
was 15 or 16, with other Dawoodi Bohra
girls at school. When she asked, her
mother told her it was something done in
their community.
Spurred in part by the increasing
discussion around khatna in her
community, Sameena began researching
it. First there was denial, and then fury.
Continued on page 11
GEMS
HILLSBORO
Washington County Fairgrounds
BEADS
{ 873 NE 34th Ave., Hillsboro, OR }
SHOW HOURS:
FRI 12pm-6pm | SAT 10am-6pm | SUN 10am-5pm
Largest Selection • New Vendors!
2
$
OFF
admission
with this ad *
SILVER
MINERALS
FOSSILS
More show dates at GEMFAIRE.COM
*Admission $7. Not valid with other offer. Limit ONE per person. Property of Gem Faire, Inc, can be revoked without notice. Non-transferrable.
Sponsored by Gem Faire, Inc.
(503) 252-8300
GEMFAIRE.COM
RIDE MAX?
Track work will disrupt MAX service
Sunday, Aug. 21 – Saturday, Sept. 3
We’re upgrading tracks, switches and signals near the Rose Quarter
Transit Center to improve MAX’s reliability and make your ride
smoother. The Rose Quarter, Convention Center and NE 7th Ave
MAX stations will be closed during this time, but shuttle buses will
be running frequently to keep riders moving. All MAX lines will run
less frequently and trains will be crowded. Please allow an extra
30–45 minutes for your trip.
To see how your trip will be affected,
visit trimet.org/rosequarter or call 503-238-RIDE (7433)
Thanks for your patience as we work to improve
your ride. See how we’re making transit better at
trimet.org/bettertransit.
Become an online reader!
Visit
<www.asianreporter.com>
and click on the
“Online Paper (PDF)”
link to download
our last two issues.