Pakistani Dawoodi Bohra girls endure secretive FGM practices: Report

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.

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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 prac