By Anonymous

Country of Residence: United States

A few weeks ago, I attended the first U.S-based Bohra Activists Retreat held in Brooklyn, New York. Eleven women from all over the country gathered together in a spacious Airbnb to discuss issues surrounding FGC in the Bohra community as well as to get to know each other a little better.

As I sat on my redeye flight to JFK, anticipation for the upcoming weekend kept me awake. I wondered how it would feel to be in a room with people who would be able to understand a huge, hidden component of my life. I wondered if I would be able to share my own experiences with the others and if I even had a story worth sharing.

I woke up the next morning to sky rises and a chill that turned my fingers blue. But once I was in the company of the other activists, I felt myself warm up. Each participant had a unique story to share and with each shared story, I felt that my own story was comprised of similar sentiments and experiences. During the retreat, everyone was given a safe space to share how much or how little they felt comfortable with. We talked about everything from Khatna experiences and familial and romantic relationships to our careers and favorite foods. We were able to connect with each other on shared experiences in madrasa, masjid,

I was able to share experiences unique to myself but more importantly, learn from the stories of those women who had undergone Khatna and who had made life-altering decisions to confront others about the practice. I was overwhelmed by the courage, strength, and free-will that showered over all of us at the retreat.

The retreat consisted of speaker-led workshop sessions, open discussions and reflection periods. The workshops were profoundly informative. I was given toolkits for dialogue, statistics and graphs, and comprehensive support material.

During our discussions, we participated in healthy debates that sometimes got heated but were never disrespectful. And that became one of my most important takeaways from the retreat. In order to create positive change, I need to be open-minded and receptive to ideas I might not agree with.

Leaving the retreat, I felt like a more informed activist. I have raw data and concrete facts tucked away. I have a support system of friends that I can now rely on to be there as listening and supportive ears. On my flight home, I felt unstoppable and empowered. I felt like there were no limits to what a group of strong-willed and fiercely devoted women can accomplish.

To learn more about the U.S. Bohra Activists Retreat, read the report!

By Zehra Patwa, WeSpeakOut

Retreat [ri-treet]: a period of group withdrawal for prayer, meditation, study, or instruction.

When I initially signed up for Sahiyo’s retreat for Bohra anti-FGC activists in the US, I thought it would be a good opportunity to network, share ideas, and develop strategies.  What I wasn’t prepared for was the incredibly nurturing support I received from the other attendees, as well as from those who ran the retreat. 

I have been an anti-FGM/C activist since 2015.  Since then, I have been accused of promoting myself to attract attention, to make money, and so that I can shame the community.  It’s exhausting and demoralizing.

Despite what people may think (and they tell me what they think every day!), I am not comfortable being in the spotlight, I never have, but when I discovered at the age of 42 that khatna/khafd was happening in the Bohra community and that I was also subjected to it at the age of 7, I could not stay quiet. This was the start of my journey.  I knew nothing about anatomy, or laws, or religious texts, or social rituals surrounding khatna.  I learned everything I possibly could through talking to others in my community, including activists, talking to health and legal experts, reading everything I could find about FGM/C but, mostly, by listening to women’s stories of their khatna experiences and how they had been, and continue to be, affected long into adulthood.

This new knowledge has changed the way I see people.  I freely admit that I have been guilty of making judgments about people without knowing much about them.  However, hearing what many women have gone through has made me realize that there is so much hidden deep in one’s psyche that it’s hard to truly understand why someone feels the way they do. This is where empathy comes in.

I do not recall my personal khatna but when I hear other women’s stories, I feel a pain that’s hard to describe. It is visceral and profound and stops me in my tracks.  But then I remember that I have a voice and that I’m no longer afraid.  I remember that I can be vocal for those who cannot be, and I owe it to them to stand up for them when they feel they cannot speak out for themselves.

The retreat has given me the tools to start conversations with those I vehemently disagree with, which was something I found difficult to do. I have learned to be open to others’ points of view and to try to find commonalities in our beliefs.

But most of all, the retreat has helped me realize that I am not alone, that many other activists feel the same way I do.  I have found a new support network of people that truly understand what I’m struggling with and this gives me the strength to carry on speaking out.

To learn more about the U.S. Bohra Activists Retreat, read the report!

આ આર્ટિકલ પહેલા સહિયો દ્વારા તારીખ 26 એપ્રિલ 2017ના રોજ અંગ્રેજીમાં પ્રકાશિત કરવામાં આવ્યો હતો. Read the English version here. 

લેખક : સબિહા બસરાઈ

 દેશ : કેલિફોર્નિયા, અમેરિકા
ઉંમર : 34 વર્ષ

એફ.જી.સી. અથવા બોહરા સમાજ જેને ખતના તરીકે ઓળખે છે, તે મુદ્દો અંધકાર માંથી બહાર આવ્યો છે અને લોકો તેના વિષે ખુલ્લેઆમ વાત કરે છે એ મહત્વનું છે. ઘણા લોકો જાણતા નથી કે આ પ્રથા કેટલી ક્રૂર છે અને બૈરાઓની સેક્સ્યૂઆલિટી સંબંધી શરમને કારણે તેમજ મરદપ્રધાન સમાજની રચના દ્વારા લાગુ કરવામાં આવેલ રીપ્રોડક્ટિવ હેલ્થ (પ્રજનનક્ષમ સ્વાસ્થ્ય)ને કારણે લોકો એ વિષે વાત કરવાનું ટાળે છે. હું આશા રાખુ છું કે નાની દીકરીઓ પર એફ.જી.સી. ની પ્રક્રિયા કરવાના આરોપ હેઠળ એક બોહરા ડૉક્ટરને ગિરફ્તાર કરવામાં આવ્યા હોવાનો ડેટ્રોઈટનો કેસ ઘણાં કુટુંબોને આ પ્રથા ના અપનાવવા માટે પ્રોત્સાહિત કરશે જેથી, નવી પેઢીની નાની દીકરીઓને આવી પ્રથાઓ હેઠળથી પસાર ના થવું પડે.

આ હાનિકારક પ્રથાનો મુદ્દો ધાર્મિક અથવા અધાર્મિક હોવું નથી. આ મુદ્દો સાચા અથવા ખોટા હોવાનો પણ નથી. પરંતુ, ખરી વાત એ છે કે ખતના પ્રક્રિયા એક અનુચિત કાર્ય છે.

જો કે, ડેટ્રોઈટના કેસમાં બન્યું તેમ, અમેરિકન મુસ્લિમ પરની દેખરેખ ચિંતાઓ ઊભી કરે છે. આપણી મસ્જિદો અને કમ્યૂનિટિ સેન્ટરો પર પહેલાથી જ સરકારી એજન્સીઓ દેખરેખ રાખી રહી છે, જે આપણને જાતીભેદ કરીને આપણા સામાજીક અધિકારોનો ભંગ કરે છે. બધા બોહરાઓએ તે સમજવું મહત્વપૂર્ણ છે કે સરકારી એજન્સીઓના મનમાં આપણું હિત જ હોય એ જરૂરી નથી અને ખતનાના મુદ્દાનો લાભ ઉઠાવી તેઓ વધારે ત્રાસ આપવાનું અને આપણા સમાજ પર વધારે દેખરેખ રાખવાનું ઉચિત માની શકે છે. ખતના પ્રથા સમાપ્ત થવી જોઈએ પરંતુ, મારૂં માનવું છે કે સમાજને શિક્ષિત કરવા દ્વારા અને જમાતો (બોહરા સમાજની સભાઓ)ના આયોજનો દ્વારા જ આ પ્રથાનો સાચો અંત થશે. 

આપણામાંથી કોઈ ઈચ્છતું નથી કે આપણા સમાજમાં જબરદસ્તી કરવામાં આવે પરંતુ, આપણે સમજવું જોઈએ કે ફક્ત કાયદા દ્વારા જ તેનું સમાધાન થઈ શકે નહિં અને કેટલાક કિસ્સાઓમાં, સરકારી એજન્સીના અમુક અધિકારીઓની નકારાત્મક કાર્યવાહી આપણા સમાજની સુરક્ષા અને સલામતી માટે હાનિકારક રહી છે. તેથી, અમેરિકામાં રહેતા બધા બોહરાઓને હું સાવચેત કરું છું કે વકીલની હાજરી વિના સરકારી એજન્સીઓ સાથે ક્યારે વાત કરવી નહિં અને આપણા સમાજે સાથે મળી ખતના જેવી હાનિકારક પ્રથાઓને બંધ કરવાના માર્ગ શોધવા માટે પણ હું બધા બોહરાઓને પ્રોત્સાહિત કરવા માગુ છું.

(This post was originally published on the blog of Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, the Berkley Forum)

By Mariya Taher, MSW, MFA

In this day and age when social media has penetrated our lives, 24-hour news cycles shape our worldviews, and there is never enough time to process the influx of information coming at you, it’s often difficult to remember that social change is slow, hard work, much like pushing a heavy rock up a steep hill. With the #MeToo movement heavy on people’s minds, it’s easy to feel that change is imminent, that no longer will women cower in fear from the sexual harassment and violence generation after generation has experienced due to their genders. Yet, as someone who has dedicated the past ten years of her life towards ending gender violence of all kinds, unfortunately, the real hard truth is that social change does take time, and the seeds of that social change must be planted in the generations proceeding ours before they can even become fruit for future generations of girls and women.

That message was one I hoped to convey to the ten women who accepted my invitation to gather in New York on January 19th through January 21st for what my organization Sahiyo called a “U.S. Dawoodi Bohra Anti-Female Genital Cutting Activists Retreat.”

The women who came together, like me, had all been born into the Dawoodi Bohra Religion and Culture. Also, like me, these women felt encouraged to take an active role in preventing FGC or “Khatna” as it is known in the Dawoodi Bohra community, from occurring on girls of the next generation.

I and my fellow Sahiyo cofounders have been planning this retreat for the past year. (Sahiyo will also host an Activist Retreat in India in mid-February 2018). We planned both these retreats because we had recognized from our own experience, that being an activist is emotionally and physically challenging, and often “we” did this work in isolation from one another.

As activists, the challenges we face are often linked to the fact that FGC in our community developed due to a consistent repetition of the practice generation after generation. This caused it to become a deeply entrenched ritual many followed without question because that’s just the way it is.

To challenge this norm, meant to challenge the wisdom of those who came before us, and in a sense admit that our religious traditions are fallible. Activists who do challenge FGC, often encounter the wrath of those who would simply let live a practice that has always been done. At the U.S. Activists Retreat, many of us spoke about the negatives that come with challenging your family and friends on the issue of FGC, as well as challenging other social norms an individual may no longer want to partake in. Some women at the U.S. Retreat spoke about the economic boycott their husbands’ businesses encountered, others spoke about friends who no longer spoke to them or about how they feared losing friendship (or support systems they have had since childhood) if they openly discussed FGC. Another woman told us about how she had to call the police on her own brother who harassed her for her activism against FGC and for voicing an opinion that contradicted the edict given by the Dawoodi Bohra religious leaders.

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was destined to consistently push a rock up a hill, only to have it roll back down repeatedly. Like Sisyphus, anti-FGC Activists can consistently be in a position where the rock rolls back down despite our valiant efforts to end FGC, particularly because we are struggling against deeply rooted frames about gender and religion, and the terrain is consistently tilted against us.

When you believe you are the only one pushing that rock back up that hill, it can also be lonely. Often the emotional and physical needs of activists are overlooked, as are the struggles they or their families go through so that social change can happen.

Prior to meeting the other women who would be the cofounders of Sahiyo with me, I spoke about FGC individually, and independently. I wrote my own story of undergoing it for Global Fund for Women. It was through writing my story that I connected to the additional women who would be my allies. Years later, I have recognized just how much I needed those women to not only validate the fact that my own feelings around Khatna were justified, but to also share in the emotional hardships that come with being one of a few voices who publicly speak against FGC.  Connecting with the women who would become the other Sahiyo Co-founders had essentially broken the sense of isolation I didn’t even realize I was experiencing in walking the public life of an activist against FGC.

We imagined it might be the same for other activists speaking out against FGC. The U.S and India Retreats, we believed, could be a space where activists could come together to share both the challenges and opportunities they have found in advocating against FGC. It could be a place where activists could gather, share their pain, their fears, and feel less alone in the advocacy work they pursue. The retreats could also be a safe space where as a team we could formulate action steps on how we could move forward in addressing FGC in our communities. For the U.S. Activists Retreat, as so much attention has been brought onto the topic of FGC since the arrest of Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, a Dawoodi Bohra woman who is accused of performing FGC on girls in Michigan, that discussing these next steps felt crucial.

The Activists Retreat was the first of its kind in the United States for women who came from the Dawoodi Bohra culture and religion, and it was a step in the right direction in terms of activists recognizing that to truly ensure that FGC is abandoned by the majority Dawoodi Bohra community in the United States, we engage in the long-game. The United States has had a federal law in place banning FGC since 1996, but as the Michigan arrest of 8 people has shown, the law is not a quick fix in getting communities to abandon the practice. As activists, we recognized that we could not continually push the rock up the hill one by one, alone. We needed to reshape the terrain so that gravity is on our side. Or in other words, we need to band together, share our challenges, be a support system for one another, and work collaboratively. We needed to play the long-game because in the end, the work we are doing is to shift underlying values and beliefs associated with continuing FGC, and that was not a task one person could do all alone.

To learn more about the U.S. Bohra Activist Retreat, read the report!

If you are interested in learning more about the challenges Activists in the Bohra Community face, please visit Sahiyo Activist Needs Assessment

Research Summary & Implications

Background

Sahiyo is dedicated to ending Female Genital Cutting (FGC) in the Bohra community, a small global Shia Muslim community. Sahiyo focuses its efforts on public education about the prevalence and impact of FGC, community outreach initiatives, and supporting survivors and activists, with the ultimate goal of driving positive social change around gender violence. Sahiyo recently partnered with a healthcare market research consultancy to conduct primary market research with activists speaking out against FGC, in an effort to better understand activists’ challenges and hopes for the future.

In this article, we hope not only to summarize the key findings from our primary research and draw implications for the broader gender violence activist community, but also to underscore the importance of conducting primary research with activists.

Research Methodology

Research entailed two phases: first, a quantitative, online survey was sent to anti-FGC activists across the globe. Second, follow-up interviews were conducted with activists from the online survey sample, who expressed their willingness to further participate in the research.

Sample & Demographics

All activists who took part in this research grew up in the Dawoodi Bohra religious tradition, and are now self-described as active in speaking out against FGC (‘khatna’).

Phase 1 Quantitative Sample:

• Between 40-50* activists took the online survey, 91% of whom were female.

• Activists’ ages varied, though 56% were under the age of 35.

• The majority (~3/4) of activists reside in either the United States or India and were highly educated, with 96% having at least some graduate degree.

• Although respondents were raised Dawoodi Bohra, only 43% still identify as Dawoodi Bohra, while 37% are non-practicing. However, 67% of respondents socialize with Dawoodi Bohras at least sometimes (every couple of weeks).

• 69% of respondents personally underwent FGC, while 94% had a mother who was cut.

Phase 2 Qualitative Sample: 7 activists were interviewed in follow-up telephone conversations. These 7 activists had variable ages, countries of residence, and genders.  

Key Findings

Although each activist’s story is unique, they all shared the drive to end FGC in their community and more broadly. Their activist journey typically started with a realization about the prevalence of the practice: whether this be through a family member speaking out, a documentary, or media coverage; the realization sparked further investigation. Although some activists had memories of their own experience of being cut, many did not. For the latter individuals, the realization as adults about the practice’s prevalence occasionally came with a realization that they too had been cut, triggering an intense emotional response. For all activists, the initial anger and shame upon learning of the practice’s prevalence often led them to ask family and friends about FGC in their community, but they were met with a culture of secrecy and silence. Even when activists did open conversations with family and friends, they found the practice was often justified as a longstanding tradition, necessitated by religion.

This culture of secrecy and acceptance, paired with painful body or narrative memories of their own cutting, were said to be key drivers to speaking out. Many activists feel that not only does FGC have long-term physical and psychological health impacts, but that it is also a form of child sexual assault and/or abuse given the lack of consent. Furthermore, activists acknowledge that FGC’s underlying misogynistic and patriarchal factors make it part of a larger movement to control women. In short, activists feel that FGC does only harm with no benefit and must therefore be ended.

Challenges to speaking out:

Overlap of religion and community

The most significant challenges activists face when speaking out stems from the high degree of overlap between religion and community in the Bohra community. Although most activists are fairly open with their families and friends about their activism, they feel only moderately supported by their loved ones, largely due to concerns with the activism’s social repercussions. These concerns are linked to the social characteristics of the Bohra community, which include long-standing traditions of loyalty and closeness, in which the religious community often dictates social circles, romantic partners, neighborhood housing, cemetery sites, and more. This overlap causes speaking out against FGC to be seen as an attack on the community and faith at large. As a result, activists fear that speaking out would lead to discontinued social and professional bonds and ceasing of access to religious privileges. For some, these potential social repercussions bar them from speaking out publicly, so they pursue more private means of activism, such as anonymous writing and supporting organizations like Sahiyo.

Religious authority

Concerns with speaking out are further driven by the authority of the Bohra religious leaders. Considering that there is no clear religious justification for FGC, its continuation relies upon the leaders’ mandates and interpretations. Questioning of the religious leaders is deeply discouraged and potentially dangerous—causing many activists to not only fear speaking out, but also sometimes demotivating them, making them feel that without the support of religious leaders, their activism is a ‘lost cause.’

Considering the challenges above, many activists feel torn between wanting to end the practice and wanting to maintain a close connection to their faith and/or community. Even activists who are no longer involved in the Bohra community still fear risking the social wellbeing of their loved ones. Activists present this as a ‘catch-22’: loyal Bohra members are well respected by their community; however, speaking out against a taboo practice might oust them from it, rendering their authority no longer valid.

Conversation challenges

When activists do speak out publicly or privately, they find the conversation about FGC particularly challenging. The lack of robust, publicly available information about the practice’s prevalence in the Bohra community, as well as about its physical and mental consequences on the girls’ health often result in other Bohra members undermining the impact of khatna. Many community members present khatna as ‘not as bad as other types of FGC’. These arguments are particularly difficult for activists who do not have a clear memory of their own experience or believe that it has not had a negative impact on their life. They therefore risk feeling further invalidated and oftentimes doubt themselves. These factors, paired with the importance laid on tradition and religious authority, poses a serious difficulty for the activists in communicating the need for open conversation about FGC eradication.

Islamophobia

Lastly, the challenges faced are not limited to considerations within the Bohra community. Some activists in America fear that public attention to FGC in a Muslim community might fuel pre-existing islamophobia, ultimately risking the wellbeing of their community. Additionally, given that the practice is illegal in many of the countries of active Bohra communities, some activists fear legal repercussions for people in their family, who they tend to also see as victims of the practice’s broader normalization.

Hopes for the Future:

Activists acknowledge that the unique social and religious considerations surrounding FGC make alleviating many of their challenges difficult. However, they hope that with continued conversation and increasing public awareness more people will learn about and, eventually, question the practice. Many activists feel that every conversation matters, even just 1:1 conversations with loved ones: each person who chooses not to cut their child is ultimately making broader change. They hope that personal stories are shared by name and anonymously, with the facilitation of active support groups, which allow a safe space for women to discuss, ask, and learn. Additionally, crucial information about FGC in the Bohra community and about its overall impact on women’s health and position in the society is expected to provide useful tools to activists and new opportunities for community discussion. Considerate presentations about the practice by the media will further support this dialogue. Although they acknowledge that broader, more formal change spearheaded by religious leaders is unlikely in the near future, community-level change is both possible and valuable. Through a combination of both public and private activism, activists hope that they can continue to build compelling arguments against FGC as they spread awareness.

Implications & Conclusion

Implications on FGC activism

Resources that reinforce the argument for eradicating FGC would significantly support FGC activists: information on the prevalence of FGC, research on the physical and mental health impacts of Type 1 FGC, useful guidance on legal repercussions of publicly sharing experiences and on arguments concerning child sexual abuse and gender violence, and religious arguments against the requirement of FGC for the Muslim tradition. Additionally, activists acknowledge the need for resources on how to strike a balance between empathy and understanding and anger and frustration in a conversation about FGC, especially with active members of the community, who might feel threatened or offended by activists. Activists require such guidance so that they can effectively encourage women to share their experiences and both women and men to listen and learn about FGC.

Implications on research methodologies

This study evidences the critical nature of conducting research directly with activists to better understand their needs. The use of both quantitative and qualitative primary research techniques facilitated both breadth and depth in the findings, therefore increasing existing evidence about FGC prevalence in the Bohra community and activists’ greatest challenges. These findings are crucial in drawing attention to FGC within and outside the community, especially considering the secretive nature of the practice: such evidence can empower activists, who are often met with doubt about their cause. Discussing directly with some of those activists about their own experience and the impact of their activism contributed to further understanding the reasons behind their worries and identifying ways to overcome the challenges. We believe that such methodology can be a robust way for any activist organization to increase evidence, draw attention, and help their members.

Implications on broader gender violence activism

Although the religious and social considerations are certainly unique to the Bohra community, many of the concerns expressed by these anti-FGC activists were resonant of concerns from people speaking out against any form of gender violence: concerns about social repercussions against themselves or their family. Although these repercussions orient more around the close-knit nature of the Bohra community, the underlying anxieties exist for any form of anti-gender violence activist: fear of potential discrimination in the workplace, isolation from family/friends, etc. The fear of negatively impacting one’s community prevalent among anti-FGC activists could be analogized to the fear of negatively impacting loved ones seen in many forms of anti-gender violence activism that results from the perpetrator of the violence often being part of one’s own immediate social circle. We believe that research, like the presented one, which allows gender violence victims and activists to voice their worries of speaking out, especially in terms of the activism’s immediate impact on their life, is crucial in order for organizations, like Sahiyo, to understand how these victims and activists can be best supported.

To view this report as a PDF, click here.

If you are interested in learning more about this study, its results, and their impact for FGC activism, please see the attached presentation, which includes detailed findings and implications.