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Not my daughter: Bohra women start new pledge to end FGM

Those who want to participate can go on the group's Facebook page and pledge their support.

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Dawoodi Bohra women are now looking to put a full stop to female circumcision with their new campaign. 'Not my daughter', the new pledge started by them on Friday, looks to reach out to parents from the community on a more personal level as the movement to seek a legislation to ban the practice makes its way.

The campaign has been started by Speak Out On FGM (Female Genital Mutilation), a group that started the earlier awareness campaign and is looking to have the practice banned in the country. Female circumcision is a practice observed in the Dawoodi Bohra sect. Speak Out On FGM has already received 47,000 supporters.

The new pledge reads, "I am Bohra. I pledge to not subject my daughter to genital cutting or khatna (FGM). I pledge to not impose physical and psychological harm on my daughter so that she can be a strong, contributing member of the community, and of the world. I pledge to not limit my daughter's value in the world so that she can achieve to her highest level. Pledge an end to FGM of our daughters (sic)."

Those who want to participate can go on the group's Facebook page and pledge their support.

"Whatever has happened to us has happened... The new campaign is a personal one asking parents to take a stand. It is to recognise the fact that FGM causes harm to girl child and women and there should be a ban on it. It is a passionate way of reaching out to parents and telling them that this thing does not have a place in our society," said Masooma Ranalvi, founder of FMG. The group is also planning to take up the issue in a Muslim women's conference that will start in Delhi on Saturday.

Insiya Lokhandwala, a mother, said, "My problem is with women not being given the choice. I wasn't. The trauma and the feeling of betrayal are more painful than the feeling of not having sexual desire... I have been fighting against the problem of not giving children a choice. I do not want enforce my views on the children. If I explain to my child and if she is willing to undergo it for religious terms, it is her choice, but it needs to be told to her after she attains puberty, at an age she can understand. The practice is banned in two countries and it should be banned in India too."

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