The Dawoodi Bohra Women's Association for Religious Freedom (DBWRF), a trust formed by thousands of the Dawoodi Bohra women all across the country, to intervene in Sunita Tiwari v/s The Union of India on FGM.
A section of women from the Dawoodi Bohra community who opposed the practice of Khafz, welcomed the Supreme Court's observation related to female genital mutilation (FGM). The SC, on Monday, while hearing a PIL on the issue of FGM, allowed an impleadment application by the Dawoodi Bohra Women's Association for Religious Freedom (DBWRF), a trust formed by thousands of the Dawoodi Bohra women all across the country, to intervene in Sunita Tiwari v/s The Union of India on FGM.
Masooma Ranalvi, a survivor of the practice and the founder of WeSpeakOut, an organisation that has been working for the past few years to eliminate FGM, said, "The lawyer representing the DBWRF did try to differentiate the practice between female circumcision (FC) and FGM saying FC is just a nick. However, the SC said that the bodily integrity of a woman cannot be harmed. The centre said that there are proven benefits in the case of male circumcision as compared to the other. We are hopeful the SC will take this ban forward."
Some members said that they will be actively taking this issue further. "It is a positive development. We will start a petition asking the government to conduct an intensive research on the prevalence of FGM in India. We are also hopeful that in the next hearing at SC, there will be more to it and the offence will be crystalised," said social activist Saleha Paatwala, who works for Voice for Girls and is an active member of WeSpeakOut.
DBWRF said SC allowed it to become "party to the PIL to voice its opinion as this would have serious consequences on the religious and cultural beliefs and practices of the women of the community... Since the day DBWRF was formed, we have maintained that FGM and FC are two different procedures, and we are committed to working towards raising awareness of about fact."
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