MUMBAI: Women activists campaigning to end female genital mutilation (FGM) in a minority Muslim community in India hailed a minister’s pledge to introduce a law to end the centuries-old custom.
FGM is secretly carried out by the close-knit Dawoodi Bohra community, a Shiite sect thought to number up to 2 million worldwide that considers the practice a religious obligation.
Maneka Gandhi, the minister for women and child development, told the Hindustan Times newspaper this weekend she would write to state governments and the Bohra spiritual leader — the Syedna — to issue an edict to end FGM because it is a crime.
“If the Syedna does not respond, then we will bring in a law to ban the practice in India,” she was quoted as saying.
Debate on the subject has long been taboo, even as a group of Bohra women subjected to FGM as girls called for the government to ban the ritual, called khatna.
“This is a huge victory for us,” said Masooma Ranalvi of Speak Out on FGM, whose change.org petition to end FGM in India has garnered more than 90,000 signatures.
“There is a deep division within the community, and even a law will not end the practice immediately. But at least the issue is out in the open now.”
A spokeswoman for Syedna Taher Fakhruddin, who leads one faction of the community, said Fakhruddin stood by an earlier statement that khatna should only be allowed after women “attain legal adulthood” and are free to make their own decisions.
Indian minister’s call to end FGM hailed
Indian minister’s call to end FGM hailed
UN’s top court opens Myanmar Rohingya genocide case
- The Gambia filed a case against Myanmar at the UN’s top court in 2019
- Verdict expected to impact Israel’s genocide case over war on Gaza
DHAKA: The International Court of Justice on Monday opened a landmark case accusing Myanmar of genocide against its mostly Muslim Rohingya minority.
The Gambia filed a case against Myanmar at the UN’s top court in 2019, two years after a military offensive forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya from their homes into neighboring Bangladesh.
The hearings will last three weeks and conclude on Jan. 29.
“The ICJ must secure justice for the persecuted Rohingya. This process should not take much longer, as we all know that justice delayed is justice denied,” said Asma Begum, who has been living in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district since 2017.
A mostly Muslim ethnic minority, the Rohingya have lived for centuries in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state but were stripped of their citizenship in the 1980s and have faced systemic persecution ever since.
In 2017 alone, some 750,000 of them fled military atrocities and crossed to Bangladesh, in what the UN has called a textbook case of ethnic cleansing by Myanmar.
Today, about 1.3 million Rohingya shelter in 33 camps in Cox’s Bazar, turning the coastal district into the world’s largest refugee settlement.
“We experienced horrific acts such as arson, killings and rape in 2017, and fled to Bangladesh,” Begum told Arab News.
“I believe the ICJ verdict will pave the way for our repatriation to our homeland. The world should not forget us.”
A UN fact-finding mission has concluded that the Myanmar 2017 offensive included “genocidal acts” — an accusation rejected by Myanmar, which said it was a “clearance operation” against militants.
Now, there is hope for justice and a new future for those who have been displaced for years.
“We also have the right to live with dignity. I want to return to my homeland and live the rest of my life in my ancestral land. My children will reconnect with their roots and be able to build their own future,” said Syed Ahmed, who fled Myanmar in 2017 and has since been raising his four children in the Kutupalong camp.
“Despite the delay, I am optimistic that the perpetrators will be held accountable through the ICJ verdict. It will set a strong precedent for the world.”
The Myanmar trial is the first genocide case in more than a decade to be taken up by the ICJ. The outcome will also impact the genocide case that Israel is facing over its war on Gaza.
“The momentum of this case at the ICJ will send a strong message to all those (places) around the world where crimes against humanity have been committed,” Nur Khan, a Bangladeshi lawyer and human rights activist, told Arab News.
“The ICJ will play a significant role in ensuring justice regarding accusations of genocide in other parts of the world, such as the genocide and crimes against humanity committed by Israel against the people of Gaza.”
