Out on FGM' and the attached picture has a few members of the same group. It is an awe-inspiring story because almost all of them are coming out publicly to speak about their personal experiences, for the first time in their lives)

ghulam muhammed wrote:We found courage to Speak Out on Female Genital Mutilation in India. So can you

Last year I wrote my experience of female genital mutilation as a child (commonly referred to as khatna within the Bohra community). The experience of just penning down in detail the suppressed memory of a dark and sordid ritual was cathartic.

At the time of writing, however, I was filled with despondency. The trauma I had felt forty years ago still existed. Many young Bohra women I had spoken to told mewere cut in NSW when aged six and seven at a secretive ritual practised by their parents’ Shia Muslim sect, Dawoodi Bohra

Their mother, now 39, and a retired midwife, Kubra Magennis, now 72, have become the first people to be convicted of female genital mutilation in Australia and are awaiting sentencing for the crime, which carries a maximum penalty of seven years in jail.

The Dawoodi Bohra religious leader in Sydney, Sheik Shabbir Mohammedbhai Vaziri, was found guilty of being an accessory after the fact and is also awaiting sentence.

The doctor, known as A1, had charges against him dropped before the case went to trial, but has been allowed to continuing practising at a northwest Sydney clinic.

Australian Medical Association president Brian Owler said he would not comment on individual