New Delhi: For Dawoodi Bohras, the Muslim community where female genital mutilation is widely prevalent, any resistance against the controversial practice can lead to a social boycott. The fear is such that community members censor themselves even from watching a six-minute short film on YouTube that seeks to inform audiences, through a couple, why a girl child should not be put under the blade.
The Dilemma, produced by an FGM survivors’ organisation, WeSpeakOut, features no complex cinematography, compelling screenplay, or jaw-dropping aesthetics. Viewers only see a couple endorsing the practice on ‘religious, traditional’ grounds being challenged by a narrator discouraging them against putting their daughter through Khatna or Khafz—the centuries-old practice of cutting a girl’s clitoral hood or protective cover of the clitoris, mostly at the age of seven.
“There are a lot of people who have written back to us saying that we cannot see this film until we get permission from the Syedna (the community’s supreme religious leader),” said Masooma Ranalvi, the founder of WeSpeakOut.
The practice, Ranalvi added, is “a criminal act and violation of human rights.”
Voicing a prohibited conversation
The Bohra couple in the film converses in Gujarati with an unseen narrator, expressing their anger, frustration, and emotional conflict over the barbaric practice.
“It’s a very nuanced way in which we are looking at the complex conflict which a young woman (the mother) goes through. It’s not easy, and we understand [it]; the conflict which this woman goes through is actually the conflict which all of us go through. It’s not easy, really, to question a religious requirement,” said Ranalvi.
The author-activist spoke about the fear of putting up any kind of resistance—“even sharing information is problematic”. “In our community, we have a practice of social boycott. So people who resist are excommunicated,” Ranalvi said.
It is this fear that made the team not reveal their names in the film’s credits. Instead, it ends with the narrator saying, “This is an uphill battle, but you are not alone,” as information on how to reach out to WeSpeakOut appears on the screen.
The film uses weighty dialogue to deliver its message and doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable conversations around female circumcision. The narrator tells the couple that “the real intention [behind FGM] is to control the sexual pleasure in the female.” When the mother counters by saying “it’s the opposite”, the narrator replies that “it’s a lie told to mislead people”.
The narrator reasons with the parents, citing research. While the mother questions the narrator if she is calling “the community and family elders” liars, the father tries to reason by citing the advancement in procedure—“it’s not done in dark, dingy rooms anymore; it’s done by doctors, like any other medical procedure”.
That’s when the film delivers its pivotal message—why is the procedure done at all? Would adults ever undergo any medical procedure without any medical reason, especially if it involved health risks? Why put a seven-year-old girl under the blade when that part of the body isn’t even fully developed?
The couple then opens up about the suffocating social pressure they feel, with the mother eventually breaking down as she recalls her daughter’s “innocent questions”—“Why don’t we cut any other part of the body? Why that part only? Why does it have to be done now?”
It’s the mother who has the last word. “We want to read all that research,” she tells the narrator—perhaps even to the community at large.
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Stagnancy around FGM debate
Ranalvi said that she chose to make the film because the movement to abolish FGM is currently stuck. There is no progress at the legal or government level.
“We have a case in the Supreme Court that’s been stuck for the last four years. The matter is supposed to be heard by a nine-judge bench, along with Sabarimala and other matters to decide whether it comes under freedom of religion,” she said.
WeSpeakOut has also appealed to the government seeking a law banning FGM or at least some steps in the direction.
“But there’s no movement on the ground by the government or the state agencies,” Ranalvi said.
The short film falls in line with WeSpeakOut’s definitive work: having “conversations within the community.” So, while legal and institutional progress is currently stalled, the anti-FGM movement carries on through the organisation.
“The way this practice exists is [through a] complete dearth of information. It’s something that gets passed from generation to generation. No information is shared; it’s just considered a tradition,” the activist said.
WeSpeakOut is aggressive about questioning FGM, educating people, and spreading awareness around it. But standing up against a deeply ingrained socio-religious tradition comes at a big price.
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Pressure to conform
Ranalvi shared that her ability to be a vocal exponent is rooted in her family history.
“I have been able to do this because my father was socially boycotted from the community years ago because he was part of a reform movement. So, in that sense, I’ve been [an] outcast. I can do it openly today because I don’t have much to lose in that sense,” she said.
But other Bohra women are scared to challenge Khatna. Ranalvi also came across instances where women didn’t take their daughters for circumcision but publicly declared that they had done it.
The pressure to conform is tremendous. “You don’t get invited to social gatherings. Marriage becomes difficult within the community,” she said.
In contrast to other Muslim women, the women in the Dawoodi Bohra community are highly educated and many are working professionals. However, this doesn’t shield them from the practice of FGM. Ranalvi cited that the community didn’t just have women graduates but also post-graduates, doctorates, doctors, lawyers, and professionals working with the United Nations.
“That’s exactly the paradox. Despite that, they continue this.”
The reason, according to Ranalvi, is the clergy’s strong control over the community. Any challenge to the practice is immediately silenced and people are ostracised.
“There is a fear psychosis. You may be educated, you may be rich. But you do not want to be thrown out of your community,” she said.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)