A Secretive Sect Opens A Debate On Female Genital Mutilation
Editor's Note: Given the subject this story explores, the discussion includes some explicit language.
For generations, women of a secretive Muslim sect have removed what they call "forbidden flesh" from their girls. They were told they had an infection, or an insect, that needed to be cut out. The girls were ordered to never speak of it again. Others knew to stay quiet, understanding that anything involving their genitals should stay secret.
But now the community is talking.
The arrest of a Bohra doctor in Detroit for performing FGM has given added impetus to a quiet movement in the community against the practice. The Bohra call it khafz or khatna — removing the hood of the clitoria and sometimes part of the clitoris itself when a girl is about 7 years old.
"It's forced us to have a conversation," says Leena Khandwalla, a 44-year-old Bohra woman who divides her time between Pakistan and New Jersey.
"It's also created some kind of
