Peer-reviewed article
Female Genital Mutilation: A Physical Attack on the Basic Human Rights of Young Women
Shivam Kumar, Sachin Verma ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This paper examines female genital mutilation (FGM) as a human rights violation affecting young women globally and specifically in India's Dawoodi Bohra community. The authors describe FGM as a harmful traditional practice involving amputation or injury to female reproductive organs for non-medical reasons. The paper argues that FGM violates international human rights standards and calls for human rights-based legislation to address this practice.
Key points
- Approximately 200 million women globally have experienced FGM, with 3.8 million girls at risk
- FGM is practiced in India's Dawoodi Bohra community despite international human rights protections
- FGM violates individual dignity, privacy, and fundamental human rights outlined in international documents
- The practice is justified through customary and traditional arguments despite lacking ethical or religious basis
- The paper calls for human rights-based legislation as a necessary response
Limitations
This document is a position paper that does not present empirical data, research findings, or evidence from studies. It provides no information about the prevalence, health outcomes, or effectiveness of any interventions to prevent or eliminate FGM in India or elsewhere.
Abstract
There is no doubt about this universal fact that women across the globe especially young girls have been subjected to harassment and violence since time immemorial in the garb of customary practices and traditions. Mutilation of Female Genitalia (FGM) is also a type of barbaric tradition, blatantly violent and has no ethical and religious basis. It involves all the inhumane procedures relating to the semi or overall amputation of peripheral genital privates or erstwhile forms of harm in female reproductive organs for nonremedial purposes. It has been seen that women around about 200 million globally who had gone through the consequence of FGM and nearly 3.8 million females are at the risk of circumcision. 3 This results in the severe violation of human rights which has been outlined in numerous international human rights documents. Despite all this, FGM is still flourishing globally and Dawoodi Bohras community in India is a prime example of that. Therefore, human right based legislation on FGM is the need of the hour. Hence, in this paper, the researchers have made an attempt to put forward the blueprint of exploitation and violence faced by females in the name of female genital mutilation which not only hampers their individual dignity and privacy, but it also puts a question mark on the so called quest of women empowerment all around the world.