Seven-year-old girl pictured herself as ‘princess in a garden’ to blank out pain of genital mutilation, court hears
The Daily Telegraph
Two women, 71 and 38, have pleaded not guilty on two counts
One is the girls’ mother. They face a maximum of 21 years
Both are members of a sect which hails from sub-continent
Seven-year-old ‘pictured herself as a princess’ to blank out pain
Mother told eldest daughter to keep what happened secret
TWO sisters revealed to police the secret practice of alleged female genital mutilation among a small Islamic sect in Wollongong and Sydney, a court has heard.
The girls, then aged six and eight, told police officers who interviewed them at their primary school that they had been cut “down there” and “hurt (in the) bottom,” during the secret ceremony called Khatna allegedly practised by the Shia sect Dawoodi Bohra on young girls.
The girls’ mother along with a retired nurse and a high-ranking member of the Dawoodi Bohra clergy are the first three people in NSW to stand trial for female genital mutilation.
It is alleged the girls’ mother, 38, who is called A2 to protect the girls’ identity arranged the procedure and was there when the nurse, 71, called KM, carried it out on her daughters in Wollongong and
Baulkham Hills in Sydney’s north west some time between October 2009 and August 2012.
Both women have pleaded not guilty to two counts of female genital mutilation which carries a maximum penalty of 21 years.
They have also pleaded not guilty to two back-up charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in company.
Sheik Shabbir Mohammedbhai Vaziri, 59, has pleaded not guilty to being an accessory after the fact to female genital mutilation.
Crown prosecutor Nanette Williams said police began investigating Dawoodi Bohra after receiving allegations that female genital mutilation was practised inside the group whose followers are mostly from western India and Pakistan.
Ms Williams said the police interviewed the sisters C1 and C2 at their school on August 29, 2012 where the pair allegedly explained the practise of “khatna”.
“C1 (the eldest) knew what Khatna was because it had happened to her. She was seven years old when she had her private parts cut,” Ms Williams said.
C1 told police she tried to picture herself being a princess in a garden to remain calm when she was laid down on a bed and received “a little cut down there.”
After police interviewed the girls their mother was called to pick them up, but while her vehicle was at the school it was bugged by police.
Ms Williams said as the mother drove the girls home she told her eldest daughter, “I told you this is a big secret never tell anyone.”
Ms Williams said the girls were soon after examined at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead but the doctor was unable to confirm or deny whether the girls had been circumcised.
It is alleged when police started asking in the community about female genital mutilation Vaziri advised people to tell officers that they did not believe in the practice.
Defence barrister for A2 and Vaziri Robert Sutherland SC said the procedure was a “ritualistic ceremony.”
“It did not involve any mutilation or injury to either child,” he said.
The eldest daughter, now 11, will give evidence tomorrow.
