Abstract
Female Genital Cutting (FGC) is commonly practiced among the minority community ofDawoodi Bohra Muslims in Pakistan. Despite the availability of data on FGC in other countries,
Pakistan’s recognition and redressal of the custom is unresolved and invisible. With no in-depth
studies or national statistics, FGC remains poorly understood and hidden. This qualitative study
used 10 semi-structured interviews to bridge this urgent gap by voicing contextually rich
narrations of Dawoodi Bohra women with a Pakistani background who underwent FGC, only
one of whom had not undergone this practice. Using the theoretical underpinnings of
postcolonial feminism, intersectional feminism and political Islam, this study demonstrates that
FGC does not function in isolation. It requires a conducive landscape that entails gendered
treatment, a loss of women’s bodily autonomy, religious fragility and sectarian tension. Dawoodi
Bohras are already a private and politically reserved community; thus, Pakistan’s volatile
landscape pushes them into deeper secrecy about FGC. I contend that FGC is a complex and
multifaceted practice that functions through the collaboration of culture, religion and society.
This study used a contextual approach to explore the ways in which FGC resides within
sociocultural, religious and political structures shared between Pakistani society and the Dawoodi
Bohra community. The thematic explorations demonstrate that FGC operates in a secretive
manner that entails complex roles, challenges and implications for women. Theme 1, ‘Spiritual
gatekeeping is a fundamental function’, depicts the importance of religiously following the
sunnah (sayings, deeds or prophetic traditions of Prophet Muhammad) as a social norm and
believing in the superior stature of Syedna or da’i (title for the leader of Dawoodi Bohras).
Consequently, this has a communal affect of blind faith, and it silences discourse regarding FGC
among community women and within communal institutions. While theme 1 outlines the
multiple ways in which FGC is guarded, subtheme 1a, ‘Political intelligence as a minority’,
demonstrates that Dawoodi Bohras practice preservatory politics to avoid backlash towards their
tight-knit community and protect the custom of FGC. Theme 2, ‘Gendered semantics of
secrecy’, reveals the primary roles played by mothers and female guardians in regulating FGC
using gendered semantics, cultural euphemisms and semiotics of shame and misinformation.
Cutting the clitoris is censored, trivialised and justified within the community, which prevents
young girls’ access to accurate information before they undergo FGC. Theme 3, ‘Controlling the
girl’s body is a private matter’, uncovers notions of corporeal vulnerability, coercion and the lack
of bodily autonomy of the young girls within the custom. From the entrapment of the girls’
bodies by mothers, female guardians and cutters, to self-remedying of the cut by the mother in a
very private fashion—these tactics demonstrate that the girl’s body is subject to being accultured
to religious purity, sexual curbing and communal expectations. This demonstrates the parallel
moral policing and regulation of women’s bodies in Pakistani society and the Dawoodi Bohra
community. While these themes outlined the various roles of women as perpetuators, bystanders
and protectors of FGC, theme 4 introduces the possibility of change: ‘Women’s reclamation of
change and agency’ shows that the older generation of mothers has the capacity to repudiate the
custom and disrupt its continuation using critical discourse, support networks, self-corrective
behaviour and covert strategies. Subtheme 4a shows that younger women can repair their
complex bodily perceptions through proactive efforts of self-exploration, pleasure, written
expression and awareness. This study serves as a comprehensive framework to understand
FGC’s operation, implications and the possibility of transforming its consequences into change
and reconciliation. Understanding its mechanism provides a unique analysis of how the
community perpetuates, preserves and promotes the practice.
| Date of Award | 2024 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Nathan Franklin (Supervisor), Kate Macfarlane (Supervisor) & Carol Keane (Supervisor) |