A mother and midwife who subjected two young girls to female genital mutilation (FGM) in Australia were sentenced to 15 months each yesterday.
The mother of four, who cannot be named for legal reasons, asked nurse Kubra Magennis to carry out the secret ritual on her two older daughters.
Both are members of the Dawoodi Bohra community, a worldwide subsect of Shia Islam.
Shabbir Vaziri, a Dawoodi Bohra religious leader, was also sentenced to 15 months for trying to cover up the offences.
The girls were cut when they were about seven years old and afterwards sworn to secrecy, according to the judgment by the Supreme Court of New South Wales.
The older girl was cut at a relative’s home in Wollongong and the younger at the family home in Sydney.
Their grandmother was also present at the ceremonies carried out between 2009 and 2012.
The procedure, which the Dawoodi Bohras call khatna, involves cutting or nicking the clitoris. Although it is not mentioned in the Qur’an, the Bohras consider it a religious obligation.
The Dawoodi Bohra are based in India where campaigners recently launched a petition calling on the government to pass a law against FGM.
The trial has been closely watched by Dawoodi Bohra communities around the world many of whom have since issued edicts against the practice.
The trial judge said Magennis, 72, had shown no remorse and her offence was aggravated by the fact she had abused her professional vocation.
The court heard the mother, a 39-year-old trained pharmacist, had been subjected to khatna herself as a child in Kenya.