Warning: This post contains details of female genital mutilation and may cause distress for some readers.
Three people have been found guilty over the genital mutilation of two young sisters during religious ceremonies in New South Wales, including the girls’ mother and a midwife.
The two girls were aged about seven when they endured the ordeal in two separate ceremonies at homes in Wollongong and Sydney’s north-west between 2009 and 2012, a court heard.
The girls’ mother and a 71-year-old former midwife were found guilty of genital mutilation after a trial at the NSW Supreme Court.
A senior member of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community, Shabbier Vaziri, was also found guilty of being an accessory.
During the trial, the eldest sister, now aged 11, described a “silver tool” being present during the ceremony.
“It looked a bit like a scissor,” she said via video link.
The jury was also shown a police interview with the eldest sister, recorded in August 2012.
“They give a little cut there. Not very much,” she told a police officer and a welfare worker in the interview.
“My mum tells me not to go around telling everyone that much.”
The defence argued there was no scarring to prove that the girls were harmed.
The trio will be sentenced at a later date.
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Top Comments
Of course the other part of this terrible abuse is how the perpetrators were groomed in the good old denial tactics (as per the recorded conversations used in the court), for what to do when caught while ignoring our laws in favour of their customs - tactic - not us, we good citizens. We uphold laws of our host country. NOT