Insia Dariwala on Female Genital Mutilation


Ques- You started your journey as a writer and then co-founded your NGO ‘Sahiyo’ for eliminating Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) in the country. What inspired you to start Sahiyo? It will be great if you could also elaborate on the status of the practice currently in India.

Ans - I was writing a film on female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and found that there wasn’t enough information on this out there at that time. A few years prior to that, I was working as a copywriter in India, when I came across a story on FGM/C in Africa, and realised it was similar to what was being practiced in my own country, especially within the Bohra community. I then came across Aarefa Johari’s (Sahiyo’s co-founder) article, which encouraged me to delve deeper into this issue and that’s when we met. Our meeting made me realise that there are so many women who have been affected by this, including the ones in my family and no one was really doing anything about it on the ground. There was total silence around the issue, more so because it was a social norm with deeply rooted in religious beliefs. That’s when Aarefa, I, and 3 other women got together and founded Sahiyo in 2015.

Read other answers - https://p4i.net/in-conversation-with-insia-dariwala-on-female-genital-mutilation-cutting-fgm-c-cyber-safety-and-child-sexual-abuse-in-india/