From missing school for several weeks and wetting beds to experiencing bouts of anxiety and fear, young girls who undergo genital cutting — a practice widely followed by the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community — are left with deep psychological scars. The trauma is often masked by a celebratory mood in the community following the practice of khatna, which involves cutting a part of the clitoral hood of girls when they are as young as seven years . New dresses and toys are gifted to forget the pain, and innocent stories are crafted to further the belief that the cut was necessary to sanitise the body.
Taking a heavy toll
Clinical psychologist Varkha Chulani says any kind of tampering with the genitals of a child is bound to leave psychological scars. Ms. Chulani says, “The child could be overcome with a feeling of absolute fear; a sense that she could be easily violated. In some cases, children see recurring nightmares, experience paranoia and undergo post-traumatic stress disorder.” She adds, “Dealing with the trauma differs from one child to another.” Ms. Chulani says while a few girls coped with the scars as they grew up, others lived with the trauma forever.
Dr. Shubhangi Parker, who heads the psychiatry department at KEM Hospital, says, “Minor girls are definitely traumatised following the practice as it involves mutilation of their genitals.” A psychologist, on condition of anonymity, says, “Sensitive children may have angry outbursts and feel a deep sense of fear. Parents, however, may dismiss these signs of trauma as bad behaviour or ignore them owing to the secrecy surrounding the practice.” She says parents do not often take children suffering from symptoms of trauma for counselling sessions. Instead, many parents resort to rituals to drive away the bala (problem), some even insist on them wearing a taweez (amulet) blessed by religious heads to cure the child of the “terror that has gripped her”. A victim, in her twenties now, says she began dreading the sight of blood ever since she saw blood ooze out of her body when she was cut.
‘Violent experience’
Dilshad Tavawalla, 62, a Canada-based lawyer, recalls how she was psychologically and emotionally traumatised after khatna. “I don’t recall how many weeks or months of school I missed. I ended up failing Class 3 despite being a brilliant student.” Ms. Tavawalla says she was never taken for counselling, but was given a book of 100 fairy tales by her elder sister to “divert her mind from the painful and violent experience”. Ms. Tavawalla says, “Reading the stories helped me recover from the trauma.”
A 22-year-old victim dismissed claims by supporters of the practice that it is a “1,400-year-old tradition meant to enhance sexual experience”. She also criticised those who believed that the practice involved “an extremely minor nip that cannot have any physical or mental side effects”. She says, “When I cut myself while slicing a vegetable with a kitchen knife, it hurts. Here, we are talking about cutting the most sensitive portion of our bodies.” She says, “If this practice really enhanced sexual pleasure, don’t you think people across the world would be getting it done?.” She adds, “Even sati , where the widow immolates herself on her husband’s pyre, was practised for centuries but that does not make the practice right.”
An survey carried out by Sahiyo, an organisation that aims to end the practice of genital cutting, analysed the mental state of victims soon after their underwent khatna in early childhood. The report released early this year said 51% of the participants were overcome with fear soon after their genitals were cut, 21% felt angry and 15% sad. Only 3% of the participants said they felt happy after the experience. Others respondents said they felt confused, ashamed, numb, humiliated, in despair, and betrayed.
Negative impact on sex life
As many as 48% of the respondents said the experience left a negative impact on their adult life. While some were haunted by the memory of being cut, others suffered from a feeling of being incomplete and lacking something. Many respondents were angry at their parents for putting them through the process, while others said they experienced feelings of sexual frustration. As many as 35% of the respondents said khatna affected their sex life. A total of 87% of them said it negatively impacted their sex life.
