NSW FGM trial: 7-year-old girl told to think about being a princess in a garden.

A seven-year-old was asked to lie down, think of princesses and remove her pants while a “forceps was placed on her genitals” and a “procedure” took place. But it wasn’t female genital mutilation according, to the defence.

Warning: This post contains details of female genital mutilation and may cause distress for some readers.

A seven-year-girl lies down on a bed. “Imagine you are a princess in a garden,” she is told.  A lady has came to the house to which she was taken. Something  “special” is about to take place.

Secret women’s business. 

The girl says that she removed her pants and lay down, then the lady did something that hurt “in her bottom.”

Her mother who was there told her to get up and have a shower and as a treat she would be given a lemonade.

Her father, a GP who was not present in the room at the time, told her afterwards when she said that it hurt she would be “okay” it had just been a “check up”.

The Supreme Court of New South Wales has heard evidence that two young girls aged just seven were the victims of female genital mutilation in a ceremony performed by a retired midwife in front of their mother.

The mother, the midwife and a high-ranking member of the clergy in the Dawoodi Bohra Shia Muslim community of which the family is a part, Shabbir Mohammedbhai Vaziri, are standing trial. The girl’s mother and a nurse have pleaded not guilty to both her and her older sisters’ genital mutilation, which allegedly took place in separate ceremonies in NSW between 2009 and 2012.

The girls — named C1 and C2 for the purposes of keeping their identity private — have given evidence over the last two days.

As a part of the trial, the court has heard secret recordings made by police during the investigation intercepting a conversation between C1 and her father.

C1 told her father she saw scissors when it took place.

”They do something with scissors,” she said.

The court was also played a police interview with C1 that took place in August 2012. In the interview C1 was asked by a social worker and a police officer if she knew about undergoing the “khatna” .

She said yes. It had happened to her.

She then shut down the conversation, saying: “I don’t want to talk about that.”

When asked why, she responded, “I just don’t.”

When pushed a little, she did talk.

She said she was taken to a home in Wollongong and was told by her father, a GP she was having a “check-up.”

“The person who did it told me to close my eyes and imagine a place I like … she asked if I liked gardens and I said gardens and she told me to imagine I was a princess in the gardens,” she started.

“And then she did it, she told me to think [about being a princess in a garden] so I wouldn’t feel it so much, but I did feel it a bit.”

Her sister, C2 also had the procedure in her parent’s bedroom when she was aged seven.

The young girl, now aged nine, gave evidence in court yesterday mostly responding in one-syllable answers or with “I don’t know.”

The Guardian reports that a recording of her police interview in 2012 was played to the court yesterday.

C2 was asked if she was cut on her genitals.

She said yes.

She asked how it felt, and she responded “hurting”. When asked where she felt the hurting, she said “in the bottom”.

In evidence yesterday, several doctors spoke of whether or not “cutting” had taken place or merely a prick or a touch.

Dr Sonia Grover, a paediatric gynaecologist, told the court it was possible the tips of the girls’ clitorises had been removed.

“I think you have to be quite careful what conclusion you draw [from not being able to see the tip of the glands of the clitoris] because in a little girl this is a sensitive area … girls are going to pull their legs together, it might be uncomfortable to do [the examination], so it might limit your capacity to see the tip,” she said.

She said that whatever took place was probably a “minor procedure”

“If you were going to remove tissue, it would hurt and bleed,” she said. “The information I was given was that the girls did not complain of pain or problems in the days after. So it means whatever was done was a minor procedure.”

Dr Grover said it was possible the clitorises had been pricked or pierced and then healed without sign of injury.

Defence counsel is arguing that neither sister was cut, instead that it was a cultural ceremony where the girls genitals were “touched with forceps” but no “cutting or damage” had been inflicted.

The defence, Robert Sutherland SC, said at the start of the trial he would not dispute there was a ceremony for the girls attended by only women — but he said their genitals were not mutilated or cut, just simply touched and the girls’ eyes were closed the entire time.

“The issue as to whether there was any injury is at the forefront of this trial not whether the mother, grandmother gathered together, not whether someone read from the Koran, there was certainly a ceremony but you will not be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt there was any injury to these girls,” he said.

Last year NSW Minister for Family and Community Services Pru Goward said that toughening the law on FGM was not an option.

She said community engagement and education was needed to prevent more young girls being targeted.

“It’s so easy to hide within a community that condones it, within a household that condones it,” Ms Goward said she said anecdotal evidence showed the practice was “more common than the reports would suggest”.

The trial continues.

Women who have had FGM performed on them need to know they can talk to their health care professionals about any discomfort or pain they may experience.

Parents need to know it is against the law to practice this on their daughters in Australia.

There are a number of campaigns to stop female genital mutilation, including many grassroots campaigns to create change within communities. For more, visit:

www.banfmg.org 

www.stop-fgm-now.com