Legal Case of the Week: Female Genital Mutilation in Ingushetia

Activists Call For Investigation Into Case Of Female Genital Mutilation, Saying It Would Be A First For Russia

Tatyana Savvina a lawyer with Pravovaya initsiativa (RFE/RL)

The girl screamed and struggled but was held down by medical staff and her stepmother when female genital mutilation was performed on her at a medical clinic in June 2019 in Magas, the capital of Ingushetia, a region in Russia’s North Caucasus. Her mother filed criminal charges and the pediatric gynecologist who performed the procedure is on trial. Now, activists have petitioned for a fuller probe into the case by the Investigative Committee, which lawyers say would be a first in Russia. “Female circumcision is crippling and has long-term negative consequences for a woman’s psychological, sexual, and reproductive health,” said Tatyana Savvina, a lawyer with the NGO Pravovaya Initsiativa (Legal Initiative), using a different term for the procedure. “This is a form of gender-based violence.”  RFE/RL, 19 May 2020

Doctors treat girl’s circumcision in Ingushetia as exceptional

Female circumcision is not a common practice in clinics of Dagestan and Ingushetia, but doctors can make such surgeries secretly, medics have commented on the story of the nine-year-old girl, who was circumcised in Ingushetia. The child risks having a psychological trauma from the surgery itself and from the public resonance, a Dagestani psychotherapist has pointed out. Caucasian Knot, 20 May 2020

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