The Global Platform for Action to End FGM/C, the End FGM/C Africa Network, and The Girl Generation: Support to the Africa-led Movement to End FGM/C, issue this joint statement in response to the ongoing hearings before the Supreme Court of India addressing female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C).
We welcome the fact that this critical human rights issue is finally being considered by the highest court in India after seven years of delay.
FGM/C is a global issue affecting women and girls across at least 94 countries, including an estimated 80 million women and girls in Asia. Yet despite growing evidence and survivor testimony across the region, legal recognition and accountability remain deeply limited.
There is now documented evidence of FGM/C taking place in at least 12 countries across South and South-East Asia, including India. Survivors, activists, researchers, and feminist movements across the region have spent years challenging silence, denial, and minimisation surrounding this violence.
While we welcome the Court’s attention to this issue, we are deeply concerned by the racist and ill-informed remarks made by some lawyers during the hearings.
On 13 May 2026, Senior Counsel Mr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing before the 9-judge bench of the Supreme Court on behalf of the Dawoodi Bohra Association of Women for Religious Freedom (DBWRF), reportedly described female genital mutilation as “an African practice done by African tribals,” while attempting to distinguish it from “khafz” or “female circumcision” practiced within the Bohra community.
He further characterised the Bohra practice as “just nicking of the prepuce in a formal, ritualistic ceremony” and suggested it could not be equated with what he referred to as “FGM which is an African tribal distortion.”
We strongly condemn the racist undertones and derogatory framing embedded within these comparisons.
Such language not only reproduces harmful stereotypes about African communities, but also attempts to minimise and sanitise violence against girls through racialised distinctions. FGM/C is not defined by geography, race, class, or whether a community is perceived as “progressive” or “prosperous” (as Mr. Singhvi described the Bohra community). Violence against girls does not become acceptable because it is reframed through softer language, ritual, status, or respectability.
The World Health Organization clearly defines all non-medical cutting, injury, or alteration of female genitalia, including Type 1 and Type 4 FGM/C such as cutting of the clitoral hood or “nicking,” as forms of FGM/C.
FGM/C, in all its forms, is a form of gender-based violence, violence against children, and sexual violence. It is a grave violation of human rights.
Across the African continent, courageous survivors, feminists, grassroots activists, health professionals, and human rights defenders have spent decades confronting this violence, often at enormous personal risk. Their work has contributed to major legal, social, and political progress, including legislation against FGM/C in more than 29 African countries.
Rather than invoking racist comparisons, the global community should recognise and learn from the decades of African feminist leadership, survivor-led advocacy, and movement building that have helped shift public understanding of FGM/C worldwide.
Irrespective of the extent of cutting involved, all forms of FGM/C are acts of violence against girls. Attempts to create hierarchies of harm or “acceptable” forms of cutting only serve to undermine the rights, dignity, bodily autonomy, and safety of girls.
We urge all parties engaged in these hearings to approach this issue with factual accuracy, human rights principles, and respect for survivors.
Every girl, everywhere in the world, deserves protection from FGM/C.
