Rights defenders demand reaction to data on female circumcision in Ingushetia

On May 12, lawyers of the "Legal Initiative" Project sent a request to the Investigating Department for Ingushetia of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) asking to check the treatment and diagnostic centre in Magas, whose doctors performed, in June 2019, a crippling surgery on a 9-year-old girl, says the statement posted on the website of the "Legal Initiative".

"A female circumcision is a crippling surgery that has long-term negative consequences for a woman's psychological, sexual and reproductive health; this is a form of gender-based violence," Tatiana Savvina, a senior lawyer of the "Legal Initiative" Project, is quoted in the statement.

The applicant for the "Legal Initiative" is the girl's mother. She and her family, including children, live in Chechnya. Her former husband is a native of Ingushetia, a girl's relative, Seda N., told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"The spouses don't live together for many years," Seda said. According to her story, the girl's mother did not know about the planned surgery on her daughter. "The circumcision was made without the mother's knowledge. Her husband said that he just took the children to stay with him. On the following day, the elder son, the girl's brother, called his mother and told what they had done to her," the woman said.

As soon as the girl's mother found out what had happened, she immediately submitted applications to both Investigating Departments of the ICRF – for the Chechen Republic and for Ingushetia.

According to Seda, investigators checked the clinic; then the case was transferred to a court in Magas. "The judge constantly delayed the consideration. Neither the investigator, nor the judge sees any crime, or human rights violation; they don't understand that this is a crippling operation. The only thing that, in their opinion, can be indicted here is the fact that it was done without (mother's) permission, and if there had been such permission, then, there was nothing serious," Seda has given the details.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 13, 2020 at 09:13 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.