<p>Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 5.3.2 focuses on the elimination of all harmful practices including female genital mutilation (FGM), a deeply entrenched cultural practice also referred to as female genital cutting or female circumcision. While much work has focused on advocacy and prevention efforts in countries of high prevalence in Africa and diaspora in Europe, there has been a paucity of discussion on FGM in the Asia-Pacific region. FGM is practised in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, the Philippines and Indonesia; however, none of these countries are supported by the UNFPAUNICEF Joint Programme on the Abandonment of FGM. The cruel practise of female genital cutting, or female genital mutilation (FGM) is not happening only far away from Africa. It&rsquo;s not just being practised in tribal societies. Young girls aged six and seven are regularly being cut right here, in India. Mumbai abounds with untrained midwives who continue to scar young girls from the Bohra community, a Shia subsect. For long, FGM or khatna as the Bohras call it remained a well-kept secret, a taboo, a subject never to be discussed.</p>
