It marked the end of a procedure supposed to rid the child of sin and signal she was now officially a Muslim. An obligationDespite the pain it causes and growing opposition inside and outside Indonesia, residents of Gorontalo, mostly poor rice farmers, consider female circumcision an obligation. Authorities insist the methods most commonly used in Indonesia -- usually involving a pin prick -- do not amount to female genital mutilation. “I believe there are no verses in my religion that allow female circumcision -- it is not in the Koran,” Khorirah Ali, a member of the government-backed national commission on violence against women, said. Jurnalis Uddin, an expert on female circumcision from Jakarta-based Yarsi University, and a member of the government’s advisory council, said the focus should be on encouraging the less harmful methods.

Source: Hindustan Times March 27, 2017 04:18 UTC