A grandmother who was present when her two granddaughters are alleged to have undergone female genital mutilation has been accused of not telling the truth in court.
The grandmother, known as A5, was in the room when her granddaughters, known as C1 and C2, allegedly underwent FGM between 2010 and 2012, known to the Dawoodi Bohra Shia Muslim community as “khatna”.
In the first trial of FGM in Australia, A5 told the New South Wales supreme court on Monday she did not know what khatna was and when the girls allegedly underwent the procedure she did not see what happened to them as she was too busy praying.
“It’s not my work so I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t have any kind of idea because I have not seen it myself.”
A5, who is the mother of the girls’ father, conceded khatna had taken place on both occasions but she would not say what khatna was.
A woman known as KM, who allegedly performed the FGM on the girls, their mother and a leader in their community, Shabbir Mohammedbhai Vaziri, are facing trial over the alleged FGM.
In previous evidence A5 said she was not aware that khatna happened in Australia and the crown prosecutor Nanette Williams put it to her that she was “not telling the truth”.
A5 maintained she was not aware khatna happened in Australia before her granddaughters’ ceremonies.
Williams accused A5 of willingly not telling the truth about what she had seen. “I did not see it because I was reciting Qur’an, because they might have told you khatna procedure is symbolic,” she said through an interpreter.
A5 had previously told the court the khatna was just a “checkup” and Williams said this was the first time A5 had said it was symbolic.
Williams asked her if someone had told her to use the word symbolic and why she had previously said checkup and was now saying symbolic. “Yes I spoke that but I can’t tell the proper meaning of all the words,” A5 said.
“Neither of those words checkup or symbolic is the truth because you knew khatna was causing injury to both of your granddaughters,” Williams responded, to which A5 said: “I do not know who was injured, I have not seen anything.”
The court has heard a taped phone conversation in which Vaziri, a high-ranking member of the clergy, tells A5 that if she is questioned about khatna by police to say “no comment”.
A5 was arrestedin relation to the alleged FGM and told police she did not wish to comment. She was eventually advised the charges against her would not proceed.
The court has previously heard evidence from C1 and C2. C1’s khatna ceremony was allegedly carried out at the home of KM and C2’s at the family home in western Sydney.
C1 has described imagining she was a princess in a garden while the alleged FGM was taking place and C2 described “feeling hurting” in her “bottom” during it.
Medical evidence as to whether FGM has been carried out on the pair has been inconclusive.
The trial continues.
