Somali woman found guilty of aiding female cut in Kenya
By Oliver Musembi and Story Agencies, October 27, 2023A London court yesterday found a woman of Kenyan and Somali origin guilty of aiding the procurement of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) service for a three-year-old British girl during a trip to Kenya.
In an article carried by The Daily Mail, the case against Amina Noor, 39, is the first conviction of its kind in the UK for the crime which took place in 2006. “It is the first time a person in England and Wales has been convicted of female genital mutilation (FGM) offences committed abroad and carries a maximum sentence of 14 years,” wrote the publication.
Amina, a Somali from London, had claimed in a police interview that the little girl would have been injected or pierced in a ‘procedure’ known as ‘Gudniin’ – the Arabic word for circumcision. However, medical experts who examined the child found she had not been simply injected but had suffered severe mutilation of her genitals.
Convicted by jury
“The horrific procedure would have most likely caused significant bleeding and extreme pain, especially if an astringent agent was used to stop the bleeding,” reads the article.
The landmark case saw the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), working alongside the police and National Crime Agency, prove that during her visit to Kenya, Amina knew some form of FGM was being committed against the victim. Investigators were able to find that she intentionally assisted with the commission of the offence.
The accused, who was convicted by a jury at the Old Bailey in London on Thursday, October 26, will be sentenced at a later date. She did not react as the Somali interpreter told her the verdict.
To date, the only other successful prosecution under the FM Act of 2003, was in 2019 when a 37-year-old Ugandan woman from Walthamstow, East London, was jailed for 13 years for cutting a three-year-old girl, the Daily Mail reported.
It further says an estimated 94 per cent of Somali women living in Kenya undergo the horrendous procedure in the mistaken belief that it is a religious requirement.
Amina was charged after the victim told her English teacher what happened, when she was 16 in November 2018.
The court heard: “On 11 January 2019 [the victim] was medically examined by doctors at University College Hospital here in London. It was found that her clitoris had been completely removed.”
Amina was born in Somalia but moved to Mombasa in Kenya when she was eight after the outbreak of civil war. In 2003 she was granted refugee status in the UK before she became a British citizen in 2005. Prosecutor Deanna Heer, previously told jurors Noor flew the victim to Kenya in 2006.
“While they were there, she took [the victim] to the house of a Kenyan woman, where she was subjected to female genital mutilation. That involved the complete removal of her clitoris. At the time, she was just three years of age,” the Prosecutor said.
Amina had said she feared being ‘cursed’ if she did not allow the young British girl to have the procedure.
“You will hear expert evidence that ‘Sunnah Gudniin’ is a particular term which means removal of the clitoris,” Ms Heer told the court. In her defence Amina, assisted by a Somali interpreter, said she did not know what the words meant at the time. She claimed she did not know the toddler’s clitoris had been removed and that she had been told she only had an injection to withdraw blood.
Amina told police she took the child to a ‘clinic’ via tuk-tuk, arriving at a private house where she did not know if the people were doctors and had waited outside
Refugee status
She said that while the child had cried while the operation was being carried out, she was “happy and able to run around and play afterwards.” Amina had further alleged that she was told during the procedure “nothing much is going to happen to the person, it’s just making sure a bit of blood is coming out.” Afterwards the child was in pain while urinating.
Senior crown prosecutor Patricia Strobino hailed Amina’s conviction saying: “This kind of case will hopefully encourage potential victims and survivors of FGM to come forward, safe in the knowledge that they are supported and also able to speak their truth about what’s actually happened to them,
“It will also send a clear message to those prospective defendants or people that want to maintain this practice that it doesn’t matter whether they assist or practice or maintain it within the UK, or overseas, they are likely to be prosecuted.”
She added: “Part of the challenge of this type of offence is the fact that these types of offences occur in secrecy.” Jaswant Narwal, CPS national lead for honour-based abuse, female genital mutilation and forced marriage, added: “Female genital mutilation is a form of violence against women and girls, and in the latter case it is child abuse.