Dawoodi Bohra Ask for Justice

SYDNEY - A member of Sydney’s Dawoodi Bohra community has been denied the ability to serve a 15 month sentence by way of home detention. Mr. Vaziri, the 60 year old former religious leader of the Sydney Dawoodi Bohra Jamaat, will now serve a minimum of 11 months in jail for his involvement in the religious practice of Khafz (or Khatna) which is banned in Australia.

Justice Peter Johnson, despite acknowledging Vaziri’s proven ill-health, prior good character and his recent removal from official duties within the Dawoodi Bohra Jamaat of Australia, surprised the court with his decision which comes as an apparent reversal of his original sentencing intention.

In a decision which has baffled Sydney’s close-knit Dawoodi Bohra community and the legal team representing the defence, convictions were handed down against the two principals for a period of 15 months to be served in home detention for a crime that carried a maximum sentence of 7 years.

However, Vaziri was sentenced to the far more severe 15 months in custody, for a lesser crime that carries a maximum penalty of only 5 years.

Questions are also being asked about the terms of reference used by Justice Johnson in reaching his decisions.

“It’s a travesty of justice. The trial devastated the lives of the very girls the justice system was supposed to protect. The judge engineered convictions despite having no evidence of injury”, a spokesman for the community said at the press release.

“At times, during the hearings, it felt as if it was the religion that was on trial and not the three accused”.

Legal teams representing the three convicted Dawoodi Bohra members are preparing appeals against each of the convictions and the sentence passed on Mr. Vaziri.

The Dawoodi Bohras are a Muslim community hailing from Yemen and Western India. They are a trading community well known to be peace loving and law-abiding. The majority of the community reside in India, but smaller numbers exist in Yemen, the Middle East, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, East Africa, UK, Europe, USA, Canada, Far East and Australia.

Dawoodi Bohras are well educated, with both men and women taking up professions and businesses. They are identifiable by women wearing an all-covering colourful dress and the men often wearing a white gold-rimmed cap.

A spokesperson for Dawoodi Bohra confirmed that Khatna is not to be practiced in Australia nor in any other country where it is considered illegal

“Syedna has stated that no religious obligation can be harmful to its followers. Obviously, if one believes that one divinely ordained injunction is incorrect, every injunction would be suspect. This would bring our whole religion into question,” the spokesperson said.