- Title: BULGARIA: MASS CIRCUMCISION CEREMONY
- Date: 15th June 2005
- Summary: (MER1) KARDZHALI, BULGARIA (RECENT - JUNE 11, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. SV THE REGIONAL MUFTI OF KARDZHALI, FIKRI SALI, GIVING PEOPLE SPECIAL HATS AND SKIRTS FOR THEIR BOYS 0.02 2. SV PARENTS AND RELATIVES OF THE BOYS GATHERED FOR CIRCUMCISION RITUAL 0.07 3. SV BOYS DANCING 0.10 4. SV MOTHER DANCING WITH HER CHILD 0.14 5. SLV FIKRI SALI WALKING STREETS OF KARDZHALI IN FRONT OF PROCESSION 0.20 6. SV/MCU OF PARENTS AND BOYS QUEUING FOR CIRCUMCISION PROCEDURE (4 SHOTS) 0.34 7. MCU FIKRI SALI GIVING CIRCUMCISION SERMON 0.39 8. SV MOTHER DECORATING HER BOY 0.43 9. MCU (Kardzhali) REGIONAL MUFTI OF KARDZHALI, FIKRI SALI, SAYING: "This is a part of our religion Islam - every Muslim has to go through this, because our Prophet said so. This circumcision is being done not for the first time, nor the last time here - we would like to thank our government in the Republic of Bulgaria for giving us the right and freedom to serve our religion without obstacles." 1.16 10. MCU MOTHER CONSOLING HER BOY 1.20 11. SV FATHER CARRYING HIS BOY TO THE OPERATING TABLE 1.26 12. SV BOY IN HANDS OF HIS FATHER KISSING HANDS OF A MUFTI 1.34 13. SV PEOPLE OUTSIDE WAITING FOR THEIR TURN 1.37 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 30th June 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: KARDZHALI, BULGARIA
- Country: Bulgaria
- Reuters ID: LVA8QYMGTE75MUKHANT0XO1MZDXZ
- Story Text: Hundreds of young boys from Bulgaria's Turkish
minority take part in mass circumcision ceremony.
Around 250 young boys from Bulgaria's ethnic Turkish
minority have taken part in a mass circumcision ceremony, a
Muslim ritual that was suppressed during communist times.
A procession of parents carried the boys, aged 2 to 5
years, dressed in white shirts and blue hats, through the
mainly Muslim town of Kardzhali on Saturday (June 11).
A team of doctors waited at the town's main mosque to
carry out the procedure.
Mass circumcision ceremonies are organised without
charge for poor families.
Kardzhali, in the southern Rhodope Mountains, is the
centre of Bulgaria's Turkish minority.
"This is a part of our religion, Islam, every Muslim
has to go through this, because our Prophet said so. This
circumcision is being done not for the first time, nor the
last time here, we would like to thank our government in
the Republic of Bulgaria for giving us the right and
freedom to serve our religion without obstacles," said
Fikri Sali, the regional mufti of Kardzhali.
The country's Turkish Muslims previously suffered
significant discrimination and mistreatment, notably in the
mid-1980s, under a policy of cultural assimilation. As a
result, a large number of Bulgarian Turks fled to Turkey.
Most of them have returned however, after the fall of
communism, and in recent years they have enjoyed more legal
protection of their cultural identity.
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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