Wearing a colourful gown and a golden headpiece, a little girl is surrounded by her gleeful relatives lighting candles and laying treats out on the table. 

The family appears to be getting ready for a special occasion – but there is an underlying darkness to the jubilant celebration, as the toddler suddenly begins to wail in agony.

That is because 18-month-old Salsa Djafar, from the Gorontalo community in Indonesia, has just been circumcised. 

The procedure was carried out by a so-called healer, who used a knife to remove a tiny piece of skin from the hood that covers the clitoris. 

The act, also known as female genital mutilation (FGM), has been practised for generations across Indonesia – one of the world’s biggest Muslim-majority countries – and is considered a rite of passage by many. 

Practitioners believed the procedure rids little girls of sin and officially makes them Muslim. 

While the UN condemns the practice and the Indonesian government once sought to ban it, opposition from religious groups and widespread acceptance have meant FGM has been nearly impossible to stop. 

Toddler Salsa Djafar sits on her mother’s lap at the circumcision ceremony in Gorontalo, Indonesia, led by a traditional healer, in 2017

The 18-month-old cries after the procedure, which has been practised for generations across Indonesia

A young Indonesian girl cries as doctors perform her circumcision in Bandung, Indonesia’s fifth largest city, in 2013

And in some parts of the country, communities go as far as hosting mass circumcision events, in which hundreds of girls from the ages of 3 months to 11 years are forced to undergo the procedure. 

In Bandung, Indonesia’s fifth-largest city, these events are commonplace.

The Assalaam Foundation, an Islamic non-profit, is among several organisations that hosts the events. The foundation holds the celebration in the lunar month of the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. 

Parents are able to sign their daughters up for the procedure via WhatsApp, before taking them to a school building, where the practice is carried out. 

Young women and girls wearing long tunics and hijabs pour into the building to register, as they are greeted by teachers and midwives.  

Once inside, they are escorted to classrooms that have been transformed into operating rooms, where school desks are lined up next to each other and covered in sheets. 

Journalist Abigail Haworth witnessed a mass mutilation event in Bandung in 2006, and described how she saw two nurses hold down a four year old against a desk. 

She said the child squealed in pain while the procedure was carried out with what she likened to a pair of nail scissors. 

Children who are circumcised receive a ‘goodie bag’ with 200,000 rupiah, or £8.34, and treats – which is often an incentive for parents in the impoverished community. 

Back in 2006, the Assalaam Foundation faced backlash for their yearly mass circumcision event after a World Health Organization (WHO) team observed the scene and urged the foundation to stop offering female circumcision services. 

Yet the procedure continues to be carried out, with staff members insisting it does not violate WHO recommendations.

In South Sulawesi, Facebook adverts promote mass circumcisions for young girls.  One ad by community organisation Wahdah Islamiyah in the district of Jeneponto reads: ‘Reach perfection through circumcision’, and asks for a contribution of 100,000 rupiah (£4.17). 

A woman holds her four-year-old daughter as doctors prepare to circumcise the child 

Medical workers are pictured at an annual mass circumcision event in Karanganyar, Central Java, Indonesia in 2014

An Indonesian mother tries to calm her four-year-old daughter Kania as doctors perform her circumcision in Bandung in 2013

A traditional healer shows cutting tools used to circumcise women in Gorontalo

In Gorontalo, a deeply conservative community in Sulawesi, the procedure is even carried out alongside elaborate rituals and celebrations involving extended family, as was the case with young Salsa’s circumcision. 

News agency AFP documented the toddler’s ceremony in 2017, with images showing the little girl being covered by a sheet as the procedure was carried out on her. 

In pictures, she appears to be writhing in pain while she is held by a smiling relative. 

Other photographs show the frightened toddler wearing a purple dress and a golden crown as the healer carries out a ceremony. 

Despite the horrific scenes of pain and anguish, residents of Gorontalo, mostly poor rice farmers, consider female circumcision an obligation. The healer that carried out Salsa’s circumcision, Khadijah Ibrahim, said that girls who were left uncut risked developing ‘mental problems and disabilities’.

Several believe the practice prevents girls from becoming promiscuous in later life, while there is also a widespread belief that uncircumcised Muslim women’s prayers will not be accepted by God.

The practice remains common, and in an effort to accommodate cultural and religious considerations, the Indonesian government has moved away from previous attempts to ban the practice entirely and has instead sought to stamp out the more harmful methods and ensure safety.

Authorities insist the methods most commonly used in Indonesia, which usually involve a pinprick, do not amount to FGM. However, in some of the country’s rural towns and cities, mutilation in the form of circumcision is still in high demand by parents who believe it is a religious requirement.

A social media advertisement (promotes female genital mutilation for young girls in Indonesia

Salsa Djafar stands with other children in her village in Gorontalo, Indonesia, before taking part in a circumcision ceremony with her family

The WHO estimates that more than 200million girls around the world have undergone FGM, and also considers the practice a violation of human rights. 

A 2016 UNICEF report placed Indonesia as the country with the third-highest prevalence of FGM, with an estimated 54 per cent of girls under 14 having undergone the procedure. However, there are likely many more as families continue to perform FGM independently or with unqualified midwives. 

While circumcision celebrations are widespread in Indonesia, in some areas, the practice may remain a secret between the mother and midwife. 

It is also not uncommon for a girl to grow up now knowing she was ever cut. 

According to the WHO, FGM has no health benefits, and harms women and girls in a number of ways. This is because it involves removing and damaging healthy and normal female genital tissue, and interferes with the natural functions of the female body. 

FGM can lead to extreme pain, excessive bleeding, infections such as tetanus and in some cases, it can even cause death. 

In the long term, FGM can cause urinary issues, vaginal problems and can even cause childbirth complications.