Somali refugee, 45, becomes first person in Queensland to be jailed for female ...

A Queensland mother has been sentenced to prison for taking her two daughters to Africa to have parts of their genitals removed. 

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was found guilty of taking her daughters, then aged 10 and 13, to Somalia in April 2015 for the procedure.

Brisbane District Court Justice Leanne Clare described the mutilation as child abuse, and said the mother, 45, had taken them to Africa for the purpose of having it done.

'In this case, a woman of unknown ability used a sharp implement to excise the clitoral hood of each girl,' Justice Clare said during sentencing on Thursday.

'The girls were not sedated, there was bleeding and a period of significant pain for perhaps a number of days, there was obvious risk of infection, even death.'

The mother is the first person to be sentenced in Queensland for removing a child from the state for female genital mutilation.

Cutting or removing some of a girl or young woman's genitals is considered traditional in some cultures but illegal here.

'To treat the adherence to tradition as mitigation would dilute the protection of the law for those children in most need of it,' Justice Clare said.

'No matter where a family may come from, whether it be Somalia, India or Ashgrove, it makes no difference, that children in this state have equal protection under the law.'

Judge Clare said the mother made the journey with the intention of the mutilation and had deliberately taken the girls from a country that would protect them, ABC News reported. 

'A mother who subjects her daughters to that treatment seriously betrays her position of trust,' Judge Clare said.