Editor’s note: This article contains graphic descriptions of bodily harm. 

Nothing prepares you for violation — the haunting invasiveness of having your dignity ransacked as you’re forced to expose yourself and have the most private parts of your body physically harmed. A sharp tool raised to your labia on its way to slice, hack, and cut away a personal part of you in a manner that can never be repaired. 

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is gender-based violence, and at least 12,000 girls will experience it every single day this year alone. It’s a practice that has no medical validity,  yet runs rampant across the globe,  deeply rooted in misogyny. 

“People will give many reasons, ‘it’s their religion, it’s their culture,’ none of the holy books mention it — but it’s practiced among all the religions… Fundamentally, FGM is there to control women's and girls' bodies, especially their sexuality,” explained Leila Hussein OBE, founder of the anti-FGM organization, the Dahlia Project.

With just five years to achieve the UN’s Global Goal of eradicating this form of violence, it’s essential that we step up and protect girls from having their bodies irreversibly harmed. There are many things we can say about the practice — and we have,  read our explainer here — but it’s essential that the voices of those who’ve experienced it are heard. That’s why we’re holding space and  highlighting some of the most powerful quotes by those who’ve experienced the worst of it:

“Whenever I think about it, I feel like it’s in my body.”

In Hozier’s ‘Cry Power’ podcast, in partnership with Global Citizen, the recording artist and activist sat down to have a discussion with Ifrah Ahmed, a Somali-Irish social activist who has been vocal about the harmful effects of FGM. She shared why the practice still exists today and how it has impacted her life, having experienced it herself. 

“For me, even as an activist now, I moved on from being a victim to being a survivor and to becoming this spokesperson,” she said. “But it has impacted my life because whenever I think about it I feel like it’s in my body... it’s trauma, physical and emotional.”

“On top of the overwhelming pain of labor, there was this continuous cutting.” 

At 10 years old, Sadia Hussein was subjected to FGM as a cultural practice. Years later, she endured the long-term consequences when her body was cut again to prepare her for sex after marriage and childbirth.

The quote above, courtesy of the Guardian, describes how Hussein,  now a strong advocate against FGM in Kenya, endured three days of labor and additional unsanitized cutting in order to give birth to her daughter. In the same Guardian article, Hussein describes her initial experience of being cut: 

“I asked my mum: ‘What’s happening?’ Before she even answered me, a woman held me down on the ground. They laid me down on a woman’s lap. My head was lying on her chest so she was holding me tightly. Some of them were pulling my hands apart. Other ones were pulling my legs apart. One was pressing my chest down to the ground. Then there was one woman who was putting a piece of cloth like this into my mouth,” she said. 

Hussein now works to challenge FGM as a cultural or religious norm so that no more girls in her community — and country — experience it.

“...ending these practices truly requires a shift in an entire community’s perspective.” 

Girls’ education and anti-FGM activist, Kakenya Ntaiya, shared her story with Global Citizen about growing up in a community in Kenya where child marriage and FGM were the norm. This meant that girls’ education was halted at young ages to fulfill the role of being wives to arranged partners. 

Ntaiya was fortunate enough to find an escape, and today, she works to change the mindsets of communities that continue these practices. She continued: “It is not something that can be changed in a mere few years solely through temporary programs, policy, or legislation alone.”

“This is made evident by the fact that FGM has been outlawed in Kenya for over 10 years, and yet 20% of the women and girls in Kenya have still undergone the practice,” she said. 

“It is only feminine pain, and feminine pain perishes.” 

There is a universal fallacy that women are built to endure pain, particularly to perpetuate patriarchal rule over society. In the case of FGM, this pain is justified under the guise of tradition or religion. This harmful narrative removes women’s agency over their own bodies because society and gender norms tell us that they can handle it. It renders women's and girls’ pain irrelevant, undermining the violence committed against them in all its forms. 

This quote, from the 1988 poem by Dahabo Musa, a Somali woman who speaks about the true physical and emotional horrors of FGM, highlights the social mindset that enables the practice. The poem remains relevant 37 years later.

“The world hasn’t tackled FGM because the majority of it affects Black children...” 

Leila Hussein, who has spoken to Global Citizen a myriad of times over the years, hit the nail on the head when she said this. She ended the quote with: “...there would be outrage if this was white girls.” 

FGM practices, as UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated, are “primarily concentrated in 30 countries in Africa and the Middle East…” 

He also goes on to say that though this is true, it remains a universal issue that impacts diaspora and immigrant populations living in Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand.

What these communities have in common is that they are largely Black populations or people of color. It’s been pointed out, time and again — particularly after the global racial reckoning in 2020 that saw the Black Lives Matter movement gain new momentum following the murder of George Floyd — that social issues that affect Black people are regarded as less urgent or important than those affecting other races. This is true of FGM as well, specifically as it affects Black girls. 

FGM is not just a gender issue — its intersectionalities lie in race, and Global South-Global North polarization. 

Gender equality is at risk of moving so far backward that those of us alive today may not live to see it become a reality. FGM is part of the problem and needs immediate action and attention for us to ensure the good health, well-being, and freedom of women and girls everywhere. It’s a topic we won’t stop speaking about, and neither should you.