Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse Belong in the Movement to End FGC
By Anonymous I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. Though for much of my life, “victim” felt like the most honest word. Those experiences have shaped my relationships, both to others and with myself, so that forging an identity outside of that trauma is an impossibility. What happened to me exists in public court records and it is known within and outside of my community; it is the thing we don’t talk about at family dinners. So, when I thought of myself, what it meant to be me, “victim” was always near the top of that list. Despite years of therapy, some things are still very hard for me. Some days I am driven by a nameless panic, shaking hands and speeding thoughts and all. Others are much worse than that. A patient, well-deep sadness that I don’t think I will ever be entirely free of. My body often feels like a thing separate from me, such dissociation is not uncommon. The complexity of mental health is never lost on survivors; some days are bad, others are calm and joyful. That’s the journey, and this is a thing I carry. It’s heavy, but I do. When I found Sahiyo, I knew immediately that this was an organization I wanted to be a part of. I knew it would be healing but as any survivor knows, healing can be painful, too. I knew it would challenge me, force me to examine deeply uncomfortable truths. This was an opportunity to observe where my hesitations were coming from. I wanted to become comfortable talking about women’s bodies, about trauma, about health and wellness—all of the things we so gladly tuck away. So in those early days, that’s all I did. I read Maasi blogs, which handled trauma with grace, patience, and accessible resources. I (safely and mindfully) pushed myself to really look at the language and how it was being used. I focused on my body’s responses as I read words I would normally avoid: cutting, labia, orgasm, vagina, genitals, clitoris, consent. I read the stories of survivors, and I held space for their pain, grief, anguish, and their bravery. Over time I realized that so much of their narratives mirrored my own experience. Like them, I knew as a child that something had happened to me. I knew that I was one person before those experiences, and another afterward. Even as a child, I knew that my body now carried the weight of trauma. But like some survivors of female genital cutting, I would reach for the memories and come up with nothing but flashes of pain. Mostly empty air. Whether my mind was protecting itself, or those memories never formed due to particular details of the events, I don’t really know. My body remembers even when my mind can’t. When I was in my early twenties and in a good mental space, I started asking about it. Family, community members who might have insight into the social atmosphere at the time, reporters, the judge who presided over the case. I looked over the court records for the first time. I learned about what had happened to me, what had really happened to me, through the stories of others. There are no words for what an odd, alien experience that was: to ask other people the details about one of the most intimate, traumatic, and developmentally defining experiences of my life. In all of my years of therapy and trauma research, I had never encountered other survivors who had to look outside of themselves, and to their community, to find the answers. Not until Sahiyo. As I read their stories I found words for my own experience. I was able to so strongly identify with their grief and anguish that it felt like a physical tug in my chest. For every hour I spent wondering who I could’ve been without the weight of this sadness, someone else was working through that same struggle. And they were so brave and courageous, talking about their trauma with community members and advocating for childhood consent, working to eradicate FGC. You can’t fully appreciate the strength it takes to speak openly about intimate trauma unless you’ve experienced it. These women are building a better world–both despite and because of what happened to them. Our individual experiences are not the same. The weight of that generational trauma is not something I’m able to fully grasp, but I do know that I found courage and strength in their bravery. I know that I’ve reached a deeper place of acceptance with my own trauma. I choose patience, healing, and compassion just as I choose “survivor.” And that choosing is an act of defiance, of empowerment, of strength. It is both because of–and despite–what happened to me. The language of our internal world matters. It’s always going to be hard. I wish that the world was a better place than it currently is. But if you are a survivor of childhood sexual abuse looking for a safe community of people who understand intimate body trauma, there is space for you here. Volunteering for Sahiyo means being a part of a global movement making the world safer and more accessible for women and girls from every background. It’s a worthy cause.
A Quiet Violence: Navigating Female Genital Cutting as an LGBTQ+ Survivor
Register Today: https://bit.ly/AQuietViolence Female genital cutting (FGC) is a form of gender-based violence that is often undermined by harmful gendered social norms. Whether done for marriageability, cleanliness, purity, or a variety of other reasons – the practice of FGC is often tied to socially ascribed standards of ‘womanhood’. Despite being seeped in highly binary gender norms, not all who are survivors of FGC identify with cis-heterosexual womanhood; not every survivor is a woman. As non-binary anti-FGC activist Dena Igusti said in an article for Womanly, “The quiet violence of FGM is that survivors forever bear the burden of being associated only with cis-womanhood.” In fact,the language surrounding anti-FGC advocacy and programing often centers on the needs, experiences, and terminology most associated with cisgender and heterosexual women. Furthermore, anti-FGC laws in the United States are increasingly being weaponized against trans communities to deny them gender-affirming healthcare. As growing conversations around the world have sought to address the unique needs of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) communities, the question remains as to how to meet the needs of LGBTQ+ survivors of FGC. On June 23rd, 2022 at 10 am EST, Sahiyo will be hosting,“A Quiet Violence: Navigating Female Genital Cutting as an LGBTQ+ Survivor” in honor of Pride month. This webinar will bring together LGBTQ+ identifying survivors of FGC and other LGBTQ+ activists to discuss their experiences navigating FGC alongside their gender identity and sexuality – as well as thoughts on how anti-FGC advocacy organizations can become better at meeting the needs of LGBTQ+ survivors. The goal of this panel is to center and uplift the voices of LGBTQ+ FGC survivors whose identities and needs are too often pushed to the margin of conversations on FGC. This webinar will also seek to explore how anti-FGC bills across the world are being co-opted to deny trans and gender-nonconforming individuals their right to healthcare. For this event, we will be joined by three advocates who have an intimate knowledge of the topic and the challenges that we seek to address; Dena Igusti, Afiqa, and Dr. Marci Bowers. Dena Igusti (they/them) is a queer non-binary Indonesian Muslim poet, playwright, filmmaker, producer, and FGC survivor & activist born and raised in Queens, New York. They are the author of CUT WOMAN (Game Over Books, 2020) and I NEED THIS TO NOT SWALLOW ME ALIVE (Gingerbug Press, 2021). They are the founder of Dearest Mearest. Their work has been featured in BOAAT Press, Peregrine Journal, and several other publications. Their work has been produced and performed at The Brooklyn Museum, The Apollo Theater, the 2018 Teen Vogue Summit, Players Theatre (SHARUM, 2019), Prelude Festival (Cut Woman, 2020), Center At West Park (CON DOUGH, 2021), The Tank (First Sight 2021 at LimeFest), and several other venues internationally. They are a Culture Push Associated Artist. They are currently a 2021 Playwright-in-Residence for Rogue Theater Festival. They are a 2022 Sundress Arts Resident, 2022 Best of the Net Nominee, 2021 Baldwin For The Arts Resident, 2021 Hook Arts Media Digital Connections Fellow, 2021 City Artist Corps, 2021 Stories Award Finalist, 2021 LMCC Governor’s Island Resident, 2021 Broadway For Racial Justice Inaugural Casting Directive Fellow, 2020 Seventh Wave Editorial Resident, 2020 Ars Nova Emerging Leaders Fellow, 2020 Spotify Sound Up cohort member, 2019 Player’s Theatre Resident Playwright, and 2018 NYC Youth Poet Laureate Ambassador. They are a Converse All Stars Artist and UN #TOGETHERBAND Global Ambassador. Afiqa (she/they) is a Malay Muslim gender-nonconforming survivor of FGC in Singapore. They volunteer with End FGC Singapore, a community-led campaign aiming to empower Muslim communities in Singapore to make FGC obsolete through community re-education and community-based support. They participated in Sahiyo’s 2022 Voices to End FGM/C workshop. Dr. Bowers (she/her) is a pelvic and gynecologic surgeon with more than 32 years of’ experience. She is a University of Minnesota Medical School graduate, where she was class and student body president. After residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Washington, she practiced in Seattle at the Polyclinic and Swedish Medical Center. Dr. Bowers left Seattle in 2003 to apprentice with the legendary Dr. Stanley Biber, considered the “Father of Transgender Surgery.” In 2010, Marci relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area community of Burlingame, CA. She has now performed more than 2,250 primary MTF Vaginoplasties and 3,900 Gender Affirming Surgeries overall. In 2014, Dr. Bowers was hired to renew transgender surgery at Sheba Hospital in Tel Aviv, Israel. Subsequently, she initiated trans surgical education programs at Mt. Sinai (New York/2016), Denver Health (2018), the University of Toronto Women’s College Hospital (2019), Northwell Health (2020), and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (2020). The Mt. Sinai Transgender Surgical Fellowship is the first of its’ kind. Dr. Bowers performed WPATH’s first 2 “live surgery” vaginoplasties at Mt. Sinai in 2018 and 2019. Dr. Bowers is the WPATH President-elect and currently serves on the Trevor Project Board of Directors having served previous terms with GLAAD and the Transgender Law Center. Her gender diverse work has been highlighted by appearances on Oprah, CBS Sunday Morning, Discovery Health and the TLC reality series, “I am Jazz”. She was interviewed in 2021 by Leslie Stahl for the CBS News program 60 Minutes. Dr. Bowers is recognized as one of the 100 most influential LGBT people on the Guardian’s World Pride Power List and one of Huffington Post’s 50 Transgender Icons, was called the Transgender Surgery Rock Star (Denver Post), the Georgia O’keefe of Genitalia (unknown) and the Beyonce of Bottom Surgery (KPFK-FM North Hollywood).
End FGM – Save our daughters
By: Arwa Country of Residence: India Today, I’m referring the most underrated topic ‘khatna’ or Female Genital Mutilation (FGM/C). I call it underrated because it doesn’t seem like educated persons in my society are talking about it even a little bit. It’s also called ‘Khafz’ in Islamic terms, and it’s a ritual in the Dawoodi Bohra community. Khatna usually takes place at the age of seven with girls. In the process of khatna, they cut the tip of the female sexual part ‘clitoris’ from the female genitalia with the use of a crude blade without giving any precautions. The purpose of doing that is to curb sexual desires. In some countries, it’s illegal, but India has no laws against khatna or FGM/C. The World Health Organization (WHO) considers it harmful for girls in many ways and has no health benefits. It includes damaging healthy tissues in females and causes trouble with the natural function of girls’ bodies. Many survivors have experienced pain, lifelong physical and psychological trauma. Some immediate complications include: Severe pain; Excessive bleeding; Vaginal infections; Wound healing problems; Shock; And in some cases death. Firstly, let me make this clear, I’m not against any religion but also do not support any religion in that way. What I mean is, I’m not against any religion but also I don’t have blind faith in it. I think there’s a major difference between beliefs and faith that our society needs to understand. I believe: If you do good, you will get good. I have read many articles on FGM/C. Community guidelines say ‘khafz take place for maintaining the taharat (pureness) and for spiritual purity.’ After reading it I felt like I would burn from inside, what has the world come down to. My heart was broken. Cutting out a human body part for spiritual purity; why would god give you something which makes you spiritually impure and then ask you to cut it off to become spiritually pure? I really don’t understand the logic behind FGM/C. What is the point of education that you are talking about? We are nurturing ourselves with modern education, reading about all atrocities going on in the world, when the same thing happens in our society; we are blind folded letting this happen. Many people have said that khatna is a good thing to do. It decreases sexual desires. So to that I ask, how do you know that a girl at age seven has sexual desires? Some had written in an article that it keeps the girl decent so girls won’t enter into adultery later, so on that I’m asking, where is the evidence of that? If we want our daughters to be pure, let’s teach them that they are strong and powerful women. They are in control of their own minds and bodies and they can use them wisely. When she was born, you promised to protect her. At the age of seven, they trust their family and parents the most. Parents tell them not to interact with strangers or not to let anyone touch you in your private areas, still it’s the family who takes them for khatna and allows strangers to touch and cut their girl’s clitoris. Why do something terrible to your girl which can leave scars on a mental level? People have to change their minds about old rules and regulations which they follow in the name of ‘tradition’. Families have a big role in ending FGM/C or khafz. Protect our girls. Our girls matter! I want to say a few things. I’m talking about this not for the sake of talking but for contributing to the voice that the Islamic religion (Bohra) seems to be avoiding. They have been avoiding it for years, but you can make sure they don’t avoid contributing by talking about this. Social media, I honestly believe, is one of the most powerful platforms. Otherwise also suppose- You are a teacher – you can probably discuss with your institution at the next assembly you can talk to your students about this. If you are in company you can hold a meeting in your office and talk about child abuse. Talk about this issue a little bit and tell people they need to speak up too. Maybe you can organise an activity or webinar regarding this issue. Whatever is in your capacity or power, do it please. It’s a harmful and outdated practice that needs to stop. Use your voice. It will definitely take time to go away but it doesn’t mean we keep sitting quietly. They are survivors, not victims. I’m a modern feminist and Bohra girl. I’m not a victim, I’m a survivor. I almost sat quietly, i didn’t talk about it but then I realised I must and so must you. Time to step forward for our daughters. Protest, speak up, fight for your daughters and let’s hope that the world changes for the better.
What I learned from survivors and advocates on my podcast about female genital cutting
By Aubrey Bailey I graduated this April 2021 from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in graphic design. For my senior capstone project I was instructed to choose a topic that I would stick with for a year and then conduct in-depth research, write a research paper, and display my findings visually through an exhibition. In April 2020, I went home to Gilbert, Arizona, to finish my winter semester under quarantine because of COVID-19, and while I was home my dad introduced the topic of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). I was dumbfounded that I had never heard of it before. I could not fathom that so many women were undergoing this practice in different parts of the world and I did not know about it. If I do not know about this, then who else does not know? Who does know? Who is taking action? I realized FGM/C was a topic about which I needed to learn more. I could not simply move on after understanding this information. Over the past year of my research on the topic, I became passionate about raising awareness of FGM/C, and also in advocating for women’s rights and raising awareness on violence against women. For my capstone project, I created a podcast to explain why FGM/C happens, to share women’s stories, to educate listeners on how to help, and to bring outside professional knowledge to help us better understand the topic. Through my research, I found Sahiyo–United Against Female Genital Cutting, and was impressed with their content and purpose. I reached out and asked if they would be willing to help me make this podcast possible. They were so gracious and introduced me to their network of individuals to ask if they would be willing to participate in my podcast. I was able to talk with some of the most incredible individuals and listen to experiences from people with different backgrounds. It was truly eye-opening and life-changing. I learned so much from my time interviewing everyone, and I am so grateful to Sahiyo for making it all happen. In addition to the podcast, I designed an exhibition displaying my research on FGM/C at Brigham Young University. For the exhibition, I created a poster series displaying facts about FGM/C by integrating a custom font that I created which has sharp characteristics throughout the posters. I also designed and installed a floral installation that symbolizes women. Flowers are beautiful and represent proud and glorious femininity and within the installation, each flower represents a woman. The hanging flowers represent women who have not been cut and the flowers on the ground represent the women who have been cut. Just because these flowers are not suspended from the ceiling does not lessen their value or their beauty in any way. They are still flowers but are just a little different. These women, like the flowers, are unique because they have been cut and have a piece of their body missing. But they are still just as powerful and beautiful. My hope through the exhibition was that individuals would feel moved to action and inspired to listen to the podcast to do their part in educating themselves and others on the topic to normalize the conversation so we can finally see it end.
Reflection on Addressing FGC in the Clinic: A Dialogue between Survivors and Healthcare Professionals
By Sandra Yu On December 8th, 2020, Sahiyo hosted a webinar featuring several health professionals and survivors of female genital cutting (FGC) to discuss the necessity for trauma-informed care and cultural competency. The event was an eye-opening and invigorating conversation as the panelists discussed the failures of the current medical system and necessary next steps to improve systemic care for survivors of violence. Renee Bergstrom and Sarata Kande, two outspoken advocates against FGC, provided unique and moving perspectives about how cultural competency and vulnerability are key to providing better care. The juxtaposition between their Voices to End FGM/C videos and their spoken statements on the panel about their past experiences with healthcare professionals was truly powerful. “Once it’s done to you, you are forbidden to ever mention it to anybody,” Kande said. “But when you share your story, it feels good.” In response, Deborah Ottenheimer, M.D., detailed how she identifies and speaks with survivors of FGC in an inclusive, vulnerable, and caring manner. Karen McDonnell, Ph.D., a public health specialist and creator of the The George Washington University FGM Toolkit, also addressed the critical need for providers to learn about FGC from a public health perspective, expanding on the treatment of FGC as a subsector of gender-based violence. Mariam Sabir, a Sahiyo volunteer and 4th-year medical student, gave an unsettling glimpse into the current state of medical education surrounding FGC as she described her interactions with peers and faculty on the topic. The central theme that arose was the importance of communication, whether it’s between healthcare providers, communities, the general public, or patient-doctor interactions. McDonnell speaks to the creation and normalization of the language used to describe genitalia. Having the right vocabulary to communicate about female genitalia is the first step to having genuine conversations about FGC. Communication between a patient and their doctor is even more crucial for building trust. Knowledge is not enough to make a person feel safe and comfortable. Bergstrom and Kande alluded to their individual experiences grappling with healthcare providers that fail to embrace vulnerability. Building trust and allowing for vulnerability in the clinic are learned skills that are often overlooked in medical education. The culture of silence surrounding the practice of FGC is pervasive, but we are moving toward a future where silence does not need to be the norm, especially in the clinic where trust is paramount to care. Watch the recording of this event here. Read the transcript here.
Upcoming Webinar: Addressing Female Genital Cutting in the Clinic
HealBy Sandra Yu Female genital cutting (FGC) is an often overlooked issue in medical curriculums, and medical care for survivors is rarely a topic of discussion. As part of the 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence, Sahiyo is hosting a webinar to inform individuals about the necessity for trauma-informed care for survivors of female genital cutting. Join Sahiyo for “FGC In the Clinic: A Dialogue between Survivors and Healthcare Professionals” at 6 p.m. EST on Tuesday, December 8th. This panel discussion aims to gather the perspectives of clinicians and survivors as they discuss their in-clinic experiences. Renee Bergstrom, EdD, and Sarata Kande will be speaking about their experiences in connection to receiving medical care related to FGC. Karen McDonnell, PhD, Dr. Margaret Dow, and Dr. Deborah Ottenheimer will respond and discuss the current state of healthcare for survivors of gender-based violence. Mariam Sabir, a fourth-year medical student, will speak about her advocacy for supporting survivors in healthcare settings. Zahra Qaiyumi and Sandra Yu will moderate. Renee Bergstrom, EdD works toward ending female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) by sharing her survivor story as a white, Midwest American. She is a retired patient educator who now focuses her energy on the art of weaving. Sarata Kande is a student, entrepreneur and youth advocate for inter-African committee. She is a survivor of FGC and loves to share her story. She dedicates her time as an advocate and an interpreter. Margaret Dow, MD is a laborist at Mayo clinic, where she serves as Clerkship Director. She works with medical students, peers, and the community in education and advocacy for survivors of FGM/C and in trauma-informed care practices, as well as practices that promote equity in healthcare. Deborah Ottenheimer, MD is the Director of the Women’s Holistic Health Initiative at Harlem United/ URAM, Nest Community Health Center where she is focused on immigrant health as well as the development and implementation of a multispecialty medical service for women and girls affected by FGM/C. In addition to her clinical practice, Dr. Ottenheimer spends a significant portion of her professional time assisting asylum-seeking women who have suffered human rights violations. Dr. Ottenheimer is an active member of Physicians for Human Rights, and serves as faculty at the Human Rights Program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Weill Cornell Clinic for Human Rights, and the CUNY School of Medicine Human Rights Collaborative aiding survivors Gender Based Violence, including female genital cutting, domestic violence, sexual violence and human trafficking in their applications for asylum. She has published and lectured extensively on human rights violations against women, with a focus on FGC. She has also worked in Haiti, Rwanda, and Democratic Republic of Congo, helping to improve the health and lives of women in low resource settings. Karen McDonnell, PhD is a public health program evaluation and implementation specialist with over 15 years of experience working with community groups, public health agencies, and health care systems both locally and globally to ensure the health and well-being of women and children. McDonnell’s expertise lies in using mixed methods to look at complex public health issues and programs. Her most recent work is leading a team to evaluate gender-based violence in immigrant communities, development, and testing of a community-centered FGM/C prevention project, evaluating the National Domestic Violence Hotline/loveisrespect Helpline and evaluating multi-systems changes in the Clinical Translational Science Institute with Children’s National and The George Washington University. Mariam Sabir is a fourth-year medical school student at the American University of the Caribbean. She aspires to become a family physician that provides comprehensive care. She became an avid Sahiyo supporter when she discovered how prevalent female genital cutting is, particularly in her very own community. While rotating through different fields of medicine such as obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, pediatrics and family medicine, she discovered her passion for educating health care professionals on how to provide culturally sensitive care for women who have undergone FGC. Zahra Qaiyumi completed her undergraduate education at The University of Maryland, studying physiology, neurobiology, and Spanish. Afterward, she pursued a Master’s degree in Physiology at Georgetown University. She then moved to the Bay Area and participated in neurobehavioral research while working with adolescents diagnosed with ADHD at the University of California San Francisco’s Neuroscape Center. Currently, she is in her third year of medical school at the Frank H. Netter M.D. School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University. Sandra Yu is an undergraduate student at Vassar College studying biochemistry and philosophy. She is interested in public health policy and expanding womens’ healthcare access in underserved populations. She was drawn by Sahiyo’s mission to end FGM/C through powerful storytelling, and she hopes to contribute to Sahiyo’s platform to grow and empower the community. Register here: bit.ly/addressing-fgc-in-the-clinic Facebook updates: https://fb.me/e/3QaNwkvWE
Digital advocacy: The future of activism for survivors and activists
by Sandra Yu Activism is the policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change. Prior to Sahiyo, I thought to be an activist was to be loud. Anything less than protests and demonstrations picketing for change outside the White House was not really activism. Actionable change came from legislation and policy changes. I scoffed at digital activism – trending hashtags and posting black squares on Instagram didn’t mean you were an activist. At Sahiyo as a programs intern, I gained a new appreciation for storytelling and digital advocacy as forms of healing and activism, respectively. In contrast to the physical mobilization of masses in protests, picketing, and policy-based activism, storytelling is a distinctly emotional and psychological mobilization. I remember watching my first Voices to End Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) video – Change by Rhobi Samwelly. She shared her story in the short span of 3 minutes and 51 seconds, and in that short period of time, I felt as if I had visualized her pain, trauma, and conviction to end FGM/C. It is through storytelling that one will understand the need for activism; the picketing will come later. Storytelling is particularly impactful in activism against FGM/C. As a harmful and pervasive social norm in many cultures, FGM/C is silently maintained across generations under the guise of cultural normativity. To break the culture of silence is to risk ostracization from their families and communities. Yet, many survivors have taken that plunge and have engaged in storytelling to protect future women from being cut. As allies, it is our job to amplify their stories so that more people may hear them and become inspired to create change. I recently attended a webinar that spoke about how we can best amplify voices through digital advocacy. Digital Storytelling and Advocacy: How Stories Can Support Progressive Change was hosted by StoryCenter and moderated by Amy Hill; one of Sahiyo’s co-founders, Mariya Taher, presented on the Voices campaign as a panelist. In the webinar, Amy speaks about the need for storytelling as an avenue of advocacy. She presents research on how telling and listening to stories can increase self-esteem and wellbeing, help communities bond and become politicized, and inspire people to take action for change. I translate that as storytelling allows for transformation. It allows survivors and community members to transform the trauma of FGM/C on their bodies and mental health into a point of connection with others of the same community. Across activist communities, storytelling allows for a transformation from discomfort to vulnerability. Isabel, another intern at Sahiyo, wrote about her experience with StoryCenter and Sahiyo’s co-hosted webinar, Intersecting Stories, where she engaged in intimate storytelling that glimpsed into “the magical nature of storytelling – how words weave friendships, trust, and respect.” I believe storytelling has a way of transcending the individual to bind communities together through shared values and experiences. In the current age of digitization, we see stories framed in a variety of mediums such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. While it may be easy to get lost in trends, hashtags, and stories in digital activism, I find that digital advocacy is equally powerful as traditional media in allowing us to amplify the voices and stories of survivors. The process of connecting people and communities across the world through a screen is an important concept to develop. I’m proud to be a part of an organization that creates change through digital advocacy and storytelling.
Sahiyo Stories screened in Washington DC: A survivor’s reflection
by Maryah Haidery Recently on Facebook, I noted that real social change usually happens when people are good enough to care about doing the right thing, thoughtful enough to figure out the best ways to do it, and brave enough to actually go through with it. On December 4th, in Washington DC, I was fortunate enough to meet a roomful of such people. I was there representing Sahiyo at an event called ‘Using Data and Community Engagement to Better Focus FGM Prevention Interventions’ sponsored by the US End FGM/C Network and The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. Maryah Haidery talking at the Washington DC screening. The event included an exceptional presentation by Sean Callaghan from the organization, 28 Too Many on how government agencies and NGOs can use data to track populations where FGM/C may be most prevalent and how best to engage with these populations. It also included a screening of Sahiyo Stories, a series of digital stories by nine different women, including myself, detailing our personal experiences with FGM/C and/or advocacy. I had volunteered to introduce Sahiyo Stories in place of Mariya Taher who was unable to attend the event. Despite some technical difficulties, I tried to summarize Mariya’s history with StoryCenter and the collaboration which culminated in Sahiyo Stories and the short behind-the-scenes video showing how we made the videos and what we hoped to gain from them. Since this would be my first time seeing the videos with a large audience, I was a little nervous. But when Mariya’s voice came on, the room grew absolutely silent and by the end, quite a few people seemed visibly moved. During the Q&A period following the screening, I was struck by the number of people who wanted to know how they could find out more about FGM/C and what they could do to help even though this was not a problem that affected their communities. Afterward, several people from other organizations working to end FGM/C approached me with interesting suggestions on using Sahiyo Stories in conjunction with their apps and projects in order to make a greater impact on government officials or healthcare workers or educators. As I looked around the room at all these people who cared so passionately about ending this practice – people who were good and thoughtful and brave, it made me more confident than ever before that real social change was a real possibility. To learn more about Sahiyo Stories, read: Seeing Sahiyo Stories on Female Genital Cutting Come to Life. The inner-workings of Sahiyo Stories The Making of Sahiyo Stories
Aarefa Johari and Masooma Ranalvi discuss FGC at We the Women Bangalore
On October 7, Sahiyo co-founder Aarefa Johari and We Speak Out founder Masooma Ranalvi participated in a panel discussion on Female Genital Cutting in India, at the We the Women summit organised by veteran journalist Barkha Dutt in Bangalore. Prominent human rights activist Srilatha Batliwala moderated the discussion. The event was attended by more than 200 people in Bangalore and was streamed live on social media. Ranalvi and Johari shared their personal experiences of being subjected to FGC and discussed various aspects of the problem from the need to engage with the community to end the practice and the significance of a law against it. You can watch the complete video of the discussion here. The event was a follow up to a similar We the Women summit in Mumbai in December 2017, when Sahiyo co-founder Insia Dariwala spoke about the practice along with Mubaraka and Zohra, two survivors of FGC. You can watch last year’s video here.
‘I Hope my Story Helps other Women’: A Reflection on the Sahiyo Stories Workshop
