Sahiyo U.S. would like to thank our friends at Ben & Jerry’s Foundation for a core support grant award of $20,000 per year for two years. Ben & Jerry’s Foundation supports grassroots groups throughout the U.S. and its territories that are led by the people most impacted by the legacies of white supremacy culture, as they organize for racial equity and social and environmental justice. They center the leadership and collective action of Black communities, Indigenous communities, and communities of color in their efforts to build movements to dismantle oppressive and discriminatory systems toward a more just and inclusive world.

These funds will help Sahiyo specifically by strengthening the network of community-based anti-female genital cutting (FGC) advocates leading prevention and policy campaigns in the movement to end FGC in the U.S.; continuing to build FGC survivor and community-driven state coalitions who advocate for policy in states that don’t yet have laws to address FGC; and expanding on our original Critical Intersections work, forming partnerships with allied social justice movements and working together to build more comprehensive and inclusive systems of care and support for FGC survivors and/or those at risk of FGC.

We are truly grateful for the support!

By Kiah Leone

In celebration of World Sexual Health Day on September 4th, I had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Awwad to learn about the types of care and support Restore offers survivors as they navigate their relationships with their bodies, their partners, and themselves. The results of this discussion will be shared in two parts: I first explore how FGM/C impacts survivors' sexual health and the types of surgical and non-surgical therapies Restore offers their patients. The second part of this series will discuss tailoring sexual education for survivors and Restore’s role in FGM/C prevention.

When Restore opened in June 2020, it became Egypt’s first-ever multidisciplinary female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) clinic. Co-founded by aesthetic and reconstructive surgeon Dr. Reham Awwad and urogynecologist and aesthetic gynecologist Dr. Amr Seifeldin, Restore offers a patient-centered approach to health care, where every FGM/C survivor’s treatment plan is tailored to meet their individual needs. Clinicians provide a number of different treatment options, but what makes Restore multifaceted is their emphasis on non-surgical interventions and helping survivors by practicing psychosexual care and sexual education. 

“FGM/C impacts a woman’s sexual health on a massive level. First of all, the way I see it is that it starts from the day it happens”.

In Egypt, FGM/C is most commonly performed between the ages of 7 and 15 years-old, and the pratice will often cause survivors to experience some type of disconnect with that part of their body. 

“There’s a word in Arabic [Kamla], which means complete. So, you always hear women saying ‘I don’t feel complete’, ‘I don’t feel confident’, ‘I don’t want my husband to look at me.’” 

One of the well-known impacts of FGM/C on sexual health is related to physical sensation. Sensations can range from decreased, to painful, to completely non-existent in cases where survivors may have experienced nerve damage. 

“It’s an uncomfortable part of their body that they don’t feel the same about as they do with the rest of their body. At least that’s the impression that I’ve gotten from the women I’ve spoken to.” 

This lack of sensation can negatively impact survivors’ experiences with self-exploration, intimacy, or sexual intercourse with their partners.

To address these cases of limited to no physical sensation, Restore offers survivors a number of different surgical and non-surgical treatment options, ranging from clitoral reconstructive surgery, to regenerative and functional gynecology to platelet rich plasma (PRP) injections into specific sites of the genitalia.  

However, before beginning any of these surgical or non-surgical treatment options, Dr. Awwad will ask patients with decreased sensitivity whether or not they feel pleasure if they are touched anywhere else on their body.

“If [the patient] answers ‘no’ then I know there is definitely a psychological aspect involved.”

This psychological component to physical pleasure is why psychosexual care is crucial for survivors of FGM/C, and why clinicians at Restore employ a multi-disciplinary approach when it comes to tailoring the treatment plans to their patients’ needs. 

“We keep our treatments side by side. For example, if we have a medical intervention that we’re going to do [and] we believe that it will be more successful after psychological counseling, we will wait… you will get a much, much, much better result than if you just do a medical intervention. [With just a medical intervention] you might not get the result that you want. So, we try to push for this when it comes to issues of sexual health”.

This is especially true when it comes to some surgical treatments, such as clitoral reconstructive surgery, where there may be a risk that the patient might relive their experience of being cut. 

“You have to understand that there is a psychological aspect that ties into your sensation. That is why we always, always recommend for every single one of our patients to have at least one free assessment with our counselor or psychosexual therapist.” 

Offering patients at least one free psychological care session is one of the many ways that  Restore is working to eliminate the barriers to care services that survivors of FGM/C face.

“Psychological care costs money. That’s why we are trying to do a program to get funding just for psychosexual counseling, so we can make it easier for [survivors] to continue [care] because we know they will need months of therapy and they can’t afford it.” 

This type of funding would be invaluable to survivors who have had to discontinue their therapy sessions due to financial constraints. When looking toward the future of Restore, Dr. Awwad sees herself and her colleagues not only providing medical treatments and psychosexual therapy, but also conducting research on how to really impact the future of treating FGM/C. 

“It’s important we have more options. Clitoral reconstructive surgery and psychological counselling is not enough – it is not even anywhere close to enough.” 

To find out more about Restore, or to learn how you can support the funding of their curated care-programs for survivors, please visit Restore's website or follow them on Instagram.

Learn more about psychosexual care for FGM/C survivors from Sahiyo’s trauma series here. You can also learn more about the former webinars hosted by Sahiyo on sexual health and wellbeing here and here.

For the past three years, we have been honored to have Catherine Cox, or Cate as we know her, serve as Programs Coordinator at Sahiyo U.S. In this role, Cate saw Sahiyo’s community education and outreach program, including training and technical assistance, grow and blossom. 

It is thus with great excitement and some sadness too, Sahiyo wishes Cate success and luck on her next adventure! Cate will be transitioning off of Sahiyo as Programs Coordinator to journey to the United Kingdom, where she will start her Masters at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London with the goal to study Human Rights Law. 

Cate first joined Sahiyo as a Programs Intern in 2020, while she was a freshman at Simmons College studying International Relations. Being the stellar intern that she was, after her term ended, she was offered the position of Sahiyo’s first ever Programs Coordinator; since then, she has worked to strengthen and expand the many services Sahiyo offers. Though we will miss her dearly, we are glad that Cate will remain active as a Sahiyo volunteer, and look forward to the many accomplishments she will make in the field of human rights law!

by Abbas Ali Bohari

This is a heartfelt poem about a Bohra father’s greatest regret. The poet, who hails from Indore, India, spent years praying for the birth of a child and was finally blessed with a daughter. A few years later, he found out that she had been subjected to khatna, or female genital cutting, behind his back. This is a poem about his grief for her, his regret, and his plea to the world to end the cutting of girls in the name of religion.

एक पिता का अफ़सोस

कई बरसों रहे दोनों बेकरार

रहमान ने लगाया बेड़ा पार

बुजुर्गों की दुआओं का भी असर

गुड़िया रानी आयी हमारे घर

रौशन कर दिया हमारा संसार

लायी खुशियों की सौगात अपार

अब ना करू किसी की दरकार

मालिक बस तेरा ही शुक्रगुज़ार

हँसते हँसाते गए बरस गुजर

एक दिन ऐसा आया खूंखार

मज़हब के नाम पर मचाया अंधेर

मासूम के जिस्म को किया दागदार

कसम ख़ुदा की मैं नही ख़तावार

पीठ पीछे किया सारा अत्याचार

कही नही मिली दींन में तफ़सीर

हैरां हूं कब से शुरू हुआ ये फ़ितूर

शरीयत का अंग बताते ज़ाहील ज़ोकर

पर मुख़ालिफ़त करते इल्मी ज़ानकार

मगरिबी तहज़ीब करे इंकार

मशरीकी कौमे बैठी लाचार

खत्म करो नाजायज़ विचार

सज़ा पाये सारे जो है हक़दार

*अब्बास* करे अफ़सोस बारबार

बचा ना पाया अपना लख्तेज़िगर

Event: Sahiyo Discusses: Cut Woman by Dena Igusti

Date: September 27, 2023

Tme: 7:00 PM EST

Registration Link: https://bit.ly/SahiyoDiscusses

Sahiyo invites you to join the next iteration of Sahiyo Discusses!

Designed to bring people together through literature, art, and media, Sahiyo Discusses hosts meetings with activists and allies in Sahiyo’s network to discuss a chosen piece of media. With themes including feminism, equality, bodily autonomy, women-centered movements, and sexual empowerment, this club will focus on uplifting the stories and experiences of women everywhere.  

On September 27, 2023 the group will meet virtually for Sahiyo Discusses: Cut Woman by Dena Igusti. Dena Igusti is an Indonesian Muslim writer born and raised in Queens, New York. They are the author of CUT WOMAN (Game Over Books, 2020), which has been listed as a 2020 Harvard Bookstore Staff Pick and a Entropy Mag’s Best Of 2020-2021, and I NEED THIS TO NOT SWALLOW ME ALIVE (Gingerbug Press, 2021). They are the co-playwright of the wish: a manual for a last-ditch effort to save abortion in the united states through theater, created with the support of New Georges and made possible by the Clubbed Thumb Constitution Commission, funded by Heidi Schreck and the producers of What The Constitution Means to Me, and winner of A is For. Their work has been produced and performed at LA Times, The Brooklyn Museum, The Apollo Theater, 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 have received commissions from The Miranda Family Fund (2023), Motor Theater Company (2023), New Ohio Theatre (Now In Process 2022), Center at West Park (2021), Converse, and more.

In a post-colonial world shaped by what is and what will be lost, what is there left to celebrate? In Dena Igusti's debut collection Cut Woman, Igusti is overwhelmed by the loss of their people. The loss includes but is not limited to: the deaths of Muslims around the world due to xenophobia and Islamophobia; the deaths of Indonesians as a result of post-colonialism, state violence, environmental racism, and overall media negligence and prioritization of white people over their own; the mortality of friends, lovers, and family facing economic disparity and gentrification in New York City; the loss of their body that could've been their body if they didn't undergo female genital mutilation. They know that one day, their time will be up too. Rather than stay in mourning, they try to turn these wakes, both current and future, into the biggest celebrations of their life. 

Sahiyo Discusses members will have the opportunity to discuss this book with Dena and ask pertinent questions.

Admission to Sahiyo Discusses is based on a suggested minimum donation of $25.00 USD per event. 

Donors who contribute $100 or more will also receive a copy of the work that we are discussing!

If you or anyone in your network is interested in joining us please register and donate here: https://bit.ly/SahiyoDiscusses

Thank you all for your continued dedication to Sahiyo’s mission, and we look forward to seeing you all there! 

By Umme Kulsoom Arif

This September, from the 15-19th, Sahiyo will host its annual Activists Retreat in person for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. For many Sahiyo volunteers and retreat alumni, it will be the first time in several years that activists, volunteers, and survivors will meet in person; we would love to have you attend!

The 2022 Sahiyo Activists Retreat was the first time I spoke about my experience as a female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) survivor in a real-time group setting. Though virtual, being surrounded by other survivors and activists candidly sharing their experiences with one another, offering sympathy and support, was an experience I will never forget, and I am incredibly grateful for it.

Activism is work. Whether private or public, it can feel very exhausting to make yourself vulnerable time and again, speaking about an often stigmatized and hidden subject. It can also feel incredibly lonely to speak out against deeply held convictions and traditions that seem to go back generations. Before 2022, I felt adrift in my trauma and my grief, wanting to be an activist but feeling unsure of what I could provide, and also afraid of the obstacles I would face in speaking up.

In my 2022 Retreat Reflection, I spoke candidly of that fear. My gender identity and sexuality have been shaped by my experience with FGM/C This had lead to me feel reluctant to share my experiences, especially as I myself felt trapped in the angriest stage of grief. The 2022 Activists Retreat, however, came with community and confirmation that my emotions were valid, that I was enough for wanting to speak up and speak out. The 2022 Retreat taught me how to grieve, taught me the value of community, and taught me the most important thing — we are not alone.

This year, in May, I had the honor of attending a one-day virtual retreat, where I met and spoke to survivors and those whose parents protected them from FGM/C, a perspective I had not anticipated hearing from, and simultaneously, one that brought me much joy. The voices of those who have begun to break the tradition of FGM/C are vital to the activist movement, and I am delighted to hear more of them joining the conversation. 

We are delighted to offer travel scholarships for domestic travel to Atlanta, Georgia, as well as housing and meals. I invite you to join us for three days of healing and hope, all supported by Sahiyo’s incredible team and wonderful Retreat Planning Committee.