By Trisha Kini

On June 23rd, Sahiyo hosted their webinar A Quiet Violence: Navigating Female Genital Cutting as an LGBTQ+ Survivor in honor of LGBTQ+ pride month. The event was moderated by Sahiyo U.S. Advisory Board chair, internal medicine physician, and chief medical editor of EverydayHealth.com Dr. Arefa Cassoobhoy. Panelists included poet, playwright, filmmaker, and producer Dena Igusti (they/them), End FGC Singapore volunteer Afiqa (she/they), lawyer, activist, and writer Umme Kulsoon Arif (she/they), and pelvic and gynecologic surgeon Dr. Marci Bowers (she/her). 

Oftentimes, LGBTQ+ and non-binary survivors of FGC are underrepresented and silenced in FGC activism, statistics, academic literature, and healthcare settings. Health organizations and anti-FGC advocacy movements frequently use gender binary terms when referring to FGC survivors, further propagating the harmful idea that FGC only impacts women. Panelists who identified as non-binary FGC survivors, Dena, Afiqa, and Umme, all shared stories of their own journey in understanding sexuality and gender as survivors of FGC, along with the harms of a false assumption that every survivor of FGC identifies as a woman. While it is true that FGC impacts those assigned female at birth, not all survivors identify with being a woman, womanhood, and heteronormative culture. Ascribing cisgender-heterosexual labels and expectations to non-binary survivors not only dismisses one’s identity and personhood, but also negatively impacts a survivor’s mental and physical health. Members of the panel advocated for the needs of unheard LGBTQ+ survivors, and raised awareness about steps anti-FGC organizations can take to be more inclusive, respectful, and welcoming to survivors of all gender identities. 

The event began with two powerful videos from our 2022 Voices to End FGM/C cohort, which were recently released to the public. Dena Igusti’s On being a Nonbinary Survivor of FGM/C highlighted that the use of non-inclusive language and terminology in FGC-related statistics has led them to question whether their experiences can be validated as a gender non-conforming individual. This was followed by Afiqa’s eye-opening video Conversations with my Mother, which shared their experience of learning about FGC as a young girl. Afiqa often questioned why circumcision was celebrated for men versus women, and as they continued to question FGC and heterosexual norms, they realized their reality of gender and sexuality did not match what society demanded of them.

The lack of LGBTQ+ inclusive resources available in healthcare settings, therapy, and anti-FGC organizations has actively limited the amount of care non-binary FGC survivors can benefit from. Dena, Afiqa, and Umme often found they had to create their own language for themselves, as their experiences were not considered in the resources sought for their own healing. They also found that their experiences were often downplayed by society through invalidation and ignorance. 

Following this discussion, Dr. Bowers stressed the importance of gender affirming care, which refers to medical interventions that support an individual's gender identity. With anti-FGC bills in Texas and Idaho that prohibit gender affirming care, healthcare as a right has been denied to trans individuals, which further deters LGBTQ+ individuals from seeking care. This has put LGBTQ+ youth at risk of facing wider health complications and neglect from the system. In addition, the reversal of Roe V. Wade has turned back the clock and denied rights to bodily autonomy. Trans people, just like cis people, deserve the right to safe spaces for healthcare, gender affirming care, and the right to choose what happens with their bodies. 

The webinar ended on an important note: how allies can be supportive of LGBTQ+ survivors. Some of the many steps we can take as allies are as easy as amplifying voices, even if it just means adding your pronouns to your social media, or making public statements showing solidarity, such as “trans rights are human rights.” In terms of anti-FGC initiatives, it is essential to actively make an effort to utilize gender inclusive language and include non-binary folks, rather than restricting FGC to a woman’s issue. This applies to medical care as well. Healthcare providers can actively stand with their LGBTQ+ patients by implementing inclusivity in intake forms, wearing pronoun buttons, unlearning assumptions, educating each other, and making an effort to meet the patient where they are, thereby cultivating an open-minded and respectful environment. 

One of the big takeaways I gathered from this webinar is the harmful impact of assuming one’s experience with gender-based violence (GBV). Not all LGBTQ+ survivors of GBV share similar experiences, as these are also shaped by intersectional factors such as culture, value, and religion, among others. In order to make an effort to understand one’s experience with survivorship, asking questions, showing support, and speaking up can make all the difference in helping LGBTQ+ survivors feel safe and welcomed. LGBTQ+ individuals, like cisgender, heterosexual ones, are well within their rights to expect respect, healthcare, and inclusion in order to facilitate their own healing and growth. 

Watch the webinar here. Read the transcript from the webinar here.

By Umme Kulsoom Arif

When I was first invited to join the 2022 Sahiyo Activists Retreat I was… terrified. I almost didn’t sign up. I wanted to be an activist and I wanted to do more with Sahiyo, but I was scared of both..

Being both non-binary and a survivor of FGM/C, I always thought of myself as being in limbo — did my identity as a non-binary individual somehow invalidate the pain of my cutting? Was I less valid within the LGBTQIA+ community because of the trauma I had endured that shaped the way I viewed my gender and sexuality? Was I less valid within the Sahiyo community because I was only perceived by others to be a woman, as opposed to actually feeling like one myself? What did gender and sexuality even mean in the context of being a survivor, an activist, a Dawoodi Bohra, both in the closet and outside of it?

I was scared.

Every step of signing up — from filling out the interest form to creating my bio to sending my first message in the groupchat — was something I procrastinated, almost dreaded doing, because it cemented the feeling of walking into a den of lions. I wondered if I would be judged as harshly as I feel I am by the Bohra community I know, by my extended family, by myself.

I don’t know what compelled me to take every step, but I’m glad that I did. The moment I logged onto that Zoom call and faced the community waiting for me, I realized: this was what being safe truly felt like. I sat, listened, and heard my thoughts, fears, and emotions echoed back to me in the voices of those who — like me — had either gone through or knew someone who had endured an injustice the likes of which I still struggle to properly name.

Grief is a strange, frustrating thing. I never know what to grieve — does one mourn the moment one learns about the loss or the moment of the loss? Do I mourn the teenager tentatively coming out to their mother, and learning suddenly just how little their family valued their autonomy over the words of a man they had never met, or do I mourn the frightened five year old girl-who-one-day-would-not-be, laying on a cold metal table and feeling gloved hand wipe away her tears in an operating room? Or is it both, embracing all that fear, anger, and agony that comes from not knowing and needing to know at the same time?

Even before the Retreat, I had been grieving. I went to therapy, I laid in bed and wallowed in my depression; I bargained with a God I almost didn’t believe in anymore for a justice that did not come; I denied the magnitude of what had been done to me, insisting that others had it so much worse and that I needed to just move on; I accepted the things I could not change and resolved to use my law degree to help others just like me; and… I raged. Quietly, internally, I burned with fury I could not share. As an activist, I knew I had to take a measured response because those who were for FGM/C would use anything, including the tone of activists, to decry and deny the validity of the campaign. But pain is not measured, it is not reasonable; it is a cruel, burning thing, and I found myself repeatedly wondering if I was even ready to do this activism thing if I couldn’t control my emotions.

I felt like a bad person for being angry until the Retreat, until I heard the same emotions in the voices of others and realized the bottled up and tamped down anger was not an aberration, but a reasonable response. While it needed to be edited and pared down and softened to be shared with the world at large, it could be shared here, amongst others who knew the truth. It can feel isolating and infuriating to go against the grain of one’s own community, to be ostracized and judged and feel betrayed by one’s own family to the point where one loses faith. I felt alone, until I didn’t, until I realized there were others who felt as alone as I did. Which is a weird thing to feel, I think.

What the Retreat offered me was a confirmation that I was not alone or an aberration, and that I was enough simply for wanting to speak up and speak about my story. I made friends. I was invited to speak about my identity as a non-binary survivor — which in itself was terrifying, but I did it and found myself feeling even more validated through that experience — and realized both the value of having a global community of people with whom I could be my most authentic (and slightly odd) self and of forgiving myself for the things I could not do in that moment.

Read the report on this year's Activists Retreat.

July 31, 2022 – After five years of supporting survivors of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) in sharing their stories, Sahiyo and StoryCenter announce the launch of a new website dedicated to highlighting this underrecognized human rights violation.

"As a survivor of female genital cutting, I have experienced the frustration of being reduced to a statistic: one of the 200 million women and girls worldwide to have undergone the cut. As an activist working to end the practice, I have felt indignation at the often sensationalized ways in which survivors' stories are depicted in the media. This is why Voices to End FGM/C is such an important, game-changing platform. It provides both survivors and activists with a safe and supportive environment and gives them the tools to share their stories with their own voices, words, and perspectives. Over 50 storytellers have benefitted from Voices over the past five years, and I am grateful to be one of them." ~ Aarefa Johari, co-founder and trustee, Sahiyo India 

This website, voicestoednfgmc.org, features stories from dozens of survivors who have taken part in the Voices to End FGM/C project over the years. This project brings together cohorts of survivors and activists every year, and empowers each participant to tell their own story by creating a short video. Voices to End FGM/C has facilitated the creation of 55 such stories from over 19 countries, including the United States, Canada, India, Singapore, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, Tanzania, Chad, and more. The storytellers represent a range of ages, economic statuses, cultural backgrounds, and gender identities.

"We're really excited to have this new platform which pulls all the Voices content together and showcases the courage and creativity of the many storytellers we've worked with over the years." ~ Amy Hill, StoryCenter Silence Speaker Director 

After years of feedback and demand for such resources, this new website is a centralized platform, not just for the videos and blogs by survivors and activists, but also for educational and informational content created over the past five years. 

“In the struggle to end FGM/C, it is imperative to center the voices of activists with lived experience. These videos are used to help educate legislators and convince them to pass legislation banning FGM/C such as occurred in Massachusetts in the United States in August 2020.” ~ Mariya Taher, Sahiyo U.S. Cofounder & Executive Director

The highlights of the website are the Voices to End FGM/C videos found on the Storyteller Video page. Behind-the-scenes footage of the workshops is also available, as are blogs written by storytellers about their experiences. Visitors can also keep up with upcoming events and workshops, including the Fall 2022 Voices to End FGM/ workshop. 

Contact Sahiyo: 1-857-209-4160

Email Kristel Mendoza Castillo: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

About Sahiyo

Founded in 2015, Sahiyo’s mission is to empower Asian and other communities to end female genital cutting and create positive social change through dialogue, education, and collaboration based on community involvement.

About StoryCenter

Mission Statement: We create spaces for listening to and sharing stories, to help build a just and healthy world. Our public and custom workshops provide individuals and organizations with skills and tools that support self-expression, creative practice, and community building.

“Witnessing others be vulnerable and open in telling their stories helped to validate my experience. I was able to pull scattered thoughts and memories into a clear and concise picture.” ~Zahra, Voices Storyteller

With 200 million people having undergone female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) worldwide, many stories are waiting to be heard. As one of Sahiyo’s 2022 Voices To End FGM/C participants, Zahra shared her story along with eight other survivors of FGM/C. 

On August 1st, Sahiyo and StoryCenter will begin releasing eight new digital stories, which were created during their 6th Voices To End FGM/C workshop, held online this past January/February 2022. 

By bringing survivors, community members, and advocates together to share and heal from their experiences of FGM/C, connect and grow as leaders in their communities, and create short videos calling for an end to this harmful practice, Voices to End FGM/C is mobilizing storytellers and activists from around the world. 

“I wanted to raise awareness on how a… percentage of FGM/C survivors, specifically trans men and non-binary people, are left out of their own healing because we only associate FGM/C with womanhood.” ~ Dena, Voices Storyteller

Over one million people in the United States alone identify as non-binary, and with FGM/C being framed as a woman’s issue, the experience of non-binary survivors is often omitted. For the first time, this Voices workshop included FGM/C survivors who identified as non-binary. Through sharing their stories, we hope new avenues of activism can be explored and others who remain unheard will be encouraged to tell their stories as well.

In collaboration with StoryCenter, Sahiyo has held six Voices workshops since 2018. 57 storytellers from over 16 countries have spoken out about their experiences through these workshops. The impact of these videos in advocating against FGM/C is wide-reaching: they are being used globally as a tool to inspire other survivors to raise their voices and to educate legislators, healthcare workers, and service providers about the implications of FGM/C and how to protect the next generation of girls from undergoing the practice. 

To view the new videos, check out the Voices 2022 playlist.

On August 24th, Sahiyo and StoryCenter will be hosting a virtual screening of the videos. Register here to reserve your spot.

To learn more about the Voices project, please visit our brand new website at VoicestoendFGMC.org

For further questions, contact Mariya Taher at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

By Amena Ali

This was my second time participating in the Activists Retreat, and my first Retreat on the planning committee. I thoroughly enjoyed this year, and especially the shift from last year compared to this year. Last year was very focused on people relating to each other in sympathy, and this year it was more about being able to release anger and your anger being validated. I think that shift is really nice to see, because it also portrays how far people have come, in regards to their process for coping, for accepting, and fighting against this. I was really lucky to be a part of that, and I hope in the future, we’re able to do this in person!

Read Amena’s reflection on participating in the 2021 Activists Retreat here.

Read the report on this year's Activists Retreat.

Olachi is a UW-Madison graduate with a Bachelor's degree in Communications. She is an aspiring entrepreneur and content creator who is passionate about sustainability and community design based thinking. Olachi believes strongly that social media should be used as a tool to help overlooked people in society go from being "invisible" to "visible". She admires Sahiyo's mission and hopes to not only learn from, but be a great addition to their multi talented team.

What was your experience of learning about female genital cutting (FGC) for the first time?

I remember learning about FGC in high school. At that time I subconsciously thought “ah it must be more of a problem in rural areas” and believed it was just a problem of lack of education due to mainly poverty and/or ignorance. I thought that since so many areas were advocating for better education opportunities for girls, it would naturally decrease in time.

It was embarrassingly not until I joined Sahiyo that I realized the gravity and the impact of FGM/C around the world. This helped me reflect on issues that I may have subconsciously pushed aside or remained nonchalant about because it was a problem that would fix itself with "government intervention and time”. Now though it is true that societal issues can be lessened with those two factors, I realised ultimately that it might have been another way of me not paying attention to something simply because it did not directly affect me directly. 

When and how did you first get involved with Sahiyo?

I first came across Sahiyo around late March this year. At this time I was actually looking for volunteer work I could do related to Women’s mental health (as I am a huge mental health advocate) and I coincidentally fell on Sahiyo’s page on LinkedIn. I thought the job being offered matched me both skill and interest wise so I applied around April and luckily joined the team as an intern. 

What does your work with Sahiyo involve?

I work as a Social Media Intern where I essentially learn how to manage social media handles, create social media as well as blog content and overall improve Sahiyo’s communication presence.

How has your involvement with Sahiyo impacted your life?

I feel the most important thing that I have learned while working with Sahiyo is that one needs to constantly reflect and check themselves for any hidden or un-addressed biases due to things like privilege or difference in way of life. In my case it was my lazy nonchalance for FGM/C issues and survivors by simply chalking it up to just a class issue and not complex issue that comprised of class AND culture. Working with Sahiyo also helped me learn about non-binary and trans men who could also be survivors but were ultimately invisible when discussions about FGM/C occurred. This overall helped me gain a deeper understanding of how the concepts of intersectionality and representation can and should look like when being discussed within a topic. 

What words of wisdom would you like to share with others who may be interested in supporting Sahiyo and the movement against FGC?

I strongly admire FGM/C survivors and activists who tirelessly spread awareness on this topic. I would like to especially reach out to those who may not be in FGM/C practicing communities and encourage them to reach out to Sahiyo for informational guides and resourceful ways to support the movement against FGM/C. In several cultures, being assigned female at birth usually means being constrained and even hurt because of what our perceived gender/sex is assumedly supposed to conform to. Because of this, it is even more imperative that we all stand up for one another no matter where we come from.