By; Lubaina Plumber
Why did you want to attend the workshop and share your story?
So, to me it was a natural next step when I was given the opportunity to be part of the Voices Workshop. I've worked in gender based violence my whole life and as a survivor myself it’s important to share my story. I wanted to take my advocacy forward, and while I’ve been vocal about FGC in writing and in closed circles, never have I shared this story quite so publicly, in a video format. It was also a way to share my story with more people in a bite-sized way.
Another reason why I wanted to share my story and attend the workshop was because I wanted to meet more people who were doing the same type of work I was. I met a lot of people that I wouldn’t have, had I not attended the workshop. That was a huge driving force for me to attend.
What story did you choose to tell and turn into a digital story?
I chose to focus on the aspect of sexual pleasure and your relationship with your body and how FGC affects those things. When I was younger, the impact was immensely emotional and psychological, but during my journey as I learned more I realized how the practice impacts the way you feel not just emotionally but sexually, physically, and physiologically too.
I talked about having to accept that your body is different, and that you’ll never really know what and how it could’ve been if you weren’t cut. I was always told that FGM/C was done to curb women’s pleasure. I learned from the Activists Retreat that you actually can go to a doctor in the United States and ask them to tell you what's different, how your body has changed, and that was a wild possibility to me. Women’s bodies and sexuality have been and are being controlled and repressed for centuries, and the fact that so many communities practice FGC to uphold that misogynistic ideology is gut wrenching and needs to stop!
What have you learned or most enjoyed during what workshop by meeting others who also share their stories?
The thing I enjoyed the most was being able to be present in the same space with the other participants and be in-person with them. I really enjoyed the pre-sessions where we all got to meet each other and talk beforehand. I think that made me feel more comfortable –to be able to share my story in that space with people I had a common understanding with was really powerful. We all became close friends through the workshop, getting to work on our stories and videos together throughout the process, and then getting to watch them together at the end – I think that was the highlight for me, I felt like I didn’t have to work in isolation.
A crucial part of advocacy is solidarity. I’ve always had allies in my close friends and some family but to have a whole group of people who truly understand your journey because they have a story too and are vulnerable enough to share it with you is just beyond powerful and heartwarming. You feel heard, safe, understood, and held. I feel immensely grateful to share space with those I met at the workshop.
What kind of impact would you like your story to have?
I’m interested in sharing my digital story with my wider circle. I usually don’t send people my articles and things like that, unless it’s to my parents or close friends. But this I want everyone to see, and I want to be loud about it.
I hope that once I show it to people it makes them want to be loud about FGC, women's rights, and sexual pleasure too. I hope it inspires people to really think about their relationship with their own body and their sexual well-being. I also hope it inspires people to speak out against FGC.
Is there anything in your digital story that you would like to share?
I want to highlight that as a child and a young survivor we deserve protection because we did not know better. And only now as grown women we are using our voices to try and stop these terrible things from happening. So I want people to know that.
Lubaina Plumber is passionate about driving social change through public policy and human rights law work. Outside of work, she loves spending time with interesting people, uncovering hidden gems while traveling, diving into gripping books and podcasts, and nurturing her garden.