I’m a victim of Female genital mutilation. I was 8 years old when I was cut in the UK. While I was born and raised in England, my parents are from Malaysia, a fairly developed country in South East Asia. FGM persists in the UK despite the British government’s attempts to stop it. What’s worse, there are some people that actively spread misinformation in order to perpetuate this awful practice.
As a child, my grandmother would babysit me while my parents were out working. On one specific occasion, She brought me to a stranger’s home, to meet her “friend”. Once there, I was held down on a bed and told to stay quiet. I didn’t understand what was going on, just that I was in a lot of pain. When I later told my parents about the ordeal, they said that I was “a woman now” and as such, shouldn’t tell anyone. So I remained silent about it for 17 years. Then recently I saw a youtube video featuring a brave Singaporean woman who has also undergone FGM. Seeing her speaking about such a personal and taboo subject on a open platform such as Youtube has given me the courage to speak out.
Banning FGM has not stopped its practice. If we truly want to bring about an end to female circumcision in the UK, we need to make the general public aware of it’s prevalence. Furthermore, we need to educate young Muslim parents as to why it’s wrong to do.