"My vulva cupcakes were confiscated" - a day in the life of an anti-FGM campaigner

Smuggling vulva-decorated cupcakes into the Somali region of Ethiopia was one of those moments where I thought: “My work as an anti-FGM campaigner gets me into interesting situations sometimes.”

Three years earlier I’d made vulva cupcakes as part of a documentary about FGM that I’d done for Channel 4. “We need you to bring them with you,” said Sagal Abdi, vice executive director of Maandeeq, when she invited me to an event in Jijiga, the capital of the region, part of 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.

Honestly, I was taken aback. I grew up in the UK as part of the Somali diaspora, and I’d assumed the people of Jijiga would not be ready for vulva cupcakes. But Abdi, also part of the diaspora, reassured me that the Ethiopian women had requested them. “Leyla, they watched the documentary and loved the concept of using art for campaigning,” she said.

On reflection, the fact that he recognised the icing decoration as vulvas was good

Abdi filled me in on the current status of the women from Jijiga. It was the usual story of inequality, gender-based violence, lack of employment and access to healthcare. But Abdi gave me hope as she described these negative situations. By the end of that phone call I couldn’t wait to meet her. The only snag was, how would I carry vulva cupcakes from London to Jijiga?

I am always up for a challenge. I managed to carry the cupcakes, made in London, in my hand luggage all the way to Addis Ababa. I really began to think I was going to pull this off. But just as I was about to embark on my final flight to Jijiga, one of the officers told me to step aside and opened the box. When he saw the cakes staring back at him he made a sound halfway between a gasp and a giggle. “Why would you bring these here?” he asked. “Oh, you know what they are then?” I thought. He said I needed permission to carry them and he needed to investigate. My flight was taking off in 10 minutes, so I sadly had to leave the cakes behind.

On reflection, the fact that he recognised the icing decoration as vulvas was good – many men and women don’t know what women’s genitals look like. I hope he enjoyed eating those red velvet pussies.

Something extraordinary came out of that trip. On the flight to Jijiga I suddenly realised that everyone around me was speaking Somali. My family isn’t from that region but the last time I was in Somalia was 25 years ago, when I was 10 years old. The heat hit me and felt so familiar. Tears streamed down my face. I tried to hold them back but it was overwhelming.

Abdi and her colleague, Hodan, were very sweet and comforted me when they picked me up. They were disappointed about the cakes, but as Somali women we weren’t going to let that setback stop us from getting our message getting across.

On my way to my hotel I felt a sense of belonging to a city I’ve never been to before, but also the fear that I would be targeted with threats, as I am known as an outspoken advocate for women’s and girls’ rights.

The next day I presented my work on gender equality and female genital mutilation (FGM), exploring how to create safe spaces for survivors of violence free from shame. I got a positive reaction from the local women and young people, even from the politicians in attendance. They asked me to come back as often as I could. I was deeply touched to be appreciated by my own people.

Leyla Hussein teaching young people and senior politicians about FGM. Photograph: Leyla Hussein

I was truly impressed with Hafsa Mohamed, the founder and director of Maandeeq. She, a diaspora born and raised in North America, has galvanised grassroot support and policy influence for many years to get to this point. As she shared a joke with the president of the Ethiopian Somali region, I could see she has built a respectful relationship with local politicians. It didn’t happen overnight, she told me. She had to work hard and prove herself to the local people. She knows that in order to make a change and build a safer world for women/girls we have to work with politicians to influence policies and ensure funding and resources are directed to this area.

She told me that she and her colleagues had got into physical fights with men to ensure they provided what the local women/girls needed. “At times we need get physical to get what we need for our women,” she said. I realised I needn’t be afraid when I was with such brave women.

The number of FGM cases are decreasing. Gender equality is becoming more and more a reality

Abdi M Omar, president of the Ethiopian Somali regional state

To have the most senior politician of this region attend and open this conference spoke volumes of Somali women’s leadership skills. Abdi M Omar, president of the Ethiopian Somali regional state, even made a statement: “We must prioritise the welfare and empowerment of women,” he said. “In the Somali region of Ethiopia, almost half of the regional parliament are women. The number of businesswomen are growing. The number of girls and women partaking in education are tremendously increasing. The number of FGM cases are decreasing. Gender equality is becoming more and more a reality.”

I had a strong sense of Somali sisterhood with Mohamed (from Jijiga), Abdi (originally from Somaliland) and Hoden (from Djibouti). We had a group hug to recognise this important moment in our lives. We women all face similar challenges and we are stronger by coming together.

There’s an assumption that diaspora who move back home are living the life of luxury. But these three women were living in a one-bedroom apartment. When I asked why they choose to live this way, their response was simple. They said they all left their privileged lives in the west, and have the option to go back, but they can’t leave the sisters who need them here.

The next steps for these amazing women is to keep building the grassroots movement for gender equality in Ethiopia. I urge you all to support these east African warriors by donating, volunteering or becoming their allies in this battle.

For me, the trip brought up feelings about how I can make the most of my skills and privilege to improve life for women and girls all over the world, particularly in the land where I was born.

On my flight out of Jijiga I got tearful again. I started thinking about how my mum and many families must have felt when they left their home without knowing when or if they are going to see it again. But I know for sure that I’m going to go back to that region. And next time, hopefully, I’ll get all the way with the vulva cupcakes.

Join our community of development professionals and humanitarians. Follow @GuardianGDP on Twitter. Join the conversation with the hashtag #SheMatters.

"My vulva cupcakes were confiscated" - a day in the life of an anti-FGM campaigner

In photos: Cancer campaigner Stephen Sutton remembered at vigil

Thousands of folks have attended a vigil for young cancer campaigner Stephen Sutton at Lichfield Cathedral. Stephen, 19, from Burntwood, Staffordshire, has raised more than four million pounds for The Teenage Cancer Charity.Image: Christopher Furlong/ Getty

In photos: Cancer campaigner Stephen Sutton remembered at vigil

1000"s attend vigil in honour of cancer campaigner Stephen Sutton

Stephen Sutton’s efforts assisted increase above £4m for the fight against cancer. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

A lot more than ten,000 people took part in a vigil in honour of Stephen Sutton, the teenage cancer campaigner whose achievements have been remembered on Friday at a memorial support prior to he was laid to rest at a personal funeral.

The services, held to mark the finish of two days’ thanksgiving for the lifestyle of the 19-12 months-old who helped raise £4m in the fight towards cancer just before he succumbed to a number of tumours on 14 Might, was attended by friends and loved ones which includes his mom Jane, and older brother Chris.

Tributes have been also paid on social media. Stephen was a keen consumer of Twitter which said that eleven,000 tweets had been sent with the hashtag #ThumbsUpForStephen.

1000′s filed past his white coffin over two days as it lay in area of honour within Lichfield Cathedral, Staffordshire, in what Adrian Dorber, dean of Lichfield, named a phenomenal show of human unity for a man who had “turn into everybody’s favourite son”.

Among the mourners was comedian Jason Manford, who met Stephen in hospital, and was between a host of celebrities who praised the young man’s courage in residing with terminal condition.

Earlier, about 400 men and women had also offered a thumbs-up to the memory of Sutton.

Dorber mentioned Stephen’s memory had energised people, the two youthful and old, cancer survivors and sufferers, who had queued to grieve the loss of the teenager, from Burntwood, in Staffordshire.

He explained the enduring lesson of Stephen, diagnosed with bowel cancer at 15, was “to dwell not as a victim but as a free of charge younger man or woman”, including his inspiration was to “offer an substitute to the bleak, indicate see, we often have of daily life”.

Stephen’s former headteacher, Stuart Jones, of Chase Terrace Engineering College, explained there was a collective pride more than the fact Stephen had studied there. “It is hard to comprehend how he found the courage, determination and vitality to achieve what he did in his final couple of years,” he said.

These achievements, brought with each other in a bucket list, incorporated Sutton urging Jones to join him in a 15,000ft skydive. “I hated it, as I anticipated, but am genuinely glad I did it,” he stated. “His spirit tends to make us want to be bolder and braver.”

Siobhan Dunn, chief executive of the Teenage Cancer Believe in, explained: “The big difference Stephen has produced has been immeasurable.” She stated the charity would commit the donations supporting and building the trust’s 22 Uk units, outreach nursing teams and youth assistance staff.

“Younger men and women ought to not be defined by their cancer,” she mentioned, including that thecharity would carry on to perform under Stephen’s ethos that “even though he could have had cancer, cancer did not have him”.

Dunn mentioned: “How fitting it is a young individual with cancer proved the catalyst to supporting a lot of far more younger men and women with cancer, now and in the future.”

Outside, as his coffin emerged from the cathedral the crowd of one,200 again clapped for a ultimate time as 19 balloons have been launched by his mother and brother, prior to a a lot greater number had been allow loose to cheers and musical backing by the Pandemonium Drummers, who had performed for the London 2012 Olympic Video games.

1000"s attend vigil in honour of cancer campaigner Stephen Sutton

British FGM campaigner backs US campaign to increase awareness on cutting

American anti-FGM campaigner Jaha Dukureh. Photograph: Mae Ryan for the Guardian

The 17-yr-old Bristol student who aided persuade the schooling secretary, Michael Gove, to speak to every college in England about female genital mutilation has offered her backing to the female major a equivalent campaign in the US.

The campaign across the Atlantic is currently being led by Jaha Dukureh, a mom of three from Atlanta who was put through FGM in Gambia when very younger. Dukureh is calling on Barack Obama to purchase a new study on FGM that would establish how a lot of American ladies and ladies are at threat of the practice, thereby paving the way to tackle the crime.

The adjust.org petition by 24-year-old Dukureh had attracted virtually 60,000 signatures as of Wednesday and has now been provided the backing of Fahma Mohamed, who was the face of the Guardian’s campaign in England, which won the help of more than 230,000 people. Fahma mentioned that action was needed to determine the scale of the difficulty in the US.

Dukureh was subjected to FGM when she was an infant in increasing up in the Gambia. “It took away a portion of my femininity, my ownership to my body. Some girls, like my half-sister who died from problems from becoming minimize, even get rid of their lives,” she wrote in the introduction to her on the internet petition.

“Jaha is exceptionally brave for speaking out,” she said. “She requirements to present President Obama that there is a around the world motion of people hunting to him to consider action to finish the horror of FGM in the US. Ordinary individuals like us truly can make a distinction. When we really think in some thing, when we know one thing is wrong, we have a moral duty to communicate out and do no matter what we can to make adjust.”

Dukureh, who has won backing for her campaign from the UN secretary standard Ban-Ki Moon, mentioned she was delighted to have Fahma’s help. “When I noticed Fahma’s campaign in the Uk, it inspired me to take action too,” she mentioned. “Because I launched by Adjust.org petition in the US, we have been in touch more than e-mail and Twitter and her support has meant so much to me. It really is thrilling to see this campaign turn into global and I hope the US government sees that this is a around the world movement fighting to protect ladies from the practice of FGM.”

Gove wrote to all headteachers in England soon after meeting Fahma and other members of the youth group Integrate Bristol, who have played a important role in raising awareness of FGM.

British FGM campaigner backs US campaign to increase awareness on cutting

Fahma Mohamed: the shy campaigner who fought for FGM education

Sporting a brightly coloured headscarf, leather jacket and a wide, lipsticked smile, student Fahma Mohamed insists she is naturally very shy. “I was always the one in the background, I would have never carried out any of the speaking – I just didn’t have the self-confidence,” she says.

But items have changed significantly given that the 17-yr-old Bristol pupil grew to become the encounter of a Guardian-backed campaign to put education at the heart of tackling female genital mutilation (FGM) at the start off of February.

This week saw a series of victories for a campaign that has attracted practically 250,000 petition signatures as effectively as the backing of Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai and the UN secretary common, Ban Ki-moon.

In an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday, Fahma – alongside other members of the youth charity Integrate Bristol – met with the education secretary, Michael Gove, to request him to compose to each college in the country about the horrors of FGM.

After a meeting that lasted more than an hour – to the girls’ delighted surprise – he agreed. Praising Fahma’s “inspirational” campaign, he mentioned the department would send each school guidance on retaining youngsters risk-free by Easter – just before the summertime holidays – and would incorporate materials to allow teachers to tackle the topic of FGM.

On Friday she saw him again – this time in her school, the City Academy Bristol (CAB) – to attempt to persuade him that FGM can, and need to, be taught in class.

Speaking soon after the hour-lengthy check out, Fahma said Gove had been good about educating FGM in schools. “It was quick, but really good,” she says. “He was entirely onboard saying that younger folks have been significantly a lot more engaged in fighting for human rights than in his time.”

The student – 1 of nine ladies from a Somali loved ones – has spoken to camera crews from about the planet, has been invited to weblog on Mumsnet and talk at conferences. She says: “It has been fully crazy, but I’m ecstatic. How many folks get to say they’ve been to London to advise the secretary of state? It was all really worth it and I’m just so pleased.”

Soon after months of meetings with FGM activists and campaigners, filming, planning, negotiating and reporting, Fahma launched the campaign on six February, the UN’s day to mark zero-tolerance of FGM. The Guardian reported that despite virtually three decades of legislation against FGM, which is thought to influence 66,000 girls in England and Wales, even though 24,000 ladies below 15 are considered to be at danger, people doing work on the ground had been warning that the brutal practice was nevertheless occurring to British children.

Reporting that a lot more than 140 million ladies and girls about the planet have been impacted by FGM, which entails removing element or all of a women’s outer sexual organs, the Guardian also spoke to a former cutter in Kenya and activists in France about how that nation had aggressively tackled the concern. The UK’s youthful poet laureate shared a poem about the practice, while Cuban artist Eric Ravelo created the emblem.

A petition calling on Gove to consider action, on Alter.org, grew to become one of the fastest-growing petitions hosted on the campaigning website, at one particular point attracting two signatures every 2nd.

Inside of days the Scottish government had agreed to compose to all colleges to ask them to train their employees and educate mother and father about FGM, an early day movement in parliament followed and the help of Ban Ki-moon and Malala Yousafzai, who known as Fahma her “sister” and stated they had been portion of the exact same struggle for girls’ rights.

In the meeting this week Gove stopped brief of saying that FGM need to be taught in all colleges, but did request Fahma for much more proof on how it could be taught in an “age-appropriate way”.

Friday’s quickly-organized meeting came also soon for a pay a visit to to nearby St Werbergh’s – one particular of the handful of primary colleges in the nation to educate pupils about FGM – to be organised. But had he visited Gove would have identified a richly various college – with pupils from 14 distinct ethnic backgrounds and more than 50% speaking English as a 2nd language – unafraid to tackle FGM as a child protection issue.

After the launch of the Guardian’s campaign, Everyday Mail columnist Sarah Vine, who is married to the schooling secretary, wrote that nine-yr-olds risked currently being “terrified” by if topic was taught in colleges.

For the duration of his Bristol visit to CAB, Gove admitted he was “nervous” about main schooling, and expressed interest in going to the college in the long term.

Claire Smith, sitting between the painted murals and lively business of the college day, insists it is possible to hold children risk-free from FGM with no providing them nightmares. In lessons at St Werbergh’s year six youngsters, who have been offered permission from their parents, understand about FGM without the use of graphic pictures and in secure language they can comprehend.

“We are evidence that it is entirely attainable to educate this in an age-appropriate way – it’s not about scaremongering, it really is about trying to keep youngsters safe,” says Smith, including that principal schoolchildren might be at the most risk. “An opportune moment for FGM to come about is when they are transferring between colleges – in a new school a instructor might not know your behaviour had modified, whereas here we would recognize straight away.”

Lisa Zimmermann, a teacher at CAB, set up Integrate Bristol soon after getting told that eleven out of 12 ladies in a group she was taking on a journey had undergone cutting. It began with four nervous girls creating anonymous poetry and has swelled to much more than 100 members calling themselves the #FDL – the female or “fanny” defence league – which has manufactured films, a music video and met Gove.

“We have come so far – from four terrified ladies to taking on the education secretary – it truly is been an wonderful journey,” Zimmermann says. But until the risks of FGM is taught in all colleges, they will not stay quiet, she adds. “Who is going to have that conversation otherwise? This campaign has allow schools know that it is alright to talk about this – it is going to make a big difference to girls’ lives, and to ladies that have not even been born nevertheless. But we have to maintain going.”

Fahma, despite the whirlwind of the previous few weeks, is not fairly ready to put her campaigning days behind her. “I have realized that I know a great deal a lot more than I thought I did. I have also realised just how passionate I am,” she says, including that she fairly likes the younger kids coming up to her in school. “It is cool,” she says. “I like currently being a role model. I want them to know that if they actually want to do anything, they can do what ever they want in daily life.”

Fahma Mohamed: the shy campaigner who fought for FGM education

FGM campaigner Fahma Mohamed urges Gove to help finish cycle of abuse

Fahma Mohamed (correct) with Gill Kelly, head of the City Academy secondary college in Bristol. Photograph: Adrian Sherratt for the Guardian

Click right here to sign the FGM petition to Michael Gove

The Bristol student Fahma Mohamed is due to meet Michael Gove to press him to seek out an end to female genital mutilation in the United kingdom by urging each college to train teachers and mother and father about the horrors of the practice.

The schooling secretary will on Tuesday communicate to Mohamed and members of the youth charity Integrate Bristol, which campaigns for far more education about FGM in schools.

The meeting comes soon after practically 250,000 men and women signed a Guardian-backed petition on the campaigning website Change.org calling on Gove to get action.

The campaign has gathered momentum because its launch, at the beginning of the month, turning into 1 of the largest campaigns hosted on the website and winning the assistance of the Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai and the basic secretary of the UN, Ban Ki-moon.

As a outcome of the campaign the Scottish government has previously agreed to send a letter to every teacher in Scotland asking them to be proactive about teaching the hazards and warning signs of FGM.

Writing today in the Guardian, Mohamed stated Gove had the opportunity to make a actual difference, She would request him to publish to all schools ahead of the summer time holidays providing guidance to teachers about how to tackle FGM, asking headteachers to train employees about warning indications and chance, and calling on them to educate kids about the dangers of FGM.

“It is time for some real progress from Michael Gove,” she stated. “Teachers are wise people they can educate this tough situation sensitively and delicately. I need to know: I have witnessed it take place. The faster the message gets to colleges, the quicker the cycle will be broken.

“In secondary schools teachers will talk to tomorrow’s mothers, breaking the cycle that way in principal schools teachers would have the self confidence to take on this issue on the frontline.”

Mohamed mentioned she hoped the education secretary would not ignore the wishes of every person who had signed the campaign petition. “Gove should compose to them because of the hundreds of thousands who have backed our campaign and know it truly is the appropriate issue to do, who agree that this horrific abuse need to be stopped,” she said.

“It is important that colleges in all places get the message, [that] teachers move and so do men and women. The FGM emergency requirements to be tackled head on, and tackled now.

“For people who have survived FGM, it will imply so a lot. It will imply that he has understood, he has heard, and he understands that it is, simply, kid abuse. I hope he’ll want to be remembered as the man or woman who broke the cycle of abuse, and stopped it.”

FGM campaigner Fahma Mohamed urges Gove to help finish cycle of abuse

Female genital mutilation: Michael Gove to meet 17-year-old campaigner

Fahma Mohamed: ‘I will reiterate to him that FGM is youngster abuse and try out and make him recognize how important his position is.’ Photograph: Patrick Hoeschler

The training secretary, Michael Gove, has agreed to meet 17-year-old pupil Fahma Mohamed, following a Guardian-backed petition demanding action to finish to female genital mutilation that has attracted 170,000 signatures since launching final week.

Mohamed’s petition – supported by the Guardian, Adjust.org and a coalition of FGM campaigners and activists – calls on the schooling secretary to compose to each and every instructor in the nation ahead of the summer season holidays, asking them to train teachers and mother and father about the horrors of FGM in a bid to assist bring an end to the practice.

Mohamed, one particular of nine girls in a Somali family that came to the United kingdom when she was seven, mentioned that she looking forward to speaking to the schooling secretary about how he could perform a vital role in bringing an end to FGM in the Uk inside a generation. “It really is amazing that Michael Gove has agreed to meet with us – he is manning up and that is great. Now lastly I hope we can get our point across,” she mentioned.

The campaign, which launched final Wednesday quickly became one particular of the fastest ever increasing petitions on Modify.org, attracting two signatures a 2nd at its peak. Mohamed paid tribute to the signatories, including that they had played a important position in securing the meeting. “I think absolutely everyone who has signed the petition has created the division of training realise just how numerous men and women help this, and how absolutely everyone agrees about it – he can not disregard it any much more,” she said.

There are an estimated 66,000 victims female genital mutilation – which requires removing the outer sexual organs from ladies, and has lifestyle-long repercussions – in England and Wales although 24,000 girls under the age of 15 are believed to be at chance. Last week the government introduced a series of measures in an attempt to combat the practice, including the necessary recording of FGM in hospitals, income for publicity campaigns and a NSPCC helpline and global funding.

The Department for Training explained it would redraft safeguarding guidelines to include advice on FGM, but even though other government ministers spoke out against the practice and the new measures getting taken, right up until now the training secretary has remained silent.

In a letter to Mohamed, a personal secretary informed the teenager that “the secretary of state has been following your important campaign closely”, adding that the DfE was taking into consideration the most powerful ways to handle the crime. The letter added: “He has been impressed by your courage and good results in raising awareness, and is very keen to meet you to examine the situation in a lot more detail.”

Mohamed, a trustee of anti-FGM charity Integrate Bristol, mentioned she was nervous but would not hold back from sharing her opinions. “I have in no way met anybody so high up prior to, so I am nervous but I am also thrilled,” she said.

“I will reiterate to him that FGM is child abuse and attempt and make him understand how essential his role is. He could help conserve girls from going through FGM if he writes to every head instructor in the country, asking them to educate teachers, parents and children about it.”

Following the Guardian’s campaign the Scottish government has already promised to create to every single head in Scotland, asking them to educate the risks of FGM – right after organisations operating with victims informed the Guardian that ladies – as effectively as currently being taken abroad in the course of the so-named “cutting season” – had been also currently being cut in the Uk.

Efua Dorkenoo, senior FGM adviser at charity Equality Now, applauded the move from the schooling division, but explained action should stick to.

“The time has moved on from phrases, promises, guidelines and committees,” she explained. “What we need now is urgent action to implement policy and we motivate the secretary of state to adhere to Scotland’s example, but not only create to all head teachers but to implement main reforms of kid protection tips. We are on the crest of a wave at the moment in terms of ending FGM in the United kingdom and we can’t afford to shed momentum.”

Female genital mutilation: Michael Gove to meet 17-year-old campaigner