FGC and Intersectionality: A conversation with Dena Igusti

The Vavengers (‘Vagina Avengers’) are a charity made up of a group of people working towards a common goal: To End FGM. With the continued direction of survivors, and working directly with those on the front line, they ensure that all projects and funding they receive is directed to where it is needed most and will continue to do so until Female Genital Cutting is eradicated. Their awareness work seeks to address the silence around FGM/C in the practicing and non practising communities whilst raising consciousness  around the root of Violence Against Women & Girls. Their community projects are run by Community Ambassadors with lived experience and years of expertise. The Vavengers were behind the UK’s first anti-FGM Billboards with a helpline for women and girls at risk.

Saving Safa was written by Waris Dirie, an FGC survivor, activist, internationally renowned model, and the founder of the Desert Flower Foundation. It opens with a letter from Safa Nour - a 7 year old girl from Balbala in Djibouti - to Waris Dirie. In the letter Safa expresses concern that she will soon undergo FGC, despite the contract her parents have with Dirie’s Desert Flower Foundation, stating they will not have their daughter cut. Upon receiving the letter, Waris Dirie drops everything and goes to Djibouti to try and convince Safa’s parents not to have their daughter cut. Through Waris’ journey, the book explores many dimensions of FGC - from long term health effects, to intergenerational trauma and social stigma.

Saving Safa was written by Waris Dirie, an FGC survivor, activist, internationally renowned model, and the founder of the Desert Flower Foundation. Saving Safa opens with a letter from Safa Nour - a 7 year old girl from Balbala in Djibouti - to Waris Dirie. In the letter Safa expresses concern that she will soon undergo FGC, despite the contract her parents have with Dirie’s Desert Flower Foundation, stating they will not have their daughter cut. Upon receiving the letter, Waris Dirie drops everything and goes to Djibouti to try and convince Safa’s parents not to have their daughter cut. Through Waris’ journey, the book explores many dimensions of FGC - from long term health effects, to intergenerational trauma and social stigma.

Dr. Annemarie Middelburg is a consultant from the Netherlands with unique expertise on women’s rights and is a recognized global expert on FGC. She obtained her PhD  with a thesis entitled ‘Empty Promises? Compliance with the Human Rights Framework in relation to Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting in Senegal’. In 2013, Dr. Annemarie wrote a report for UNFPA  about the implementation of the international and regional human rights framework for the elimination of FGC. In 2015, she founded Middelburg Human Rights Law Consultancy and started to work as an independent consultant. Dr. Annemarie has had assignments for the United Nations, European Union, civil society organizations and universities. She has authored and co-authored numerous academic, EU and UN publications on the topic of FGC. She has worked on various research projects, including for the European Institute for Gender Equality, the United Nations Population Fund and more. Dr. Annemarie  also serves as an expert witness during asylum court cases in relation to FGC in Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Isatu Barry is a youth activist dedicated to raising awareness on FGC and protecting girls, women, and non-binary individuals from this practice. She hopes to create a safe space where survivors, allies, and communities alike can share their experiences, discuss misconceptions that drive the practice, and access mental and reproductive health services. She has a TED Talk about her experience as an FGC survivor and has served on various panels dedicated to ending FGC.

In this podcast episode, we are joined by international filmmaker, Sara who shot the documentary: 'A Piece of Me'.  The documentary has become the most successful global campaign on Female Genital Cutting in the UNFPA’s 50-year history. It reached more than 5 million people online. Various UN member states ambassadors were in attendance and pledged their commitment to the elimination of FGC by 2030.  The documentary is shot in Ethiopia’s Afar region in collaboration with the UN Population Fund and focuses on the stories of three women who refuse to be defined by their past traumas of FGC. 

Dr. Nicole Warren has over 21 years of combined research, clinical practice, and teaching experience in reproductive health. Her current projects include evaluating the impact of educational interventions to improve care of women affected by female genital cutting. Dr. Warren is an award-winning teacher and has collaborated with the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Department of Health and Human Services: The Office of Women’s Health.

Dena Igusti is a queer Indonesian poet, playwright, and journalist based in Queens, New York. She is also a 2018 NYC Youth Poet Laureate Ambassador and has written several poems about the disconnect with her body as a result of FGC.  Her poetry collection 'Cut Woman', is about her experiences with being an Indonesian Muslim non binary survivor of female genital cutting, and the overbearing loss and anticipated mourning she felt as a result of it. She has spoken about and performed poems regarding FGC at the 2018 Teen Vogue Summit, Brooklyn Museum, and Lincoln Center.

Named one of six experts to watch on the issue of female genital cutting (FGC) by NewsDeeply, Mariya has worked in gender-based violence for over a decade in the areas of teaching, research, policy, program development, and direct service. In 2015, she cofounded Sahiyo, an award-winning, transnational organization with the mission to empower Asian communities to end FGC. Since 2015, she has collaborated with the Massachusetts Women’s Bar Association to pass legislation to protect girls from FGC. After starting a Change.org petition and gathering over 400,000 signatures, Massachusetts became the 39th state in the U.S. to do so. She also sits on the steering committee for the US Network to End FGM/C.

Farzana Doctor is a writer, activist, psychotherapist, and the co-founder of End FGM Canada. She was recently mentioned in CBC Books’ “100 Writers in Canada You Need To Know Now", and currently volunteers with WeSpeakOut, a global group working to ban Female Genital Cutting in the Dawoodi Bohra community, which she herself hails from. Farzana’s recent novel Seven (August 2020, Dundurn), is an evocative, inter-generational family tale that brings visibility to the practice of female genital cutting (FGC) in India, known in India as “Khatna”. Seven is the first Canadian novel to address and bring visibility to female genital cutting/mutilation. In this episode, we talk about activism, the End FGC movement and Farzana's new novel- Seven.