want to start by saying one thing Barry
una cheetah Bella Italia Bella Africa is
home to 15% of the world’s population
Africa is home to some of the world’s
most beautiful natural phenomenons
it houses the world’s largest non polar
desert Africa is also the home of the
female genital mutilation or FGM is the
partial or total removal of the female
genital exterior there are four types of
FGM type one is the partial or total
removal of the clitoris type two is the
removal of the clitoris as well as the
inner labia with or without the removal
of the lobby imagiro type three is the
narrowing of the vagina by creating a
seal or sewing it together which is also
known as in fibrillation type four is
any other handful practice to the vagina
such as piercing burning or cutting
that’s done for non-medical reasons FGM
happens in 28 countries in Africa out of
those 28 countries as of them are
located within the 12 countries that
compromise of the Sahara Desert I went
through FGM myself when I was one week
old and I think I experienced the
effects of FGM the most as a 15 year old
when I got married and a lot of times I
think I lived all my life believing that
FGM was a religious application and that
it was the only thing to do in order for
me to be eligible for marriage but I
think it’s important for people to
understand that FGM has nothing to do
with religion it predates Islam in all
other Abrahamic religions FGM has no
benefit to women and leave girls with
lasting physical and mental health
implications when I first decided to
talk about this issue and share my story
publicly it was the hardest thing that
I’ve ever done and it’s still the
hardest thing I will continue to do and
the reason is I come from a culture
where people thrive on women’s silence a
lot of times a woman is not supposed to
talk about things between her legs a
woman is not supposed to talk about her
suffering because this is something
we’ve seen a parent
go through my sisters before me went
through with my grandmother’s before me
went through it so it’s expected that we
lived through it and I was startled by
the amount of silence in our community I
was startled by the fact that no one was
talking about this issue and to me it
became personal when I had my daughter I
remember holding my daughter close and
thinking how I would never allow her to
go through what I went through and the
only way I knew how to do that was by
speaking out so I decided to come out
with my story and talk to the world
about it and I knew that ending FGM we
had to put a face to it I live in
Atlanta Georgia which is a Western
country and by getting people in America
to understand that this is the issue
that affects them because a lot of time
I think when we talk about the issue of
FGM we want to make it seem like it’s an
African problem it’s by those barbaric
Africans in somewhere that don’t know
what they are doing but FGM is not just
an African problem it’s practiced in
Asia it’s practice in the Middle East
and it’s something that used to be
practiced in countries like the United
States they called it clitoridectomy
simply and it even graced the cover of
Playboy and a lot of times I think also
we assume that girls who have
experienced FGM can say no to FGM but
that’s not true and I think it’s naive
to believe that if girls had a choice to
practice FGM I wouldn’t stand in front
of you this is a practice that’s forced
on girls without their say in it and
it’s their body and we have to remember
when we allow girls to go through FGM we
are taking their rights to their body we
are taking their rights to feel sexual
pleasure and not only that I think at
the end of the day we have to understand
that FGM only exists to control women
and I think is the lack of understanding
and understatement of violence against
girls in the first place and the reason
why I do the work that I do and I
continue doing this work is because I
want people to understand that FGM does
not define them I want girls to know
that
going through this practice doesn’t mean
that your life is over I want women to
understand that just because you got
married at the age of 15 doesn’t mean
that life stops there you can rise up
and you can be more than that I mean
they say that you know your destiny is
defined but I feel like you can truly
change your destiny I want to also share
a video with all of you by doing this
work I’ve met a lot of girls like me
it’s hard and challenging when you start
talking about FGM or when you start
working on a similar type of issue and
because of that we created a sisterhood
it’s called the big sister movement and
it’s by women all over Africa working on
this issue and I figured that it’s a
good way for us to support each other to
talk about our best practices when I
went back to my home country of the
Gambia and started working on the issue
of FGM half of the things that we were
able to do as young people I didn’t
think it was possible to get those
things done young people came together
for the first time from various
organizations and campaigns like never
before we use the media we were able to
convince the government of the Gambia to
ban FGM and I think it shows the power
of commitment it shows the power of
dedication it shows that nothing is
impossible FGM has been around for god
knows nobody knows how long this
practice has been around and Gambia is a
country where 76 percent of women have
experienced FGM globally you have 200
million women who are currently living
with FGM every year 2 million girls
undergo FGM and I personally believe
that the people that have dedicated
their life to ending FGM are people that
I would commend in and with my success
in this work I realized that it’s not
just my success and if I want to give up
it’s not just jaha giving up I’m giving
up on 200 million women if I stop doing
what I’m doing and that’s why I think
it’s very very important to support the
women that I work with and I just want
you guys to watch this short video and
then I’ll continue
I saw my cousin be mutilated
when all my cousin’s genitals were out
that’s when I realized something was
terribly wrong
women are told that you have to be
patient and you have to sacrifice we
have a culture of silence it’s just
something that women never talk about I
was second side twice I want to let it
go but I cannot accept it to see a young
girl going through this I know the only
world with so PJ I’m not much away took
us is to break down that silence she’s
like you don’t have a choice is that I
your quote or your scene like an outcast
in the community so what I gonna do an
art competition the first of its kind to
design a poster warning of the dangers
of female genital mutilation these ways
the voice of the voiceless has to be had
I’m going to make sure the fire keeps on
running all along it’s not just a saying
we are going to end FGM Somali refugee
is due to return to advise the
government on NGO genital cutting on
your tuition the Gambian government has
introduced a ban on female genital
mutilation the bank alone is not enough
it’s going to take activists to use
media and other platforms to make sure
that the message reaches the people that
it needs to reach to make sure that
communities are sensitized what are you
waiting for when the community is ready
you also have to stand up you all right
so what you want to do I must fight that
much trouble I must I would not just
stand like that think about the three
million girls that are going through
this practice every single year the six
thousand girls a day just the thought of
that only waiting for us to take the
message to them and tell them what
you’re feeling is right FGM is from
that’s all I’m doing one hell of a job
and if you empower these girls they are
going to do
this video shows that when you empower
girls when you empower people from the
community to end FGM it’s something
that’s impossible and I’ve traveled a
lot throughout the world to talk about
FGM and I’ve met these amazing women and
because of them we’ve started something
that’s very very special and I believe
that with our movement with women
standing together it doesn’t matter if
you’ve gone through FGM or not it
doesn’t matter if you’re from that
community or not one thing that I’ve
always said is that as human beings we
have an application to end up GM and I
don’t think we can end FGM by judging
cultures that practice FGM that’s not
how you end FGM and in FGM it’s through
education and it’s through a better
understanding of why FGM happens in the
first place
by us looking at people that practice
FGM and considering them as people that
are in Africa and barbaric is not the
solution I think the real solution is
empowering girls themselves to speak out
against FGM to break that culture of
silence to stand up and that’s why we
started safe hands for girls in the
Gambia
we work with young people we work with
religious leaders we work with survivors
we work with advocates and now with the
launch of our new big sister movement we
will be working in five countries in
Africa fourth side we will be in The
Gambia we are working in Somalia in
Sierra Leone in Nigeria and in Kenya and
it’s very very important to me that you
know it’s very very important to me that
people realize that this is not
something and I know that I’ve
emphasized that a lot that ending FGM is
not something that’s impossible when I
first went to Gambia incited campaigning
I remember people told me that my life
would be at risk people said that
because of the type of government that
we have in the Gambia a lot of people
were worried about me but being born in
the Gambia in a village that’s with
10,000 people that’s how big my village
is and moving to the United States when
I was 15 years old for an arranged
marriage and then going back to my home
country at the age of 25 to lobby for
that no one thought wasn’t possible and
getting that law passed and coming back
to the United States and being named as
one of Time Magazine’s 100 most
influential people to me that’s hope to
meet that’s change and it shows that
with determination it shows that with
the right support system nothing is
impossible when I look up when I look at
this work that I’m doing I can’t help
but think about the Sahara Desert
because that’s the team of why we are
here today when you look at this desert
with the hash ecosystem the lack of
rainfall and the extreme heat and this
work that we are doing is hash I always
tell my team when people come to work
with me one thing that I always tell
them is the roads are very muddy and
they are very dirty and it’s not even a
pave way it’s not even a smooth Road
that’s how hard it has been doing this
work and with like the desert my family
looks at me that this is not the best
career path to grow and because of all
the issues with the desert it may not
seem as the most optimal place to grow
but like we’ve seen with previous
presentations with anything is possible
the same way they were able to bring
water into Petra is the same thing that
we are doing with FGM and I know that my
daughter’s not going to go through FGM
and because of the law in the Gambia is
not only my daughter but over a million
girls will be saved as a result of the
work that we’ve done collectively in the
Gambia and the sisters in Kenya that are
working on this issue the sisters in
Nigeria that are working on this and our
sisters in Sierra Leone that are working
on this with every single one of them
every single day and I know the
sacrifices that they’ve made I’ve made a
lot of sacrifices one of the young girls
that work with me told me that we should
do a session for what we’ve lost in this
campaign I’ve lost friends I’ve lost
family but at the end of the day is
worth it
because right now I can stand in front
of you and say that because of the work
that I’m doing lives are being saved
because of the work that I’m doing every
single day young people are reaching out
to me telling me they want to do exactly
what I’m doing through Twitter through
Facebook and it shows that change is
happening and don’t underestimate you
sitting in this room what you can do you
can support people on the ground
directly that are working on this issue
you can reach out and educate yourself
about this issue but I think the worst
thing that we can do is to judge
communities that practice FGM that to me
is the worst we need to bring them
together and educate them about the
dangers of FGM and it’s only those
communities that themselves that can
decide that FGM is harmful and ended on
their own so I want to say thank you for
listening to my talk and Italia Bella
again
[Applause] [Music]