British woman recalls horror of FGM and describes it as child abuse that has gone on for too long
"IT’S totally heinous"... that’s how one British woman bravely described the horror of female genital mutilation (FGM).
Somalian-born Hibo Wardere, 47, from London, was only six years old when she was forced to undergo FGM - a procedure where the female genitals are deliberately cut, injured and changed.
The barbaric practice, which nearly killed her, has been illegal in the UK since 1985 and is classified as child abuse - but an estimated 20,000 British girls are thought to be at risk of FGM each year.
Speaking to The Sun, Hibo, a teaching assistant, said: “People think it’s an African or an Asian thing, but it’s not.
“It’s a British thing because we have a lot of migrants who have moved here from different parts of the world and they are still confused by their community.”
The mum-of-seven added: “FGM is child abuse that has gone on too long. There should be a global cry to fight to end it and the only way you can do that is through education.
“Child abuse is everybody’s business - it’s my business and it’s your business.
“It doesn’t have colour, it doesn’t have religion, it doesn’t have borders, it doesn’t have anything.”
“We need to educate and make people understand the horrific side of FGM that most don’t get and these girls have a right to be protected.”
Recounting the traumatic day, Hibo recalled being taken into a small hut in Mogadishu, Somalia, where she sat on the floor with her arms pinned, while two women yanked her legs apart before another woman - the cutter - drew out razors.
“You knew in your own heart something was going to go down,” she said. “I just knew when I saw the razors and when my legs were being held apart, I knew something excruciatingly painful and horrible was about to take place.”
Her clitoris and labia were chopped off and she was stitched up using a thorn and thick thread, leaving only a tiny hole where her vagina had once been.
The "cutter" used no anaesthesia, no sterilisation and no professional surgical instruments.
Child abuse is everybody’s business – it’s my business and it’s your business
Hibo Wardere
Hibo says she always struggles to make people understand the physical and mental agony as a result of the mutilation.
“Nobody ever forgets the trauma, that is always there,” she said. “There is actually no words in this world that can describe the pain. When you’re forcefully held down and your flesh is cut over and over again - it was horrific.
“It was like a wave hitting one after the other - your whole body was lit up with pain. Nothing could numb it.
“You never forget.”
The day before she was cut, her family held a huge party for her with presents and food.
“All I knew was something beautiful was going to take place and everyone was telling me how brave I was going to be and that I was going to become a woman,” she said. “I was very eager, I was looking forward to it because I didn’t know what it was - no one ever discussed it and that was that.
“Looking back now, it was grooming - making you believe something beautiful and amazing is going to take place - which wasn’t the case at all.”
At 18, Hibo decided to claim asylum in London to escape Somalia's repressive culture and the country's civil war that erupted in the late 1980s.
Months later, she met her husband, Yusuf, who also came to the city as a refugee from Somalia.
Before they got married, they made a pact that if they ever had daughters, they would never be cut, even though FGM remains a tradition in Somali culture.
“It’s something we’ve never discussed again because once we made the decision - that was it,” she said.
What is female genital mutilation (FGM)?
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is an illegal procedure where the female genitals are deliberately cut, injured and changed.
It's also known as "female circumcision" or "cutting", and it is child abuse.
The NHS states there's no medical reason for this to be done.
There are four types of FGM
Type 1: Removing part or all of the clitoris.
Type 2: Removing part or all of the clitoris and the inner labia (lips that surround the vagina), with or without removal of the labia majora (larger outer lips).
Type 3: Narrowing of the vaginal opening by creating a seal, formed by cutting and re-positioning the labia.
Type 4: Pricking, piercing, cutting, scraping or burning the area.
Source: NHS
Along with the severe psychological and physical trauma, Hibo, who had Type 3 mutilation, found help from a GP but still suffers medical complications as a result.
After many years of repressing her traumatic memories, Hibo opened up for the first time about FGM when she was asked by the headteacher of the school she works at to get involved when a 10-year-old girl was suspected of being taken out of school to be sent to Somalia.
Now she visits schools to educate kids and gives talks to local councillors, police officers, social workers, midwives and doctors to raise awareness.
Speaking about its success, Hibo said: “I was speechless at first but now I see that it is a blessing because it’s an educational book and it suits everyone - doctors, teachers, students and the normal public are all buying it.
“I’m so proud I did it but it wasn’t an easy thing to write because I had to dig out every detail and that was hard.”
But not everyone’s happy about her work, particularly in the Somali community.
Earlier this year, Hibo was attacked on a bus by a Muslim woman who was angry that she came to her school and told her child that female circumcision was a form of abuse.
Hibo said: “As a mother, where is your motherly love, where is your instinct to protect your child? Why would you want to put an innocent child through the heartache you went through?”
Despite the isolated incident, she believes it’s mainly men who have a problem with her anti-FGM campaigning and are usually the ones who are negative especially on social media.
“Recently a man on Twitter told me to shut up and accused me of damaging the Somali community,” she said. “He even admitted he has a wife who has has been cut and that he ‘enjoys’ it.”
“What makes you feel it’s ok for your wife or daughter to be cut? What if it was you, if they removed your penis because and they’re speechless after that.”
But she insists the negativity comes with the territory and it’s something she has learnt to fight back against.
Hibo praised the government’s efforts after it introduced a new law last year which requires professionals to report known cases of FGM in under-18s to the police.
But she believes there should be more done to integrate the issue into school lessons.
“It’s so easy make it a part of PSHE in school," she explained. "We are the ones who are afraid to teach kids difficult subjects because we think ‘oh this is too much’ but students absorb things and when they see another child suffering, they think ‘what can I do?’
“People are just afraid to talk about women bits. It’s still a huge taboo to mention vagina or talk about it.
Figures released by NHS Digital show 2,029 cases of FGM were reported from April to June in 2016, but experts say there is still a lot of work to do to end the practice.
Chief executive of Plan UK Tanya Barrom told The Sun: “With so many newly-reported cases, it’s clear FGM is a serious public health issue in the UK.
“It’s been encouraging in recent years to see a growing awareness and understanding of FGM in the UK and globally - but there remains much more to be done.
“All the relevant authorities need to be working together to identify and protect girls who are at risk. The whole community has a role to play.”