In March 2024, NPO Radio 1 broadcasted an impactful series on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C). Honouring International Women’s Day, survivors, advocates, and experts were on Dutch national radio, sharing stories, urging for compassion, education, and action. From challenging misconceptions to reclaiming autonomy, these broadcasts called for more awareness about the practice and a future free of FGM/C!

Right to Rise is excited to welcome Channa van Laake as their new research intern! Channa is a student in the Master's programme 'Social Challenges, Policies and Interventions' at Utrecht University. She will work on various projects, including a project connected to her Master's thesis studying the link between a mother’s level of education and the likelihood of her daughter(s) to undergo Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting. She will also provide assistance to a project evaluation of an NGO in the Netherlands focusing on harmful practices among migrant communities.

The sixty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women took place from 6 to 17 March 2023. Due to my teaching obligations at the University of Amsterdam, I was not able to travel to New York this year. Instead, I attended various sessions online. I also had the honour to speak at a parallel event organized by Dr. Ugochi Ohajuruka, Executive Director Health Aid for All Initiative (HAFAI) on the ‘Implications of Covid-19 pandemic on girl child education, menstrual health and anti-FGM advocacy‘.

The 21st of December 2022, the new LINDA. magazine was available in bookshops in the Netherlands. This was a very special edition, because three powerful women shared their personal stories about FGM/C. I am so proud of them and would like to thank the LINDA. team for a very nice collaboration!

From September until December 2022, I am teaching the course 'Gender, Human Security and Violent Conflict' at the University of Amsterdam. How are violent conflict and security gendered and what are the consequences and implications? These are the central questions discussed in my course from the perspective of conflict studies, human security theory, international relations and gender studies.