A few months ago I received an e-mail from an editor at LINDA. and I immediately became very excited. It was amazing that a prestigious magazine (with so many subscribers!) aimed to draw attention to the practice Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C). I brought the editor of LINDA. in touch with the three women who were featured in the magazine and I provided background information and statistics about FGM/C that was published along the three interviews. I also joined them for the photoshoot that took place in Amsterdam. The result is stunning and I am so proud of them!
In the magazine, you can read that Istahil and Sahra were both born in Somalia and Aicha in Guinee. They underwent FGM/C when they were a young girl (Istahil was for example 6 years old, Aicha 9 years) and for different reasons, but the consequences they still face today are very similar. All three are so brave to talk about the impact it still has on their lives. Aicha shares for example that she doesn't enjoy sex and that she doesn't experience sexual pleasure, which makes her feel "less" female. Sahra explains that her father and grandma actually didn't want her to undergo FGM/C, but that her mother couldn't resist the social pressure. If she wouldn't undergo the practice, there would be no man who would marry her. Istahil shares that she had painful sex and only after her first delivery she started to enjoy enjoy it. She was happy, but at the same time disappointed realising that this had been taken away from her all those years...
