Jaha Dukureh, Big Sister Movement

As women living in countries like the UK, it’s easy to get caught up in the fight against inequality in the form of tackling the gender pay gap, catcalling, and tampon tax as western media gives more attention to these issues. I was recently reminded by a post from Zarina Macha how important it is to check in, refocus and take action to tackle the oppression and violence against women and girls around the world. On the International Day of Zero Tolerance to FGM, I want to share with you some resources that you can use to help tackle this important global issue and introduce you to incredible work of Jaha Dukureh.

Jaha is an activist, founder of Safe Hands For Girls and in February 2018, she was appointed Regional UN Women Ambassador for Africa. Herself a survivor of FGM, and forced into child marriage at age 15, she dedicates her efforts to support the UN Women’s advocacy to end female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage in Africa, with a focus on mobilising youth.

FGM is a barbaric crime committed against women on a global scale. The procedure involves the partial or total removal of female genital organs, often under the pretext of religious or cultural reasons. An estimate of 200 million women and young girls alive today have undergone the procedure. In 2020 alone, there are 4.1 million girls around the world are at risk of undergoing female genital mutilation.

“This is a practice that is forced on girls without their say in it and it is their body. When we allow girls to go through FGM, we are taking away their rights to their body, we are taking their right to feel sexual please and not only that, I think at the end of the day we have to understand that FGM only exists to control women.”

- Jaha Dukureh

FGM is a violation of a girl and woman’s human rights in accordance with several international human rights instruments. The practice of FGM violates a minimum of four fundamental international human rights: 

• A woman's right to health 

• A woman's right to life and physical integrity 

• A woman's right to freedom from violence & torture 

• A woman's right to dignity, liberty, security of person & privacy

Jaha’s work in the Gambia has prevented more than 1 million girls from undergoing the procedure but there’s still much more work to be done. I first heard about Jaha’s work when I watched her TEDx Talk in Bari, which I’ll link for you here:

Through her work, she met a number of like minded women and formed a network which they call the Big Sister Movement. The Big Sisters are a coalition of empowered African women leading grassroots organisations to end FGM and early childhood marriage in The Gambia, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Somalia. They are fundraising to help end violence against girls, you can learn more and support them by donating here.

“I believe that with our movement and 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 obligation to end FGM and I don’t think we can end FGM by judging cultures that practice FGM.”

- Jaha Dukureh

Every year 2 million girls undergo FGM. The 2020 UN General Assembly have set this year’s International Day of Zero Tolerance to FGM theme as “Unleashing Youth Power” to focus on mobilising youth to help eliminate FGM entirely by 2030. By coming together as young women and campaigning like never before, Jaha Dukureh, Domtila Chesang, Gift Augustine and Ifrah Ahmed convinced the government of the Gambia to ban FGM. As we step into the new decade and set resolutions of our own it’s important to look around our local and digital communities to ask what we can do to make the world a better and safer place to live in.

“The ban 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 and make sure the communities are sensitised.”

- Jaha Dukureh

So I want to encourage you to read more about the fight against FGM, to tell your friends, and to support people like Jaha through projects like Safe Hands For Girls and the Big Sister Movement. Here’s some other ways you can help in the fight against FGM:

• Educate yourself with the facts. Here’s a good summary of the facts from Forward UK. And here’s the latest data and FAQs from the UN Population Fund.

• Join the conversation on social using #EndFGM and #YouthEndFGM

• Donate to organisations like the Big Sister Movement, or the Orchid Project, or Women’s Resource Centre the list goes on.

• Volunteer your time to organisations like Forward UK