It is estimated that there are 200 million women and girls alive today living with the consequences of female genital mutilation.
It is estimated there are 170,000 women and girls in England and Wales who have been affected by it, and 63,000 who are at risk.
Hibo Wardere is an unstoppable force in the campaign against FGM and she will be telling her story upstairs at The Railway, Winchester on Sunday.
There will be a collection point for The Homeless Period Southampton at this event. There will also be an opportunity to win a signed copy of Hibo Wardere’s memoir ‘Cut’. Raffle tickets are only £1, with proceeds going to The Homeless Period.
At the age of six, Hibo was made to undergo female genital cutting, a process so brutal, she nearly died.
As a teenager she moved to London in the shadow of the Somalian Civil War where she quickly learnt the procedure she had undergone in her home country was not ‘normal’ in the west.
She embarked on a journey to understand FGM and its roots, whilst raising her own family and dealing with the devastating consequences of the cutting in her own life.
Hibo works in London as an FGM campaigner, helping young girls whose families plan to take them abroad for the procedure. She has vowed to devote herself to the campaign against FGM.
She was inspired to begin campaigning when, as a teaching assistant, she encountered a young girl whose head teacher suspected was being sent to Somalia to undergo FGM.
“You are always running from it,” Hibo says of her own experience of FGM.
“It is there, but you don’t want to face what happened. For millions of women just like me, we ran.
“We didn’t want to confront it, we normalised it.
“But sometimes you get tired and you stop and take a deep breath and have to confront it. For me, that came in the shape of a 10-year-old girl.”
Her book Cut (Simon & Schuster) came out in paperback early 2016.
Empowering and informative, this talk brings to life a clash of cultures at the heart of contemporary society and shows how FGM and violence against women remain a worldwide problem.
The talk will last 4 minutes and will be followed by an opportunity for audience questions.
Tickets are £8 in advance and can be purchased from www.railwayinn.pub/show/cut-talk-hibo-wardere/
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