you know? 4.32 million girls around the world are at risk of undergoing female genital mutilation (FGM) this year. Today and every day, we are working globally to support those impacted by FGM and other forms of gender-based violence.

FGM is a violation of human rights. FGM is a global problem. FGM affects refugee women and girls too. we must all join the call — for refugee girls, and for everyone. Today we say: not one girl more 🙅

I just feel bad about girls who are doing such a procedure.. their parents are monsters

I had genital mutilation when I was a baby, I don’t feel pleasure during s**, I hate my family they did this

I lost my sister to this heinous practice. She was 7 and I was 9, when we were sent to our village during our holidays. And while we were there, our aunt and grandmother took us and got us cut. I made it out alive, but my sister couldn't. I wasn't even allowed to see her once, not before, during or afterwards. The last memory I have is of my sister fighting against three grown women while all I could do was cry and scream. They blamed her death on her, said that she was too weak for not making it, that her mind wasn't clear, that she was not supposed to make it, that was why she passed away. And they praised me for being so strong, for going through it so courageously. I was broken, torn, in extreme pain. It was difficult for me to move, the first fortnight, I screamed every time I had to go to the washroom. When I made my way back to my parents, away from my village, nobody spoke to me about my sister, not a word, no questions, It was as if she never existed. I had no one to speak to about it, I felt ashamed and weak for letting something like this happen to me. But, I was forced to maintain an exterior that suggested that nothing had changed. By the time I turned 15 years old, I had had enough and I ran away from my family. I lived at a shelter, joined a school and took a part time job to support myself. I never really got over it, I don't think I ever will, but getting an education helped me, therapy helped me. Physical touch is difficult for me but, I owe it to my sister to speak out, to make it common knowledge, the unhygienic inhumane conditions and treatments they mette out to their girls all in the name of purity and acceptance.

My mother got cut when she was 5 and she vowed to herself that no one would ever lay hands on her kids. She escaped her village, her community, her country, ran away and moved to canada. Where she met my father and they had a beautiful marriage. However, when it came to giving birth, it was an experience that was the stuff of my mother's nightmares. Because she had been cut and sewn up, she first had to get defibulated, even then, the process of birth was painful and traumatic. Being on the table, gave her flashbacks of being back at the hut where she was cut. It was difficult for her to let her doctors see her, she couldn't bear looking at their faces when they would see her for the first time. It took her time to get to where she's today, making her way through health complications and the ptsd and depression, moving away from her family. cutting them out. I cannot believe that such practices are still prevalent and rampant in the world, most countries haven't even criminalised the act and it angers me so much.