Jaha Dukureh, born in Gambia into a Muslim family, immigrated to the United States when she was 15 years old. She was subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM) at just one week old, and forced to marry shortly after arriving in the US. When she met the man she had been promised to, he was in his 40s. Jaha’s father is an Imam, with four wives and over 30 children.
Jaha suffered days and weeks of agony during and after sexual intercourse with her husband. After months of unhappiness, she left her husband and moved to Atlanta. She was one of the first women in her family to go to school and went on to graduate from Georgia Southwestern State University with a degree in Business Administration and Management. She is now remarried with three children and is determined to make sure FGM does not impact her family in the future.
She has said that in “the US, we see women who have gone through FGM experience a lot of difficulties during childbirth, which is the reason why we started this campaign.” In 2014, Jaha initiated a Change.org petition to combat FGM and to urge Obama’s administration to determine the prevalence of the practice in the US. This was a crucial step in the fight against FGM and the petition was signed by more than 220,000 people. This pushed Jaha into the forefront of the fight against FGM. In 2016 she was named one of TIME Magazine’s Most Influential People.
FGM is a cultural practice involving partial or full cutting of the female genitalia. It is frequently carried out between the ages of 4 and 12 years old, but can happen as late as 30 and as early as infancy. Although the origins of FGM are unclear, it is common in about 28 African countries and some minority groups in Asia. Reasons for FGM can include preserving the girl’s virginity until marriage as well as serving as an initiation into womanhood. Anaesthetics are rarely used and the procedure is frequently carried out using scissors, scalpels, pieces of glass, knives or razor blades.
Complications can include the obstruction of menstrual flow which can lead to infertility in some cases. Furthermore, there is a high risk of haemorrhage which can lead to death, as was the case with Jaha’s sister who bled to death after being subjected to FGM.
Sex can also be extremely painful after someone has experienced FGM and in the case of infibulation, (one of several types of FGM); whereby the vaginal opening is sealed in order to allow only urine and menstrual blood to pass, the vaginal opening has to be reopened in order to make sex possible.
We may be led to believe that FGM is something that only occurs in places far from home, but sadly that is not the case. According to the Centres for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), 504,000 girls in the US are at risk of experiencing FGM.
Jaha founded the organisation Safe Hands for Girls in order to educate people about the consequences of FGM. It is estimated that 3 million women and girls undergo FGM every year. Through her work Jaha has saved 100 girls from the practice and has been a key component in creation of the Girls’ Protection Act of 2010, which penalises the transport of US girls overseas to undergo FGM, now known as “vacation cutting”.
Speaking about FGM in terms of a traditional practice she has said: “I am a woman from this culture and I say: not one single good comes off of mutilating girls and I want it to end. It is not cultural – it is an extreme form of violence and it is as simple as that.”
In November 2015, Gambian President Yahya Jammeh banned FGM, a huge step forward for a country where nearly 75% of women and girls have been affected by the practice. Jaha hopes to completely eradicate FGM within a decade.
To find out more about Jaha’s story and her work visit www.safehandsforgirls.org