Unless you’ve been living under a rock (and by that, I mean ignoring your university emails) you’ll surely know that through the first half of October, the University of St Andrews held its Rectoral Election. You will hopefully also know that Dr Leyla Hussein OBE won! This is a momentous occasion in St Andrews’ history – a university that has increasingly been struggling with both racial and sexual issues has just elected a black woman as its Rector for the next four years.
For those who aren’t well-versed in the intricacies of the university’s leadership, the Rector sits at the head of the University Court and is one of only two student nominated positions. The University Court is the highest governing body at St Andrews, and is responsible for the overall governance of the university. The Rector, who presides over all meetings of the University Court, is therefore a pretty big deal.
Leyla will be St Andrews’ third ever female Rector and is the first woman of colour to be elected in this role. This alone is a huge achievement for a university that has been the focus of important conversations about racial equality and sexual violence over the past year. Leyla Hussein is the perfect candidate to help create change, and her electoral success is proof that students are wanting exactly that.
Leyla is a survivor of female genital mutilation. I would recommend watching her discuss her harrowing story and the work she is doing to protect other women from FGM in her 2017 talk at the Oslo Freedom Forum. Leyla is also a leading anti-FGM campaigner and has co-founded a UK non-profit called Daughters of Eve to help protect girls and women at risk of FGM. She created and runs a support therapy group, Dahlia’s Project, where she herself works as a consultant and facilitator. She is part of a vital dialogue, and is a campaigner who recognizes the importance of speaking about this horrifying practice. She also has a positive message – the more we discuss and understand FGM, the more young women can be saved from this form of abuse. Her speeches and interviews discussing the practice are hard to watch, but show a determined and intelligent woman who will stop at nothing to make the world a safer place for young girls. As an activist, Leyla has faced verbal and physical abuse by those who want to silence her voice, yet this has never stopped her from fighting for others and for a safer world.
As a black, Muslim woman, she has faced more adversity in her lifetime than most of us can imagine. Rather than shying away from that identity and trying to escape the hardships she has faced, Leyla demonstrates that she is proud of herself and her womanhood, and is truly a role model in this sense for all the young women of St Andrews. In an interview with sister-hood, Hussein asserts that she has reclaimed the title of ‘angry black woman’, and her actions and words demonstrate how important it is for all voices to be heard – something that the students of our university clearly agree with. When she talks about FGM, she is talking about race, gender, and sexuality. She is an advocate for increased mental health resources and an open, honest discussion about mental health, as both a psychotherapist and a survivor of trauma.
The campaign for Leyla’s election was led largely by members of the BAME student population here in St Andrews, and her win is monumental for minorities at this predominantly white university. After a summer in which racial inequality was a constant topic of conversation amongst the student population, particularly on social media, this election is demonstrative of the fact that we, the students, demand change. Similarly, the growing conversation around sexual assault, violence, and harassment here in St Andrews makes Leyla’s win all the more powerful – a woman whose primary focus in her career has been to speak out against abuse and violence against women is now our Rector for three more years. I personally am incredibly proud to be part of a student population who elected Leyla Hussein. Following the US Presidential election of 2016, Leyla wondered in a letter to her daughter whether democracy only benefits men. Though it may seem insignificant to some, the 2020 Rectoral election demonstrated to the women of St Andrews that not only is this untrue, but that we can fight for change, and we can achieve it.