British FGM campaigner backs US campaign to increase awareness on cutting

American anti-FGM campaigner Jaha Dukureh. Photograph: Mae Ryan for the Guardian

The 17-yr-old Bristol student who aided persuade the schooling secretary, Michael Gove, to speak to every college in England about female genital mutilation has offered her backing to the female major a equivalent campaign in the US.

The campaign across the Atlantic is currently being led by Jaha Dukureh, a mom of three from Atlanta who was put through FGM in Gambia when very younger. Dukureh is calling on Barack Obama to purchase a new study on FGM that would establish how a lot of American ladies and ladies are at threat of the practice, thereby paving the way to tackle the crime.

The adjust.org petition by 24-year-old Dukureh had attracted virtually 60,000 signatures as of Wednesday and has now been provided the backing of Fahma Mohamed, who was the face of the Guardian’s campaign in England, which won the help of more than 230,000 people. Fahma mentioned that action was needed to determine the scale of the difficulty in the US.

Dukureh was subjected to FGM when she was an infant in increasing up in the Gambia. “It took away a portion of my femininity, my ownership to my body. Some girls, like my half-sister who died from problems from becoming minimize, even get rid of their lives,” she wrote in the introduction to her on the internet petition.

“Jaha is exceptionally brave for speaking out,” she said. “She requirements to present President Obama that there is a around the world motion of people hunting to him to consider action to finish the horror of FGM in the US. Ordinary individuals like us truly can make a distinction. When we really think in some thing, when we know one thing is wrong, we have a moral duty to communicate out and do no matter what we can to make adjust.”

Dukureh, who has won backing for her campaign from the UN secretary standard Ban-Ki Moon, mentioned she was delighted to have Fahma’s help. “When I noticed Fahma’s campaign in the Uk, it inspired me to take action too,” she mentioned. “Because I launched by Adjust.org petition in the US, we have been in touch more than e-mail and Twitter and her support has meant so much to me. It really is thrilling to see this campaign turn into global and I hope the US government sees that this is a around the world movement fighting to protect ladies from the practice of FGM.”

Gove wrote to all headteachers in England soon after meeting Fahma and other members of the youth group Integrate Bristol, who have played a important role in raising awareness of FGM.

British FGM campaigner backs US campaign to increase awareness on cutting