'This is my story;' How FGM survivor turned trauma into advocacy
National
By
Ronald Kipruto
| Feb 07, 2026
FGM Survivor and Women’s Right Advocate, Sadia Hussein on Spice FM on February 6, 2026. [Screengrab]
As the world marks the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), Kenya is once again confronted with a painful reality.
Despite years of advocacy, legislation and public awareness campaigns, the practice remains deeply entrenched in some communities.
For Sadia Hussein, an FGM survivor and women’s rights advocate, February 6 is more than a date on the calendar, as she is forced to relive memories of an experience she endured at the age of 10, an ordeal she now describes as cruel, violent and life-altering.
That experience has shaped her life and fueled her resolve to ensure other girls are spared the same fate.
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Narrating the ordeal on Spice FM on Friday, February 6, Sadia recalled how she once viewed the practice as a rite of passage, an expectation reinforced by peers and elders alike.
“I went through FGM at only 10 years old, and I was very much excited because you go to school and people mock you for not having gone through the cut…so you want to fit in that circle. I pressured my mother, and my time came,” she said.
At the time, she said, the community embraced the practice as a sign of achievement, proof of maturity and readiness for womanhood. Girls who had not undergone the cut were ridiculed, isolated and made to feel inferior.
What was presented as a celebration, however, quickly became traumatic. “The pain was unbearable,” Sadia says, adding that the physical and emotional scars followed her into adulthood.
She later experienced complications during childbirth, spending three days in labour in 2008, an experience she says directly contradicts claims that FGM prepares women for marriage or motherhood.
“FGM does not in any way give us identity,” she says.
The women’s rights advocate placed much of the responsibility for sustaining the practice on older women within communities, who she said often act as its strongest defenders.
“Older women believe that if a woman is not cut, she will be unfaithful, never be married, or their children will be promiscuous. And if a granddaughter misbehaves, the grandmother will be the one to be blamed.”
Today, Sadia has transformed her trauma into advocacy. Through a grassroots initiative, she works with parents, elders and young girls to challenge deeply held beliefs and promote alternative rites of passage that do not cause harm.
She says the practice often continues not out of cruelty, but out of tradition, fear of social exclusion and misinformation.
23 million girls are at risk of FGM globally
According to Wisal Ahmed, the UNFPA-UNICEF coordinator for Ending FGM, the practice affects women and girls in more than 94 countries worldwide. The health complications associated with FGM, she said, cost an estimated $1.4 billion annually, about half of what is needed each year to eliminate the practice in high-prevalence countries.
“There are pockets in the North Eastern area where FGM is still practiced, but Kenya is on track to stop this,” says Ahmed, calling for a whole government approach in combating the practice.
European ambassador to Kenya, Henriette Geiger, echoed the call for stronger local leadership, warning that the consequences of FGM extend far beyond physical harm.
‘’FGM is a cultural practice, but if you have ever spoken to somebody who has undergone the cut, it has very grave consequences. The gravest of all, apart from the physical harm, is that it normally ends the future of a woman. Girls are immediately married off,’’ she noted.
Kenya banned FGM in 2011, a move that has contributed to a steady decline in prevalence. But Sadia insists legislation alone is not enough.
“We need to stop normalising pain in the name of culture.”