{"id":2100,"date":"2017-03-13T22:16:52","date_gmt":"2017-03-13T22:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/?p=2100"},"modified":"2017-07-01T22:25:25","modified_gmt":"2017-07-01T22:25:25","slug":"my-vulva-cupcakes-were-confiscated-a-day-in-the-life-of-an-anti-fgm-campaigner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/my-vulva-cupcakes-were-confiscated-a-day-in-the-life-of-an-anti-fgm-campaigner\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;My vulva cupcakes were confiscated&#8217;: a day in the life of an anti-FGM campaigner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Smuggling vulva-decorated cupcakes into the Somali region of Ethiopia was one of those moments where I thought: \u201cMy work as an anti-FGM campaigner gets me into interesting situations sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Three years earlier I\u2019d made vulva cupcakes as part of a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.channel4.com\/programmes\/the-cruel-cut\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">documentary about FGM<\/a>that I\u2019d done for Channel 4. \u201cWe need you to bring them with you,\u201d said Sagal Abdi, vice executive director of <a href=\"http:\/\/themaandeeq.com\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Maandeeq<\/a>, when she invited me to an event in Jijiga, the capital of the region, part of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unwomen.org\/en\/what-we-do\/ending-violence-against-women\/take-action\/16-days-of-activism\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">16 days of activism<\/a> against gender-based violence.<\/p>\n<p>Honestly, I was taken aback. I grew up in the UK as part of the Somali diaspora, and I\u2019d assumed the people of Jijiga would not be ready for vulva cupcakes. But Abdi, also part of the diaspora, reassured me that the Ethiopian women had requested them. \u201cLeyla, they watched the documentary and loved the concept of using art for campaigning,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"auxiliary float left pullquote\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">On reflection, the fact that he recognised the icing decoration as vulvas was good<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Abdi filled me in on the current status of the women from Jijiga. It was the usual story of inequality, gender-based violence, lack of employment and access to healthcare. But Abdi gave me hope as she described these negative situations. By the end of that phone call I couldn\u2019t wait to meet her. The only snag was, how would I carry vulva cupcakes from London to Jijiga?<\/p>\n<p>I am always up for a challenge. I managed to carry the cupcakes, made in London, in my hand luggage all the way to Addis Ababa. I really began to think I was going to pull this off. But just as I was about to embark on my final flight to Jijiga, one of the officers told me to step aside and opened the box. When he saw the cakes staring back at him he made a sound halfway between a gasp and a giggle. \u201cWhy would you bring these here?\u201d he asked. \u201cOh, you know what they are then?\u201d I thought. He said I needed permission to carry them and he needed to investigate. My flight was taking off in 10 minutes, so I sadly had to leave the cakes behind.<\/p>\n<p>On reflection, the fact that he recognised the icing decoration as vulvas was good \u2013 many men and women don\u2019t know what women\u2019s genitals look like. I hope he enjoyed eating those red velvet pussies.<\/p>\n<p>Something extraordinary came out of that trip. On the flight to Jijiga I suddenly realised that everyone around me was speaking Somali. My family isn\u2019t from that region but the last time I was in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/somalia\" data-link-name=\"auto-linked-tag\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Somalia<\/a> was 25 years ago, when I was 10 years old. The heat hit me and felt so familiar. Tears streamed down my face. I tried to hold them back but it was overwhelming.<\/p>\n<p>Abdi and her colleague, Hodan, were very sweet and comforted me when they picked me up. They were disappointed about the cakes, but as Somali women we weren\u2019t going to let that setback stop us from getting our message getting across.<\/p>\n<p>On my way to my hotel I felt a sense of belonging to a city I\u2019ve never been to before, but also the fear that I would be targeted with threats, as I am known as an outspoken advocate for women\u2019s and girls\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n<p>The next day I presented my work on gender equality and female genital mutilation (FGM), exploring how to create safe spaces for survivors of violence free from shame. I got a positive reaction from the local women and young people, even from the politicians in attendance. They asked me to come back as often as I could. I was deeply touched to be appreciated by my own people.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2101\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/07\/23.jpg\" data-rel=\"pop-gallery-LsfdXfMr\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2101\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2101\" src=\"http:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/07\/23.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"180\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2101\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Leyla Hussein teaching young people and senior politicians about FGM. Photograph: Leyla Hussein<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I was truly impressed with Hafsa Mohamed, the founder and director of Maandeeq. She, a diaspora born and raised in North America, has galvanised grassroot support and policy influence for many years to get to this point. As she shared a joke with the president of the Ethiopian Somali region, I could see she has built a respectful relationship with local politicians. It didn\u2019t happen overnight, she told me. She had to work hard and prove herself to the local people. She knows that in order to make a change and build a safer world for women\/girls we have to work with politicians to influence policies and ensure funding and resources are directed to this area.<\/p>\n<p>She told me that she and her colleagues had got into physical fights with men to ensure they provided what the local women\/girls needed. \u201cAt times we need get physical to get what we need for our women,\u201d she said. I realised I needn\u2019t be afraid when I was with such brave women.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"auxiliary float left pullquote\">\n<blockquote><p>The number of FGM cases are decreasing. Gender equality is becoming more and more a reality<\/p>\n<footer><cite>Abdi M Omar, president of the Ethiopian Somali regional state<\/cite><\/footer>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/aside>\n<p>To have the most senior politician of this region attend and open this conference spoke volumes of Somali women\u2019s leadership skills. Abdi M Omar, president of the Ethiopian Somali regional state, even made a statement: \u201cWe must prioritise the welfare and empowerment of women,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the Somali region of Ethiopia, almost half of the regional parliament are women. The number of businesswomen are growing. The number of girls and women partaking in education are tremendously increasing. The number of FGM cases are decreasing. Gender equality is becoming more and more a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I had a strong sense of Somali sisterhood with Mohamed (from Jijiga), Abdi (originally from Somaliland) and Hoden (from Djibouti). We had a group hug to recognise this important moment in our lives. We women all face similar challenges and we are stronger by coming together.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s an assumption that diaspora who move back home are living the life of luxury. But these three women were living in a one-bedroom apartment. When I asked why they choose to live this way, their response was simple. They said they all left their privileged lives in the west, and have the option to go back, but they can\u2019t leave the sisters who need them here.<\/p>\n<p>The next steps for these amazing women is to keep building the grassroots movement for gender equality in Ethiopia. I urge you all to support these east African warriors by donating, volunteering or becoming their allies in this battle.<\/p>\n<p>For me, the trip brought up feelings about how I can make the most of my skills and privilege to improve life for women and girls all over the world, particularly in the land where I was born.<\/p>\n<p>On my flight out of Jijiga I got tearful again. I started thinking about how my mum and many families must have felt when they left their home without knowing when or if they are going to see it again. But I know for sure that I\u2019m going to go back to that region. And next time, hopefully, I\u2019ll get all the way with the vulva cupcakes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u2192\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development-professionals-network\/2017\/mar\/13\/my-vulva-cupcakes-were-confiscated-but-i-gained-a-sense-of-home\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The vulva cupcakes that Leyla Hussein uses in her anti-FGM campaigning. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[157,165,167],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","category-diaspora","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2100"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2106,"href":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2100\/revisions\/2106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}