"I don't want to be the victim, but the voice." Ifrah Ahmed survived female genital mutilation — now, she’s dedicating her life to fighting back against the practice.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00I don't want to be the victim, but the voice.
00:14For me, I feel like what has happened to me, I can never make a difference.
00:17But I can actually raise my voice and give a chance to those younger.
00:27This is a humanity and it is a human rights violation and this is something we want the
00:31world to know and not to see as, you know, this is their culture or this is their story.
00:48I will not be silenced, not now, not ever, not even for my family.
00:54Now, be a good girl.
01:01Or what?
01:04I'll f***ing stitch your shirt for you.
01:08And I don't want people to see the movie as some kind of women's story.
01:15I want the people to see that it's very empowerment and people to see that, you know,
01:21the story of women can actually save many women's lives.
01:51Those young girls who are born in the area, in a rural area, and the girls who are at risk
02:01to give them back the voice.
02:03And, you know, if I had the voice in Ireland, if I had the voice in Europe, of course,
02:07I could actually have the voice back in Somalia.
02:09So the reason I went back is I want to save as many girls as I can to protect from the practice.
02:22Young girls are every day dying for bleeding.
02:25Young mothers are actually losing their life because of bleeding, giving birth to child
02:30or during even the cut.
02:31Many of the women have had kidney failures.
02:34I want people to know the way they know HIV AIDS, to know about female genital mutilation.
02:40And I don't want people to see as a victim.
02:43And I want people to see me as a strong woman, as an empowered woman who empowers other women.
02:49And I want them to see the movie, not as just female genital mutilation, but to see
02:54the fact that what women can do in change of the practice or the change of the world.