From December 10-12, 2025, Sahiyo, in partnership with Dr Leyla Siirad Hussein Gikand, embarked on a critical initiative to confront and dismantle anti-Blackness and racial hierarchies within the global movement to end female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) in the city of London. Sahiyo’s recent research, stemming from the Critical Intersections research project, highlighted significant challenges, including racialized framings of FGM/C and the perpetuation of “severity hierarchies” that undermine solidarity and survivor support. 

To this end, Sahiyo and Dr. Hussein convened a small, in-person gathering of 5 survivor-experts from Africa, Asia, and the United States to foster honest dialogue, promote healing in solidarity, and redesign the movement to center survivor expertise and embed anti-racism principles at its core.

Survivor-experts from all over the globe were able to share their personal lived experiences as both survivors and professionals working in the field of FGM/C prevention and response. Discussions emphasized the importance of intersectionality in movement-building, acknowledging how race, gender, migration status, religion, socioeconomic status, sexuality, and geography shape both the experiences of harm and access to resources. 

Participants reflected on the role of creative practices such as art and storytelling, alongside policy advocacy, sustainable community-based organizing, research, and service provision, as some of the tools that have been used in the field to challenge dominant colonial narratives and disrupt systems of racism and anti-Blackness within the FGM/C movement. The convening also emphasized the need for sustained cross-sector collaboration across health, education, legal, arts, gender-based violence, and grassroots spaces, affirming that ending FGM/C requires coordinated, survivor-led approaches grounded in equity and intersectionality.