FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Name: Kristel Mendoza Castillo
Phone: +1-508-263-0112
Email: Kristel@sahiyo.org
A call for global action — racism is harming survivors: new report exposes racial injustice in anti-FGM/C movement
MELBOURNE, Australia — A new report finds the movement to end female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) is being held back by racial injustice within its own ranks.
A first-of-its-kind position paper launching at Women Deliver 2026 warns that racism within anti-FGM/C efforts is structural — shaping funding, leadership, and whose voices are heard — ultimately limiting progress and harming survivors.
The position paper report, Dismantling Racism in Anti-FGM/C Movements: Path to Decolonial, Survivor-Led Advocacy published by award-winning international NGO Sahiyo, in partnerships with The Girl Generation and Healing Equity United, will be launched at Women Deliver on April 29, 2026 in Melbourne, Australia.
Women Deliver (WD) is a leading global advocacy organization and the convener of one of the world’s largest multi-sectoral conferences dedicated to gender equality, health, and the rights of girls and women. The opportunity to launch the position paper allows it to be presented to thousands of attendees, including policymakers, grassroots organizers, youth, media, and private sector leaders, from over 170 countries to accelerate action.
“Sharing the Position Paper is a ‘bold act of collective resistance’ and allows us to share strategies, build solidarity, and directly influence global policy agendas, all the while also holding leaders accountable,” said Mariya Taher, Sahiyo Co-founder and Director as well as FGM/C Survivor.
Key findings
- Survivors are tokenized, underpaid, and excluded from leadership and decision-making
- Despite FGM/C being documented in over 94 countries, global narratives racialize it as a “Black” or “African” issue, erasing survivors worldwide — including in the United States
- Funding systems reinforce racial hierarchies and determine who holds power
- Ending FGM/C requires a shift to decolonial, survivor-led leadership and redistribution of power
Drawing from Sahiyo’s Critical Intersections research and a 2025 global survivor-led convening, the position paper examines how power and racism shape who leads, who is believed, and who controls resources within the movement. These dynamics, the authors note, are not unique to anti-FGM/C work, but reflect patterns seen across other social justice movements.
“Efforts to end FGM/C cannot succeed without confronting the racism and power imbalances within the movement itself. Racism shapes who is seen as an expert, whose experiences are believed, and who has access to funding and decision-making power,” said Mariya Taher, Sahiyo Co-founder & Director
A movement that is also causing harm
The report finds that anti-FGM/C spaces can replicate harm, with survivors describing tokenization, pressure to share trauma in unsafe environments, and retaliation when naming racism.
It also highlights how credibility and authority are shaped by race and geography, with white, Global Minority, or institutionally affiliated actors more likely to be trusted and funded than grassroots and survivor-led organizations.
Funding as a system of control
Among the paper’s most urgent findings is the role of funding inequity in maintaining racial hierarchies within the movement.
- Survivor-led and grassroots groups are treated as beneficiaries, not leaders
- Lived experience is extracted but often not compensated
- Funding decisions are shaped by narrow, racialized narratives
Survivors described this dynamic as the “glamourization of suffering,” where personal experiences are repeatedly used for advocacy without meaningful financial support or care.
Beyond representation: a call for redistribution of power
“A decolonial, survivor-led approach requires more than representation. It demands a redistribution of power — across funding, leadership, and whose voices shape the global narrative,” says Leyla Hussein, Global Advocacy Director at The Girl Generation
While focused on FGM/C, the report is also intended as a broader framework for social justice movements grappling with racism, inequity, and extractive systems.
It calls for:
- Survivor-led governance and decision-making
- Trust-based, equitable funding models
- Recognition of lived experience as expertise
- Accountability for racism within institutions
- Centering safety and consent across advocacy spaces
The findings will be shared publicly during the session “Dismantling Racism in Anti-FGM/C Movements: Path to Decolonial, Survivor-Led Advocacy” at Women Deliver 2026 on April 29, 2026.
WHO: Sahiyo, survivor advocates, and global experts in anti-FGM/C and gender justice movements
WHAT: Launch of first global anti-racism position paper in anti-FGM/C movement
WHEN: April 29, 2026 | 2:00–3:30 p.m.
WHERE: Room 218, Melbourne (Women Deliver 2026)
About Sahiyo:
Sahiyo is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering Asian and other communities to end female genital cutting (FGM/C) through dialogue, education, and collaboration rooted in community involvement. Founded in 2015, Sahiyo centers survivor voices, particularly within South Asian diasporas, and is guided by a commitment to bodily autonomy, consent, and the recognition of FGM/C as a human rights violation. Sahiyo works at the intersection of survivor-centered programming, community education, and systems change, centering the voices and lived experiences of women and girls from communities where FGM/C occurs. Sahiyo’s primary areas of work include survivor-centered healing spaces, community storytelling, intergenerational dialogue, professional education, and cross-sector capacity-building.
About The Girl Generation:
The Girl Generation – Support to the Africa Led Movement to End FGM Programme (TGG-ALM) is implemented by a consortium led by Options Consultancy Services and includes Amref Health Africa, ActionAid, Orchid Project, and Africa Coordination Centre for Abandonment of FGM. It works closely with the Population Council’s Data Hub, the programme’s data and measurement arm. The program continues to support and build the capacity of the existing Africa-led Movement to end FGM at multiple levels and at scale. The programme does not work in isolation but partners with the rest of the end FGM movement globally, including UN agencies.
About Healing Equity United:
Healing Equity United is a Black and Asian women-owned collaborative co-founded by the organization’s two principal consultants (Fiona Oliphant and Jess Ayden Li) who have over 35+ years of experience working in the field of gender-based violence. Over that span of time, it was evident that race, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, ability, and IDENTITY significantly impacted both access to services and service provision. Additionally, trauma framed every aspect of the work making the need for radical healing evident. We know that these truths are not limited to the gender-based violence movement. Rather, they permeate every component of our work, lives, and interactions. Healing Equity United was created not only to reimagine an equitable society, but to spur each and every one of us to be agents of change in creating the world that we imagine.
