Date: Sep 29, 2022

Time: 1 PM to 2:30 PM EST (90 mins)

Registration Link: bit.ly/MovingCTAhead

In partnership with the Connecticut Commission on Women, Children, Seniors, Equity and Opportunity and The Connecticut Coalition to End Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C), Sahiyo will be hosting “Moving Connecticut Ahead: Protecting Girls FGM/C. 

In 2013, the Population Reference Bureau estimated that 2,658 women and girls in Connecticut (CT) were at risk of undergoing - or having already undergone - female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). FGM/C is a harmful social norm practiced worldwide and the United Nations has declared it a human rights violation. In Connecticut, many other human rights violations stemming from social norms have been addressed through legislation such as human trafficking, child marriage, and conversion therapy. However, Connecticut has yet to address the issue of FGM/C and remains one of 10 U.S. states without any state-level law protecting future generations from this harm. This webinar will explore how Connecticut can move forward to address this issue through legislation to better protect its women and girls from FGM/C. 

Get to know the panel! 

Moderator: Steven Hernández 

Steven Hernández, Esq 
Executive Director 
CT Commission on Women, Children, Seniors, Equity and Opportunity 
CT General Assembly 

Steven Hernández, Esq. is the Executive Director of the CT Commission on Women, Children, Seniors, Equity and Opportunity, a non-partisan agency of the Connecticut General Assembly.  At the Commission, Mr. Hernández serves as the legislative lead for the State's 2GEN initiative, an approach that puts family at the center of improved community outcomes, and as drivers of long-term economic success. Mr. Hernández proudly serves on several volunteer boards and commissions rooted in public service. He previously served the CT state legislature as Director of Public Policy and Research for the Connecticut Commission on Children.  Prior to joining the Commission, Mr. Hernández served seven years as legislative and budget director in the office of Washington, D.C., Council member Jim Graham. Mr. Hernández served as a clerk to two judges in the District’s Court of Appeals and as a consultant to the Washington law firm Baker & Miller, PLLC. He received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Bennington College in Vermont in 1995 and a Juris Doctor Degree from the Washington College of Law at American University.

Speakers:  

Zehra Patwa 

Zehra Patwa is the Co-Founder and US Lead of WeSpeakOut, an organization that strives to work for equal rights for Bohra women in all spheres of life, specifically, on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) or khafz.

She grew up in London and was educated at the University of Bradford Management Centre in the UK and the Université de Montpellier in France. 

Zehra serves on several Boards, including Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS), and currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Sahiyo US Advisory Board.

After discovering well into adulthood, that khatna or khafz (type 1 FGM/C) was practiced in her community and that she, too, had been subjected to it, she decided she could no longer keep silent. Although she has no recollection of the practice being done to her, she is vehemently opposed to it and has been working with WeSpeakOut to expose the practice within, and outside, the community.

She currently works in Digital Customer Delivery for the Knights of Columbus in New Haven, Connecticut.

Faith Vos Winkel

Before Faith's recent retirement from Government, Faith Vos Winkel began her work with the Office of the Child Advocate in July 2001 and assists the Child Advocate to fulfill her statutory mandates including overseeing the systems of care and protection for children in Connecticut and advocating for their well-being. Faith’s primary responsibilities focus on the review of all unexpected and unexplained child deaths in Connecticut. She is responsible for preparing child fatality cases and conducting comprehensive investigations. Faith represents the Child Advocate on a variety of statewide policy committees including the Suicide Advisory Board, CT Coalition Against Domestic Violence Fatality Review Committee, and the Governor’s Task Force on Justice for Abused Children. Ms. Vos Winkel has an undergraduate degree from the University of Connecticut and a Masters of Social Work from the University Of Connecticut.

Martine Dherte

Martine Dherteis the Program Manager for refugee services at the Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants. She uses her platform to educate newly arrived refugees resettled by her organization in Bridgeport. She would like her programs, which currently includes GBV services to address FGM and become a stronger advocate in the field. She is passionate about protecting women and girls from all forms of abuse.

Michelle Dumas Keuler 

Michelle Dumas Keuler is the Managing Director of the Housing, Training and Appeals divisions of the Legal Division and Commission Counsel with the State of Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (“CHRO”). Founded in 1943, the CHRO is the nation’s oldest state based civil rights organization. The Commission is charged with investigating and prosecuting cases of employment, housing, public accommodation and credit discrimination. As a Managing Director, Ms. Dumas Keuler represents the agency in its prosecution of employment, housing and public accommodation discrimination cases before agency Human Rights Referees, in state court, and federal court. Ms. Dumas Keuler has extensive experience training in the areas of housing, employment and public accommodation discrimination, employer best practices and sexual harassment discrimination. She has trained countless landlords, tenants, housing authorities, state and municipal employees and employers regarding discrimination statutes and their enforcement by the CHRO. Ms. Dumas Keuler also works on policy for the Commission and is active in promoting the legislative initiatives of the agency.

Date: September 16th, 2022

Time: 9 am EST

Register here today: https://bit.ly/AnEmergencyWithinAnEmergency 

It is an understood global reality that women and girls are facing the harshest impacts of climate change, and activists across the world continue to fight for the inclusion of women and girls in climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. Yet, too little is being done to address the multitude of ways in which climate change disproportionately impacts women and girls. 

One of the common, but often overlooked, impacts of climate change is on female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). Defined by the WHO as any procedure that involves the removal of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons, FGM/C is internationally recognized as a human rights violation. For many girls across the globe, climate change has only served to make them more vulnerable to this form of harm. 

Join the Global Platform for Action to End FGM/C on September 16th at 9 am EST as we explore the impact of climate change on female genital mutilation/cutting and hear from the activists themselves who are working to uplift girls in their communities about what can be done. For this event, we will be joined by world-famous activists Eva Komba and Domtila Chesang alongside award-winning journalist Neha Wadekar as they explore their work and experience with this growing issue. This panel will also be moderated by Sahiyo co-founder and passionate activist against FGM/C Mariya Taher.

Mariya Taher has worked in gender-based violence for over a decade in the areas of teaching, research, policy, program development, and direct service. In 2018, Mariya received the Human Rights Storytellers Award from the Muslim American Leadership Alliance. In 2020, she was recognized as one of the six inaugural grant recipients for the Crave Foundation for Women. Since 2015, she has collaborated with the Massachusetts Women’s Bar Association to pass legislation to protect girls from FGC. After starting a Change.org petition and gathering over 400,000 signatures, Massachusetts became the 39th state in the U.S. to do so. She also sits on the steering committee for the US End FGM/C Network. As of 2021, Mariya serves as an expert consultant for the Department Of Justice Addressing Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting technical assistance project.  

Eva Komba is an experienced development professional in the area of international gender and development expert with 10 years of experience. She has major competencies in matters of Public Policy Formulation and Research, Access to gender justice, Sex and Gender Based Violence Programming and Implementation, Ending Harmful Traditional Practises and Combating Trafficking of Women and Girls in Africa. She is also skilled in the area of Monitoring and Evaluation, Gender Responsive Budgeting, Gender Mainstreaming as well as Women Empowerment.

Domtila Chesang is a champion fighting to end FGM, child marriage and other harmful cultural practices. She has been advocating for girls and women’s rights since 2014 through various initiatives. As a full time women’s rights advocate, she founded the I_Rep Foundation, which is a community based organization that she uses as a vehicle to create awareness around these issues and provides platforms at the community levels for learning and dialogue. Because of her fearless campaigns and passion for girls and women’s rights protection and empowerment in her community, she has received a number of recognitions both locally and internationally. In 2017, she was among three Kenyans to receive the prestigious Queens Young Leaders Award presented by the Queen of England in Buckingham Palace. In 2018, she was recognized as the African Youth Leader of the year. She was nominated as the Human Rights Defender of the year in 2019. She is also a founding member of the African Women’s Rights Advocate.

Neha Wadekar is an independent multimedia journalist reporting across the globe. She reports at the intersections of climate, gender, conflict, health, human rights, emerging democracies, and politics. Neha’s written and video work has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, PBS NewsHour, the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Mother Jones, CNN, and others. She has received fellowships from the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, the United Nations Foundation, the Fuller Project, the Overseas Press Club, the International Women’s Media Foundation, and the Groundtruth Project.

Dates: Wednesday, March 08 - Sunday, March 12, 2023

Website Link: https://sahiyo.org/get-involved/events/sahiyo-silent-auction.html

Item Donation Link: https://forms.gle/b7cHAALDU8QemtSi6 

Sahiyo is planning our first ever virtual silent auction fundraising event to raise $15K in support of our work to end female genital cutting (FGC). The auction will open on Wednesday, March 8, 2023 and close on Sunday, March 12, 2023. During this 5-day event, we will celebrate women's voices with video spotlights, stories, and entertainment. 

Do you have an item you’d like to donate or would you like to participate in our program? We are looking for silent auction items to help raise funds to end female genital cutting as well as some incredible women to celebrate during the event including artists, poets, authors, singers, activists, etc. 

If you are interested in joining us for this celebration, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to sign up.

This International Women's Equality Day Sahiyo and Asian Women’s Shelter Launch Nations First Community-Based, Culturally Responsive Hotline to Support Survivors of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting!

Across the United States, the Centers for Disease Control estimates over half a million women and girls are impacted or at risk of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). Yet, few resources exist to support survivors in their journey toward healing and protecting future generations from this practice. 

This past year, Sahiyo has collaborated with Asian Women’s Shelter (AWS) to expand AWS’s capacity to support survivors of FGM/C. Sahiyo has provided a number of trainings to AWS staff, volunteers, interpreters, and crisis line counselors on understanding the impact of FGM/C on individuals and families in the United States, supporting survivors and their loved ones, and navigating the landscape of limited resources supporting those affected by FGM/C.

AWS opened in 1988 with an emergency shelter and a 24/7 multilingual crisis line to support survivors and communities to navigate harms, hardships, and healing related to gender-based violence, particularly domestic violence in immigrant and refugee communities. From its beginnings, AWS has operated at and centered the intersection of culture, violence, language, gender, immigration, nationality, sexuality, and more. Since then, AWS has grown and deepened its commitment to preventing and intervening in gender-based violence. AWS is still a grassroots, culturally grounded organization that centers community engagement and holistic, trauma-informed, peer-based empowerment. 

The goal of this collaborative project between Sahiyo and AWS is to address gaps in resources for underrepresented populations of survivors in the U.S. in need of support services to reduce the harms of FGM/C. With that in mind, the AWS crisis line will be open to taking calls from FGM/C survivors and impacted communities starting this August 26th, 2022 in honor of Women's Equality Day.

Hotline Operator: San Francisco Asian Women’s Shelter

Number: 1-877-751-0880

Hours of Operation: 

Monday - Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM PST

“Unlike other crisis lines, this crisis line offers survivors and those from impacted communities the opportunity to discuss their questions, concerns, and needs surrounding FGM/C in a judgment-free space without automatically connecting them to law enforcement. The crisis line staff have been thoroughly trained on the physical, mental, and social impacts of FGM/C as well as how to best support survivors in their journey toward healing.” – Mariya Taher, Sahiyo Co-Founder and Executive Director  

“AWS respects you, your privacy, your experience, and your choices. If you’re wanting a confidential, language and culturally accessible place to talk with someone about the violence you’re experiencing, witnessing, anticipating, and/or trying to avoid or escape, please call whenever you’re ready. AWS will never share your personal information, and you will be in control of what you choose to share or not share. Culture and violence can interact in a way that can be doubly intimate and devastating. We are here to support you.” - Orchid Pusey, Asian Women’s Shelter Executive Director 

To learn more about the project and this new resource for FGM/C survivors, contact Mariya Taher, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

About the Collaborators: 

Sahiyo’s mission is to empower Asian and other communities to abandon the practice of FGM/C through education, collaboration, and dialogue based on community involvement. Founded in 2015, Sahiyo aims to enable a culture in which a woman/girl’s body and female sexuality is not feared or suppressed but embraced as normal. Sahiyo has 7-years of experience working with communities to empower people to end FGM/C and support survivors.  

Asian Women’s Shelter’s mission is to eliminate domestic violence by promoting the social, economic, and political self-determination of women and all survivors of violence and oppression. AWS was founded in 1988 to address the urgent and unmet needs of survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking, especially those who are limited English proficient immigrant or refugee women, children, LGBTQ+/GNB people, and/or youth. 

This project was produced by Sahiyo and Asian Women’s Shelter under 15POVC-21-GG-00988-NONF, awarded by the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this project are those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Sahiyo’s Giving Circle is a community of donors committed to providing dialogue, education, and collaboration to end female genital cutting all year long through a monthly donation.

Monthly giving is a simple but effective way to increase your overall impact through a planned, recurring donation. Much like paying any household expense automatically, you can easily set up a monthly donation to Sahiyo U.S. through our secure donation page.

Every single gift is one step toward ending female genital cutting.

Click here to join Sahiyo’s Giving Circle

By Huda Syyed

It took me a while to realise that research isn’t just about crunching numbers and gathering quantitative data. When dealing with issues such as female genital cutting (FGC), human interaction and communication can play a more important role than numbers; to open up and speak about one’s experience of FGC requires a high level of trust and safety. It is important to create a safe and trusting place for those who have survived FGC and are sharing their stories. I think this is why it’s best to let survivors narrate their own stories and navigate conversation at their own pace. 

In my short experience as a researcher, I learnt how important it is to have conversations that relay the stories and backgrounds of people. Without understanding the stories of people, it is impossible to collect qualitative data about culture and communities. Interviewing research participants also has an element similar to storytelling because people can share details about their background, an event or even a practice. Consent and comfort are primary indicators of whether or not a person is willing to share their thoughts, and I think it is important to acknowledge these indicators before starting a conversation to ensure that there is an ethicality to storytelling. Any hints of discomfort and hesitation on the part of the survivor should be taken seriously to make sure that re-traumatization does not occur. The well-being and readiness of people should be of utmost priority to researchers, because true storytelling does not come from a place of coercion or reluctance.  

Storytelling is an effective way to open dialogue or start a conversation about FGC. Voices to End FGM/C, a collaboration between Sahiyo and StoryCenter, is an example of survivors sharing their experiences to create more awareness, understanding, and public dialogue about the practice, with a prioritized sense of agency in creating their own story. What began with Sahiyo co-founder Mariya Taher sharing her own story and encouraging other women in the United States to come forward with their stories has had a ripple effect, and we continue to see Sahiyo engaging in extensive dialogues. Other Sahiyo programs like Bhaiyo were created to include men in this necessary dialogue, as well as "to provide love, support, and community towards the advocates and survivors working to end FGC.”

Something that started off among women has grown into a larger platform where friends, fathers, brothers and husbands are coming forward to end FGC together. The biggest takeaway from this is how storytelling and conversations created a domino effect and led to more people learning and talking about FGC. 

From a research perspective, storytelling and conversations can lead to more data, which helps us understand the practice and its impact. My research focuses on Pakistan, where there is very little data and no public record of FGC, thus creating a huge research gap yet to be explored. I think storytelling and conversations could be the start of creating more awareness and understanding of FGC in Pakistan. Since any topic that deals with female genitalia or sexuality is seen as shameful in Pakistani society, it may take a while for people to engage in open dialogue about FGC. Due to cultural and religious connotations, people are hesitant about discussing such topics because they are considered inappropriate. Patriarchal undertones within Pakistani society frame women’s bodies as non-autonomous and often under the surveillance or submission to the male figure. Honour killings and other gender-based violence crimes take place under the notion that women’s bodies carry the honour of husbands, brothers or fathers. These assumptions about women and their bodies probably adds to the invisibility or lack of dialogue regarding female genital cutting (FGC). 

It is not uncommon to find qualitative researchers exploring topics of gender-based violence and women’s rights through stories and narratives. It gives social scientists a deeper insight into how culture, gender, and society work. In such cases, I don’t think quantitative data can capture people’s experiences or the cultural or religious attributes attached to them. Storytelling and conversations give researchers the space to gather data as listeners or bystanders, while allowing the story-teller/interviewee/conversationalist to share details on their own terms. 

I will end my thoughts on this note: 

“If story is central to human meaning why, in the world, is there not more storytelling?”