Cofounders
SAHIYO COFOUNDERS: Mariya Taher pursued a study titled, “Understanding Female Genital Cutting in the United States“, in graduate school for her Master of Social Work from San Francisco State University. Since then, she has worked in the field of gender violence for over a decade, working on issues of domestic violence at W.O.M.A.N., Inc.; Asian Women’s Shelter; […]
My mother thought she was saving me with khafz
Photo Courtesy Of Kristin De Soto on Pexels.com By Rashida I can recall with crystal clear memory my mother taking me at around age 7 to a dilapidated old Chawl style building in a Bohra Mohalla in Bhendi Bazaar. My mom wore a dark orange saree with a green, white and light orange geometrical design. […]
Discovering female genital cutting in my community
By Mariam Sabir Country of Residence: United States With so many issues in the world that need to be addressed, we have to pick and choose our battles, whether it may be poverty, education, inequality, or gender violence. The majority of people choose something that they can most relate to via personal or cultural experiences. […]
PRESS RELEASE: A pioneering Roundtable to Address Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting in Massachusetts
Download press release as PDF PRESS RELEASE: A pioneering Roundtable to Address Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting in Massachusetts Boston, Massachusetts, 14 June 2019 On June 13, 2019, a collective of almost 60 experts from different disciplines and cultural groups took the first steps to create a ‘Massachusetts End FGM/C Network’, to highlight the largely […]
Multiple events on female genital cutting hosted at Women Deliver in Vancouver
From June 2 to June 6th, Sahiyo co-founder, Mariya Taher took part in Women Deliver 2019 held in Vancouver, Canada this year. Over 8,000 participants took part in the conference and for the first time ever, a pre-conference on Female Genital Cutting was held on June 2nd, a day before the official start of the […]
‘A Pinch of Skin’ to Screen in Berlin
Sahiyo co-founder’s documentary ‘A Pinch of Skin’ will be screening at NaturFreudeJungend in Berlin on the 25th May. 25th May is also the one-year anniversary of the historic repealing of the ban on abortion in Ireland, also known as the 8th Amendment. This is especially significant as a successful contemporary feminist movement, where women of Ireland voted […]
Volunteer Spotlight: Sakina Sharp
Sakina Sharp is a corporate attorney and co-founder of a domestic violence organization in San Antonio. Sakina is vice president and managing attorney at USAA, which is a financial services company. She has been a practicing in-house attorney for 20 years, specializing in insurance regulatory law and consumer privacy. Approximately 8 years ago, she co-founded […]
Sahiyo Stories Shown at Reconference In Nepal
From April 10 to 12, Sahiyo co-founder Mariya Taher attended Reconference, a three-day conference hosted by CREA, to address today’s most challenging socio-political issues and their intersections with feminism, art, and technology by rethinking, reimagining, and rebooting how to build an inclusive feminist vision of justice. Sahiyo Stories, a digital storytelling project organized and created by Sahiyo […]
Why I care about khatna: Reflections from the 2019 Sahiyo Activist Retreat
By Alisha Bhagat I first found out about female genital cutting, or khatna, in my community in my twenties; my mother told me it had been done to her. At the time I was shocked. I thought this was something that happened to other people in far off places, not to my mom or Nani […]
Joint Press Release: ENDING FGM/C BY 2030: Uniting forces to make FGM/C a practice of the past
Download Press Release as PDF JOINT PRESS RELEASE: ENDING FGM/C BY 2030: Uniting forces to make FGM/C a practice of the past 2nd June 2019, Vancouver (Canada) 3.9 million girls are at risk of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) every year. On the 2nd June 2019, for the first time ever, NGOs, grassroots and survivor-led organizations […]