Sahiyo at CSW70: Survivor-Led, Anti-Racist Advocacy in Action
This March, Sahiyo will participate in multiple events at the 70th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70) in New York City, bringing survivor-led perspectives to global conversations on FGM/C, gender-based violence, and bodily autonomy. View the event details below! Dismantling Racism in Anti-FGM/C Movements: Path to Decolonial, Survivor-Led Advocacy This […]
15 States and DC Join Lawsuit Against Trump’s Executive Order Conflating Gender-Affirming Care and FGM/C
By Hiromi Nishida On August 1, 2025, the states of California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Wisconsin joined in a lawsuit against President Trump’s Executive Order (EO) 14187, “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation”. This EO […]
Why We Must Stop H.R. 3492: Protecting Youth and the Movement Against FGM/C
By: Khushi Prakash Congress is currently considering bill H.R. 3492, the Protect Children’s Innocence Act. At first glance, the bill appears to strengthen protections against female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). However, in reality, this bill goes far beyond banning FGM/C by redefining gender-affirming healthcare as “genital or bodily mutilation” and “chemical castration”. If passed, this bill […]
Applications open to join the 2023 Voices to End FGM/C hybrid digital storytelling workshop cohort!
Sahiyo U.S., StoryCenter, and Asian Women’s Shelter would like to announce that recruitment is open for our 2023 Voices to End FGM/C hybrid digital storytelling workshop. Since 2015, Sahiyo has provided various storytelling platforms for survivors and community members around the world to share their experiences of female genital cutting (FGC); in particular, Voices to […]
Washington State becomes 41st state to pass law against FGM/C
Sahiyo, as part of the Washington Coalition to End FGM/C, is ecstatic to announce that on April 20th, 2023, Washington state Governor Jay Inslee signed Senate Bill 5453 concerning female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) into law. This law creates a private right of action for survivors of FGM/C; prohibits providers from performing FGM/C on a minor; […]
FGC in the United States: How Americans can help end this practice
By Katie Geren Female genital cutting (FGC) is a global issue. It happens in many countries, including the United States, though that is not often common knowledge here. I learned about FGC for the first time in one of my college communication classes, and was surprised I had never heard of the practice before. I […]
Gender-Affirming Treatments are not Female Genital Cutting
By Hunter Kessous Female genital cutting (FGC), which is the practice of removing or harming the female genitalia for non-medical reasons, is a human rights violation recognized by the UN. Right now, legislators in Texas and Idaho are looking to use pre-existing bans on FGC to block transgender youth from receiving life-saving, medically necessary gender-affirming […]
DC’s “Female Genital Mutilation Prohibition Act of 2021”
On February 28th, Councilmember Charles Allen, Chairperson of the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, convened a public hearing to consider Washington DC District Bill 24-0516, the “Female Genital Mutilation Prohibition Act of 2021.” The stated purpose of the “Female Genital Mutilation Prohibition Act of 2021” is to prohibit the female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) […]
Who? A Zine About The Global Impact of FGC
By: Cate Cox In the fall of my junior year at university, I decided to take a course called “Human Rights and Global Literature.” In this class, we explored diverse kinds of literature that called into question different conceptions of human rights, including works by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, Tadeusz Borowski, Vaddey Ratner, Farnoosh Moshiri, and […]
Legislative update: The Biden Administration’s National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality
On October 22nd, the Biden-Harris Administration issued the first-ever national gender strategy to advance the full participation of all people – including women and girls – in the United States and around the world. The National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality incorporates female genital cutting (FGC) as a form of gender-based violence needing attention, […]