I Suffered Female Genital Mutilation & Was Forced Into Marriage | Extraordinary Lives | @LADbible

I looked to the side of the Qatar and she had a jar with things in it clitoris Libya everything that she has cut previously I looked at it and I thought I'm gonna die and then being sewn whilst you are fully awake is one experience that I don't think I will ever forget hello and welcome to this episode of extraordinary lives I'm joined today by shamsa uh shamsa if you could give a brief introduction to yourself my name is shamsa also known as shamsarawela I am a survivor of a female genital mutilation and that's what we're going to talk about today and I'm also an educator and I'm and a fabulous activist I love it I like the uh I like The Fabulous Fit yeah it really brings it to life activism is fabulous okay yes well today we're going to talk about um some very sensitive topics and some very dark topics yeah and uh I just want to say to you up front that you know I'm learning here as well so please do educate me and correct me if I ask anything in an insensitive way or if I use the wrong language or anything like that more than happy to understand how to correctly talk about this topic of course I'll be on it okay so at the beginning there you mentioned female genital mutilation yes um can you tell us what that is uh female genital mutilation is a practice that has existed it predates both Christianity and Islam it is a procedure where a young girl is has her genitals cut ultimately um there are four types type one is the removal of the clitoris um either partly or fully part there type 2 is the removal of the clitoris in the labia Menorah and in both type 1 and type 2 they can also be sold together type 3 is the most severe type of female genital mutilation and it is when the clitoris the labia and the labia majora is cut and then the person is the young girl is sewn together and then so when them shots leaving small holes for urination and period flow there's also Type 4 which includes um pricking burning scrape anything that damages or changes the female genitalia so yeah and that that is female genital mutilation and is that evident I mean this sounds like a stupid question but is that evident for health reasons or is what is the reason there is absolutely no health benefits to female genital mutilation at all it is a cultural practice um that is really really harmful to the young girls who have experienced it and from the age they undergo the procedure up to when you know they pass away they are a lot you know older they have there's a lot of complications um that is involved a lot of which can cause serious health uh risks whether that be you know through pregnancy the period the just as simple as even urination can get really complicated um and painful and difficult so so why do people do it um it is a cultural practice that has you know like I said it pre-dates both Islam and Christianity so it is something that has existed at first like I believe they used to do it on mummies in Egypt um after they have died and then it was done to slave women in Egypt and then it just became a widespread practice all over Africa Asia and the world really is it just tradition like why why do this thing to people and there are many reasons uh one of the reasons is religious which is absolutely berserk is does that's not true at all religion has nothing to do with it um [Music] right I say yes they do in the name of religion also um a lot of cultures do it because they're trying to prevent either rape sexual harassment um or you know any type of sexual abuse others do it so that their daughter doesn't have sex before marriage and some do it because you know your daughter is not going to be marryable if she does not have the procedure done wow um so there are many many factors also there's an um Financial Factor that's their job that's where they get money so you can imagine it's it's a very diffic is going to be a very difficult practice to you know stop it's not going to stop with a click of a finger because there are so many elements um that are in play and you know some people it's become social Norm yes that makes sense yes and when something is a social Norm you will not see you know unless someone tells you otherwise you're going to accept it and you're going to be okay with it because well that yeah that's a very good jumping off point to the next thing I wanted to ask because you were born in Somalia is that correct yes now I want to be careful here because obviously this we're going to talk about cultures and different you know different traditions and different things like that and I just want to be careful that we we talk fairly about uh different geographical locations and different cultures um but when you were growing up in Somalia were you aware of this practice and were you aware that it was something that would happen to you eventually or did it happen to some people or was did it happen to every girl and it was just a rite of passage like what was your understanding of it as a child um we were taught we were told about it at a very young age I lived with my grandmother at 12 or 11 other siblings or 12. we grew up in the same house um it was half girls and half boys and all the girls who were older than us had already had it done my aunties and my grandma and every single female I have ever come across growing up has had the procedure done so the whole entire Community knowing that you're coming off you know that is coming up to that age where you're about to have it done and what age is that it can be from I'll say three oh my God until usually for some people it's zero until oh my God everything wow but it can go up to at the age of 21. so I assumed it was more of a like a puberty thing but yeah you know they do it before puberty okay right yeah because I think then it would be a lot harder for the girl to um accept it yeah sure you know so there was an awareness in the house with your aunt yeah sisters no there was a massive awareness and when it came down to when we were having it done they slowly you know started telling us or you're gonna have good tan that's what they called it and because we already heard it and every girl that we asked prior was so happy about it right it was as if it was false advertisement that's what it was yeah but it's almost done so that you are convinced beforehand that is okay and it's something to look forward to and it's a riot of Passage and you know we you're gonna become a woman so we were really excited I was me and my siblings were as excited as we would have been if we were getting our um is pissed wow and you were four I was six six okay so you and your siblings were varying in age but you were six I was six and you were all gonna get it done at the same time or you're right at the same time but why why then would you why would some be older and some be younger going into that procedure you know you were six and then presumably some were a little bit older some so my sister was seven yeah and my cousin was five right so we were just a year older okay from each other um but again as you can see it is five six they just decided everyone's ready now yes okay so um do you mind telling us about it of course of course um I remember I was we were playing you know being kids and my grandma approached us and said uh to you know we're gonna have gudetan then we got excited we were told that we I was gonna have it down with my sister or my cousin and we went willingly to my grandma's house where the cutter was waiting oh so it's just like we're doing it now yeah wow I think it was maybe a day before we were told okay um so where we arrived at my um Grandma's house there was a woman sat on a very very small um chair in the in the front yard of my auntie's house so but it was gated so there were Gates around it but we don't have backyards we have front yards and um we waited patiently we me and my cousin my sister sat together and then my cousin was told to go first and she skipped you know to because she's a child that she was a lot younger than us she went to the chair and the moment she sat down and made contact with that chair there was my grandma my aunt two aunties an uncle uh plaster cutter I don't remember who else was there and I remember the moment she sat down adults were grabbing her limbs her legs her arms and trying to you know each hold on to one and to keep her down so me and my sister are looking at each other like what yeah what is going on because that's not something that we expected we went the procedure was never described to us how they said to you it'll hurt a little bit no nothing nothing so you just thought it was a good purely positive experience okay and then I remember the Qatar taking something out and it's one of those small double-sided raises and but we couldn't physically see the razor so when she started cutting her genitalia all we saw was blood and my cousin screaming at the top of her lung oh my God and then they took a material and kinda to muffle her screams they tied it um behind her head so that they could focus on holding down her Limbs and I think what is really really important for everyone to know is this was done with our anesthetics this was done without any painkillers this was done outside a house probably with the same razor that they used on somebody else before she turned up to the house and when we saw that being the person I was I was like ah this is not gonna happen to me and me and my sister ran we ran and because we were children there was so many people in the house so we were they chased after us they bought us back and we had to sit there until she was sewn completely shot and still screaming in tears you know asking for help pleading and then I was told to go next I refused and bear in mind that chair that had blood and everything it still stayed we all got caught in on the same chair and then I was dragged to that seat because I refused to sit down peacefully and because of again because of the type of child I was I would not rest I did not you know allow it I tried to almost levitate of the um of the chair but they held with all of their mights and their Force they held me down who is holding you at this point my family you trust yeah pretty much and um she started cutting and when the blade touched my skin it was like nothing I've ever felt before it was extremely extremely painful and again I'm fighting you know um so it was very difficult for them to you know they were struggling holding me down and then they put a cloth over my mouth because of this screaming and I remember at some point my whole entire body went into complete shock I just went almost numb for a little bit and I looked to the side of the Qatar and she had a jar with things in it obviously now I know that what those bits are clitoris Libya Mojo everything that she has cut previously because all of that didn't come from my cousin um I looked at it and I thought I'm gonna die I genuinely thought I was gonna die the pain was so overwhelming um you you don't know what to do as a child and you just kind of freeze but also fight and it's trying to scream but you can't because you know your mouth is covered and it was very very painful and then being sewn whilst you are fully awake is one experience that I don't think I will ever forget in my life um I saw things now so can you I just imagining doing that to a human being is the most inhumane thing ever and to have experienced that myself it I don't even know how to describe it to be honest with you it's a needle constantly going you know through you until you are completely shocked and then they leave it they left a small hole where the urination um the urine Hall is originally meant to be and then they left us another small Hall uh in the where the vaginal opening is um for period flow and um penetration in the future and as soon as they were done they tied our legs together um like literally tied our legs together with a cloth and then picked us up because we weren't allowed to walk past down on the floor and then we had to unable to turn away unable to walk unable to run we had I had to watch my sister get it done near my cousin while she was done they also tied her legs put her next to us and then the most unusual thing is every culture does FGM differently so I'm celebrated um others is more forceful in some cases it's a hospital setting so it varies um but in my case I don't know whether they've done it because of the shock I don't know the reason behind it to be honest but they slaughter that animal prior and then they washed they covered all of us in the blood and we had to stand and you know Africa is really hot so we had to stand um you know with our legs tight until we dried and then once we dry they washed the blood of us and it's the most disgusted thing I have ever experienced and bear in mind the blood is touching the wound that's just um you know the procedure that has just happened to you it's it's just horrific it's horrible horrible horrible and then I I especially remember wanting to urinate afterwards and the stinging the pain and it didn't have anywhere to come out from really so it took a very very long time for me to urinate which meant a very very long time right after the procedure I had to you know urinate but it wasn't coming out properly which meant longer pain um and we had our legs tied for a few weeks a few weeks a few weeks yeah we were taken to the toilet we were carried everywhere um and then because they scared that the stitches will come off and if they do I would they would have to redo it yeah okay so because we were all afraid of having it redone um I think they insured made sure that none of the stitches came out and eventually when they did untie us it was very difficult as you know walking and um running you know you're a kid you want to run around you know you can't do that um it took a few good months for it to not heal fully but he'll enough for us to start playing and almost kind of forgot about it I know it sounds really unusual but because it was a social Norm yeah let's say it's like you know if you complained although we didn't because by that point we were terrified of our families yeah me and my sister I think genuinely thought we would they were going to kill us because we thought this isn't this is a normal and from then on I think there was a massive fear um installed into us against our own family so I wanted to ask about that because what you've just described is a utterly horrific like it's unbelievably awful yeah how was it that people from your family could go through that and then be telling you it's a good thing afterwards yeah because it's normally happened to them but you wouldn't have done that you wouldn't have gone through that and then told other people yeah yeah it's good you should do it to be honest I probably would have right if I lived there okay if I had lived imagine you live in a place where you know um this procedure takes place there is no way that you can disagree yeah and the purpose of kind of making it sound nice is so that to kind of not traumatize the child I know it sounds stupid but they don't want to create fear so the child can run away they can go into hiding they can refuse if they actually described it so it was down to you know the whole village because it wasn't just up to my parents or not my parents my grandma in terms of raising meals you know it's like more of a village raising you and everyone in that Village will had a responsibility not to tell the truth really ultimately um it was I don't think there is anyone in that particular Village that went uncircumcised because it would be seen as shameful and was it was it was it quite a strict culture like if you said that was a horrible thing to happen and I think we shouldn't do it anymore would that have been something that was just impossible to yeah they won't have listened yeah they would have been they would have come up with the excuses you know it's religious reasons yeah is to make you cleaner and then what can you say to that as a young child yeah you know as an adult uh who's telling you this is good for you and you know there's a reason and there's a purpose and it's you know for us especially they said that it was a religious um requirement so we just we accepted it and that's literally how easy it is for um a child growing up and not in any country that performs FGM they just agree and go along with their trusted family members until that trust is broken when the procedure takes place and you at that point that you tell it you just said you were basically now terrified of your family yeah naturally so I think um is that what led you to want to move away or was that a different set of circumstances because I guess what I'm wondering is at that point what you're describing is as a child despite how utterly horrific it was you were still in the position where you're going okay everyone's saying this is normal so I guess this is life yeah what was the point where you you thought you realized something was different it was when I came to this country and how did you come about moving to this country so my mom at the time of my FGM procedure she was actually against it because she had suffered so much complications but my mother wasn't in the country she was in Saudi and she was working towards getting us a visa to come to the UK um knowing the risks of being in that country she was you know kind of wanted to reunite all of us I did not see my mom then until since I was a baby I was raised by my grandma so when my mother came to get us again we didn't talk about it I don't know whether she addressed that situation with my grandma but we didn't talk about it because it's not something to you know we're told to talk about is actually considered AB which means shameful to talk about oh right so it's not just an open conversation no right okay it's not an open conversation so your mother came back to Somalia to collect the children and bring them to the UK yes and we came sorry what age were you here I was I think I had just turned seven okay so still young it's still young by then he had healed and I remember we were in Ethiopia and I was still struggling to urinate it was really really painful and again we never ever spoke about it it was almost like it's done now so you know what can we do because they didn't know there were any other options you know like surgery or things like that So eventually my father was in this country he um successfully applied for our Visa it got accepted and then we came to the UK and I we moved into London and I remember coming here and thinking you know it was a whole new world and when you're there you're told so many things negative mostly about Western Society all right yeah like women are naked they know what they are um without faith you know and you know just things that choose they probably misinterpreted in on you know on TV so was it a bit scary for you moving here it was I was terrified I drank I remember I drank uh was it cocoa Pepsi for the first time and I thought it was alcohol and I was like no I don't want it but I remember my mom laughing her head off and she said no because I came from a very very small village they didn't have any of that and it took a quite a while for me to adjust and then I believe two years later I had my period so I was nine when I got my period I felt like I was being tested and when again that's another thing um the Somali Community do not talk about is periods especially with their daughters um we just find out the day that it comes and then with the majority of us think we're dying what so there's no education no like wow no I genuinely thought I was I was dying yeah um and I remember my mum laughing and she said no no you're not dying don't worry um but I was told I was showing how to use a pad but I don't think my FGM was ever considered um because again they have lived what they consider a normal life even though they've had FGM so we should do you know we should do that too and I my mother told me that I should never share it with anybody the fact that I've had my period don't tell anyone not my father not my sister no one so I had to I don't know it was I think it's because you're considered a woman when you get your period so um I don't think she wants it anyone to consider me that way or suggest you know or because this is just marriage quite young in some cases so I don't know what she was afraid of for her to tell me that she never told me the reason why um but I kept it to myself I used I remember every single month for the next three four years I used to roll from one side of the room to the other because it was so painful the period had absolutely nowhere to come out because you're completely shocked you know you're left a tiny hole there's no there's not much blood that's going to flow um especially considering um you know your your son together so does it come out but just extremely slowly extremely slowly so it accumulates inside of the woman and for some women it just doesn't come out so every month it just accumulates and accumulates and accumulates and it dries causing them quite a lot of um it can even cause infertility cause many issues I visited doctors almost every single month and I was examined almost every single month and I think for the first two years I was never examined um they never examine my genitalia they just put it down to stomach pain okay so I thought okay you know if they say or not then that's fine so your mother because you were young your mother or your parents were taking you to the doctor yeah but they weren't saying no potentially it might be it might be that yeah it's quite strange that in a way that they would they would they were willing to say look this is causing a problem but then they wouldn't address because I don't think they put that together I see right I don't think this is what I mean they don't I don't think they necessarily believe that because they have never had that type of complication then why is my child having that type of application so they don't put two and two together okay and um when I was 14 years old I started physically tearing because this is Hill Scar Tissue now okay so I started physically tearing um from the bottom upwards and but only like a tiny tiny bit and urination became even more painful period pain became you know well I figured my period pain stayed the same I can't say that it was it was worsened but because of the stinging the pain um that's a different type of pain so you have the period pain plus you have a unhealed wound yeah and you know you have a ripping plus you have to urinate every day so it's it takes a very long time for it to physically heal you know given the fact that it's your body is very active and I was taken again to a doctor I was taken to a female Doctor Who physically examined my genitalia and she basically explained to my mother that because I have really sensitive skin it like was tearing it needed a way out the blood and it would start tearing through my skin because again if you remember I told you it was drying yeah so it physically tore through my skin opening it bit by bit every day and then it would stop but but did that doctor so did that doctor acknowledge the FGM then yeah they saw it they just they were like oh here's some painkillers um it's the period that's causing it that's it so do you think they knew what had happened to you yeah yeah right so they they looked at it and you think they just thought oh that's just a culture they understood it was a cultural thing that happened to some people and they were like well here's some painkillers yeah okay because just to be clear to anyone um listening FGM is illegal isn't it it is illegal yeah um there's the um female genital mutilation Act of 2003 yeah um I believe I came in 2001 so even after it became illegal as well my I was examined but I don't think it was public knowledge I think it was just you know starting out as you know this massive concern okay but even then I was examined multiple times from the age of 14 onwards um but I remember I before the tearing I remember I was because I think earlier you asked me when did I know yeah something was wrong I was in year six and I sat down um in a sex education lesson and I signed the permission form myself because I knew my mother wouldn't let me oh wow really um and I really wanted to be so you forged her significance because you wanted to understand right okay okay I wanted to understand what it was and because she was so adamant for me not to do it I I faked her I knew her signature so I just signed her name and I sat in class and I remember them showing the male genitalia and the female and then I looked at the female and I thought I couldn't even care I've never seen male jeans I could I did not care yeah but the female one I was so focused on that one and even the fact that my teacher didn't pick that up or um like I was just so confused because it looked what it should look like but for me I was like that's disgusting you know why why do you have all of them bits I don't you know that's what we were cons what was considered dirty and unattractive or just not good so I was like every bad thing that was said about the Western World I believed in that moment because I thought they're so unclean right so so prior to that moment had you thought that FGM happened here as well yeah but then that moment you realized it hadn't yeah and so for you it was like oh yeah all the rumors are true it's disgusting and dirty wow okay that's and I was like the females here are you know they must be disgusting yeah okay um you know wear cleaner and yeah but then I quickly quickly quickly realized after high school um not after high school during High School um that FGM was a crime and that it should have never happened um and I think when I found that out I realized it's not that I realized I think all the insecurities came flooding in um you know knowing that it just doesn't happen to everybody knowing that this was wrong from the beginning and even though as kids we knew it was wrong because it was painful you know it wasn't fun it wasn't something to be excited about we were tricked um so you start going back in your mind and thinking you know yeah now that makes sense now this makes sense now this makes sense but then it leaves us with you know resenting our family members not being able to trust our family members feeling abnormal in some cases and how did you find that out when you say you left high school and you realized it was it was wrong and it was a crime what was the trigger for finding that out I think um I really don't remember but I think it was in high school a young another young friend of mine also went through the same thing but she came here where she was really really young so it happened to her when she was maybe two three years old so she was very open right about it I always kept you know I was told to keep my mouth shut so I kept my mouth shut but with her she was so open and I remember telling her but it was you know isn't it isn't a good thing and she's like no it's not they lie to us this is this is not right you should have never been done it's not even an Islamic practice and I think knowing that I thought I felt so betrayed Yeah by my family yeah I felt like now I'm not normal everybody else in my school was normal and I wasn't normal and I didn't know who was circumcised you know I I say circumcised because that's the term they use um but I didn't know who had FGM and who didn't you know so you feel embarrassed so embarrassed I never told a teacher I was so ashamed and I just thought everyone is gonna think you're damaged or you know because you were still shots um and when you face the reality of what a vagina actually looks like you think whoa okay mine does not look like that and you you know you start putting yourself down and within my family they had a really bad habit of calling me and I think it's just as they didn't mean it just to clarify like was it a kind of in a family jokes way or you know in the way that they actually were doing it as a to put you down and I think it was to put me down but it was more so a normal thing to say to girls okay it just you know it just flows it just comes out so I don't think it was intentional I think you know when they get frustrated or angry they're like oh you know whatever um but the way that we use those terminologies is more casual than insults obviously coming to this country and being educated we know now that that's an insult you know before he was like oh it's just something parents say and one time I thought to myself you know as a teenager is it because they thought that I was going to be oh so they caught me because quickly you start to realize that you know it's to prevent girls from sex outside marriage and and I thought did they think that I was going to do that and that's why they did it and I'm like you know it just really really puts my self self-esteem was gone um I had lacked confidence I was I had mood swings um and then I was labeled as the Troublemaker I wasn't learning like everybody else um I struggled with English and with reading I guess um because also at the point when you're a teenager is when you start to think about relationships as well even a very low level gentle subtle level but that must have had a huge impact on you thinking about what if people find out if about that you know will I be able to date people they I I they in was not in my mind to be honest I did date but it's not the you know the common well it could be but I would my dating was speaking to them I was never I could never have someone physically touch me like that in a sexual way anyway because in the back of my mind I knew what was happening down there so I just thought I didn't want anyone to find out my disgusting secrets you know and then it became my disgusting secret so I didn't tell anyone even the guys that I used to date back in high school and talked to and my friends and you know and I just I didn't ever talk about it I acted as if you know I am normal knowing that you know that I had this procedure done and I was suffering in silence but that was the only thing I knew how to do okay I am I know that the there's another big part of your story as well which I'm gonna which it's um are you happy if we move on to that of course yeah great um do you feel like you've said everything you want to say about that period because we'll do a summary at the end yes but do you think is there anything else from that period that you think is important for people to know what I think it's important for people to know that from the time I came to the UK up to when I left to go back to Somalia the topic we're just about to discuss after um I have visited doctors multiple times I've been examined multiple times and I've been sent home multiple times and it was really disheartening to know that I didn't have the support of medical professionals in terms of um you know defibrillation exists now which is opening that wound up but that wasn't that was never an option for someone as young as myself so we then saw that as you just want us to stay shut so you're okay with it as well because you examinated you sent me home well you're right yeah you know so it felt like I was trapped in two different societies that I was a part of but I wasn't allowed to be either one you know the Western World wanted me to come you know be more Western and the Somalian one wanted to be more Somali and so as you get lost in the middle um what should they have done for anyone watching you know we could have a doctor watching who looks at somebody who has a similar condition what should that person do I think that you should really consider person-centered Care One not all survivors are the same um not to experiences are the same um so support that person in the way they want to be supported do not allow them to live with the same discomfort that they came in with you know have a solution for them at hand I know that defibrillation now is an option for people who are not pregnant where before it was only for pregnant women um which is quite shocking to be honest with you why not help them before they get pregnant you know um but now that that is an option I think um a lot doctors and nurses any professional that has a duty of care that comes across a Survivor needs to do their job in providing the service that they came and asked you for it's as simple as that yeah very clear and understandable I hope so it doesn't sound like rocket science does it no it's sort of amazing that that was never an option that was given to you even for somebody to say are you okay with all that you know yeah just to ask you if yeah okay um okay so let's move on to the next chapter okay um what age are you when you decided to go back to Somali to reconnect I was 17 17. okay so did you you finished sixth form or high school no I didn't start I started but because of my insecurities and my doubts and my trauma um I was again like I said I was labeled a bad child someone who did not conform to you know the Somalian norms so I knew of this culture that we have called Ellis and it means to reculture okay so because I used to hear it growing up and I've I know siblings and cousins not siblings but cousins and relatives who were sent back to Somalia I thought instead of them sending me back let me you know offer that up and be a good child to my parents you know prove that I can be responsible and you know I want to get to know my country and I was very naive to say the least I expected the best I don't know why but if you think about it even though in Somalia the FGM was really bad that is the only um and something has happened but the only two bad things happened to me in the whole time that I was there so I remembered the good things you know the going to play with my siblings and being so free and climbing trees and causing trouble it was very fun you know my siblings uh cousins and all and I guess at that age if you're if you're a kind of teenager you're looking for acceptance aren't you if you feel different from where you are right now in the UK you're going to think maybe I can find Acceptance in the other place where I share my culture I was actually hoping that my family would accept me more yeah if I you know said that I'm gonna do this for them and you know for myself and um I went back to Somalia still thinking that I was that six-year-old kid and they're gonna treat me the way that they treated me then but I was a grown-ass woman the treatment I didn't realize was going to be completely different to when I was a child um so I told my mother that's what I wanted to do at first she was really really concerned because um al-shabab was there and they ruled majority of the country just for anyone who might not know can you explain who they what they are al-shabab is a terrorist organization quite similar to Isis and Al-Qaeda they are very very dangerous and very very very ruthless um I don't know if I could say but I I can't stand them um but when I left here and my mom was trying to explain that I thought my people can't do this again I was so naive and I thought it was just the Western world that was trying to portray my country in this way and I thought no nothing's gonna happen to me I'll be fine I promise so she agreed I think majority of my family were very grateful that I had um you know suggested the reculturing and was this had you been while you've been living in the UK and growing up in UK had you been going back for Summers or visits or was this like a so you so this was just a like after a decade away coming back reconnecting with the the aunties and and all those those the land yeah wow okay and my mom booked our flight we went to Dubai spent two weeks there bought me gifts and then we went to Somalia where I got dropped off and then my mom came back to the UK along with my passport she took your passport back to the UK yes oh why did she do that that's what happens with back and Ellis they take your passport um but with my Mom the reason that she gave because I asked is because one I'm very very forgetful I'm not gonna lie to you I'm not gonna sit here I'm like I am very very forgetful and she didn't want me to lose it in that country because anyone else can use it and to come you know in my place because there was a terrorist organization there as well if anyone had you know my passport then that would also cause a risk to myself and here and she would get into trouble so I think she was trying to protect myself um and keep it safe yeah right okay that was the idea and then I was handed over to my auntie who's also called shamsa and I stayed with her for three months but I remember the first three days it was so surreal you know everything was so different to what I grew up in here and I remember her coming up to me one day and the girls were you know looked like they were going somewhere I'm like where's everyone going and everyone seemed to have you know be going in the same direction I'm like where's everyone going so they said oh there's something called tashir as I was tashir and it basically means when al-shabab decided to punish someone for a crime everyone in that town has to come and watch too yeah yeah and this is Men Women and Children and men were lined up on one side women were lined up on this side and my auntie begged me not to go and I said if you want me to believe that my people are capable of this then I will go because I used to see this on TV yeah I need to see with my own eyes I wish I didn't go I really wish I didn't go um I got there and I don't know how but I ended up in the front of the line because everyone was so scared they were kind of like oh pushing back and they brought the man out nailed him down and then I found out that he was going to have his hand cut off and there were men and wearing balaclavas and they stretched out his hand took a large machete and they literally I think with three Cuts they completely severed his hand oh God and then they took the middle finger whilst everybody's chanting Allahu Akbar and just waved across and these are little babies and little kids running around and watching this as well teenagers young people and they waved around across the men section and then they gave it to the women and then the women waved the right past me um and the other women his mother was forced to watch as well oh God and she collapsed and they did they bought a jar of that contained um like boiling hot oil and they took his hand that was just severed and they put it in the oil took it out quickly and then he passed out his arm that was seven yeah so they did not the not the seven hand not his actual wrist yeah the wrist yeah the hand was seven but the wrist that was bleeding to like cauterize it yeah yeah that's what it seemed like to me and then they wrapped it really quickly and then because he passed out they kind of dragged him out of there and I remember my cousin whilst they were chanting but I wasn't I was just an utter shock and disbelief and she was like you need to say and I'll say what and she goes you need to say but I said I will not say that because I'm not using the name of God especially one that I know is peaceful and for this I said no I'm not going to do that because by then I've been educated on terrorism and also Islam and um I said I'm not going to do it and she goes okay so I I kind of like like move my mouth um so that they would think because she said to me if I don't then they can whip maybe they had this really long whip and guns and things so they were like they're gonna either beat you up or whip you if you don't say it so I started moving my mouth went back to my auntie's house and I cried I was I was terrified of everyone including my own family because I thought are you are you obviously they weren't but when something is normal yeah you know it's everyone accepts it so I I didn't know who was who and what was what um but again I trusted my auntie this wasn't uh my this the FGM was my my father's mother's side so it was my father's side this particular family was my mother's side who've never wronged me in their lives so I trusted them but were you saying to them that was awful are you scared to express that you thought no I told that right one thing about me is I always express myself unless I was in danger okay um but I expect I was like this is horrific why would they do this and she was like you need to stay low you know if they find out you're a British citizen that can really harm you they can even kidnap you because they were kidnapping girls at the time um so there were quite a lot of girls at um risk so I think three months into it I get a call from my mom and she's like oh my brother in another city wants to come visit you and he wants to take you to that family because my mom didn't have any brothers or sisters that were the same mom and dad so it's either from her mom's side or from her dad's side got you and I was with my aunties from my mom's dad's side and um my uncle from my mom's mom's side was coming to come pick me up so he came and he was lovely at first and he picked me up and he took me to a small city called Marca the whole entire Journey from where I lived Boulevard was like it was a very long journey I think it was uh two nights or something like that it was a very very long journey and it was by car and we had to you know stay in different people's houses as a rest stop and then I was taken to Marca but again during that journey I was treated like a princess right you know I was given everything I asked for I was being taken into Farms Fruit Farms which are absolutely incredible and I was just like oh you know I'm so lucky to have a family although the place I lived was really dangerous I thought you know I have a family that will help me explore you know and when we got there things changed quite rapidly I think everyone had their own plans in mind for my coming and there was really horrible intentions behind him coming to pick me up okay so do you think that do you think that the intentions were there from the beginning yeah it was planned and definitely okay right well let's get into that um you you got there um presumably at that point you were thinking okay this is good this is nice I've had this nice couple of days experience with the family you arrive at this house and then what's the point where you realize okay I'm not sure about this he comes to me one day and he's like this is my uncle your uncle yes after being there for a week he comes to me and he's like champsa you know I really um think it would be beneficial for you to think about marriage and I said to him you know I have no intentions of getting married that's not why I came here um that's not what I want to do so I thought saying no would have been enough yeah and at first he left it and then he just continuously almost every single day just making small small suggestions and then the suggestions kind of turned into you know firm suggestions it was a lot more firmer um and his tone has changed and he became very very scary to me I saw red flags wow and then I got he got a phone call one day and he goes champ said come here so he gives me the phone and it's my auntie his sister who was in a city that I passed and she never said two words to me she knew I was there never came to see me and she goes oh you know I would love you I would love to introduce you to my son um I want you to meet him you know and you just if you guys like each other you can get married and again I said to her on that first phone call yeah and I said no but this is why I knew it was premeditated I knew that it would there was a plan before he even got me and um I said no I'm not interested so because it was so consistent the um the ask of getting married you know get married get married get married then one day I went to him and I said if you're so desperate for me to get married because I got really scared at that at that point I said I was talking to someone who I wasn't even talking to him really he was a friend of mine and he lived in the in my auntie's place where I was staying previously so I suggested him I was like if you're gonna force me to get married at least you know someone like you know someone I know and someone I've met I said him he took the phone and just for suggesting it I got beaten the hell out of hit me up really bad and she's a grown man this is a grown-up man yeah wow I was 17 at the time and before that had you seen any sign of physical abuse like that Jesse's tone changed before that but he's never got physical with me but because of the suggestion it was like all his plans were falling apart because of my one suggestion so the asking of for me to get married was not asking anymore it was more threats and it's going to happen and I suppose at that point you've been driven two days away it's not like you can just go I'm gonna fly home you've got no passport yeah no way of getting to the airport yeah no I didn't even have a he took my phone from at that point so I had nothing um and this didn't happen straight away it was like weeks into it yeah um when by the time we got to a month of me being there it turned into threats so one of the threats was al-shabab the terrorist organization ruled Marca that's particular City and because it was so small is in between mountains and water so government decided not to invade because everyone in that small City would die there's nowhere for people to escape so one of his threats was I'm going to call al-shabab and I will get you locked up for being an asiwalidine which means um someone who's bad to their parent we're not allowed to talk back to our parents that or that we are considered bad if we do even if we're in the right um and in the prisons the sentence is three months for that and in those prisons women tend to get sexually assaulted right and when I heard about the things that go on in those prisons because people have just volunteered this information to you I was terrified and I thought I can't because I will die they will kill me and plus I'm a British citizen so they will have a field day with that one um so I thought okay I need to minimize all of the you know big mouth that I have I have to keep my true self in and just just agree to everything they say from this point onwards survival mode I was on survival mode and then one day I got a call from my mom he got a call from my mom and because I didn't have a phone access to a phone he just said oh you know you can call me and you can speak to her and he sat me down put the phone onto my mom and she was like oh Uncle told me that you wanted to get married you found a nice boy um and they told him that it was his sister's son and she was like I've never met him but he seems like um a nice person obviously this is anyone that my sister raises good I I could not say anything because I knew if I did once I got off the phone he will beat the out of me so I said yeah but in my 17 year old mind I was trying to find a way to escape so I thought just say yeah now you know then there's no risk to me being beaten so I can try to devise a plan for me to escape I my mother bought me a camera I sold it um my friends from London two teenage girls the same age as me tried to collected money to send to me I think it was a hundred dollars but that wasn't enough to get out because there was absolutely no way out if I drove if I went by car there's checkpoints everywhere one of his other my uncles other threats was I'm gonna put your picture in every single checkpoint from there to the city where um it was government controlled so I was like okay I can't even leave because this man is you know threatening to take my photo and put it everywhere I can't take a flight because there's no airport I can't go see because I can't swim so I was trapped to say uh to say that I was trapped as an understatement one day I was in the toilet and I get a knock on my back the bathroom door and they're like hurry up hurry up hurry up so I quickly got dressed came into the room um I was escorted into a room my uncle was in and there was some young man sat next to him so I was told to sit down there's a plate of food that I haven't seen you know this this was the same type of presentation I had when I first arrived yeah and um he was like oh me Hassan Hassan was his name um till this day I don't know his last name I'm not gonna lie to you I have never been told his last name so I I don't know even though his family I don't know because like I said my mother's siblings are very so we didn't know our cousins like that especially back home he introduces him and he says this is the person I want you to get married to and I was like oh whoa and he explains this artist's son so in my mind I'm thinking my first cousin it's my blood yeah and I said I'm not interested in getting married and I said that out loud I said I don't want to get married in front of the boys yeah yeah I said I don't want to get married because I thought maybe if I say that then he would not want to do it as well and then my uncle was like oh don't worry don't worry you know you'll come around and I thought okay like this is actually getting um serious now like this because did getting married means staying there forever in their houses is either that or I think they they had hope that I would bring him here I I see right because I carry a British passport and that's very valuable back in Somalia um so I just I just could not get over the fact that he bought this man from you know a vet it was very far it was like miles away from the city that I started with so I thought okay and when you say this man how old was he oh wow okay I didn't tell you that part um the way that my uncle explained it is that he was actually two years younger than me oh that's the way he explained it 15. yeah but I know for a fact that there are a lot of Somalian people who either have quite a lot of children we don't keep track of birthdays okay so I think it's a guessing game right right um so he that's the easiest maths ever but in my mind it just I just could not calculate what was happening and then I said to him two years younger than me I said no like that's even worse yeah you know I said no no but he was not two years younger than me he if anything was older than me he was huge like it makes no it makes no sense it was like a proper built right man [Music] um you know it just I don't know I can't really speak for his age um I didn't give birth to him so I don't know that's just what I was told um I continue to say no no no no no um and then I get a few weeks later um after being trying to again being threatened to be in beaten trying to you know find a way to escape and my eight 17 year old man just could not figure a way out um no communication was the outside world I didn't know how to contact the British Embassy I didn't even know whether they would help me or not um so I just you know I was just on survival mode every single day and with al-shabab they terrified me enough for me to just be quiet because I did not want to end up dead they've killed too many people by then and then I get a call I remember I was at my mom's best friend's house and I get a call from my father who was here in the UK and he basically is congratulating me oh no on my marriage I'm like what and I was like what do you mean he goes oh you know you're a married woman now I'm like how the is that possible you know because I was waiting for the shift they're like the actual man who marries us to call me yeah so that I can say no again like I was waiting for someone to listen to my no but I never got that call and I didn't even know that that it was happening that day they kept it from me so when I got the call from my father everything was already done even though that marriage under Islamic law is not a valid marriage but so there's been no ceremony and you'd give there was no concept and there was no consent no so the mejer is like what you guys might consider the engagement right but it's an actual marriage there's no engagement we don't do engagements and things like that I was married off and my father in that phone call said what's his name what's the boy's name who are his family what are their names what tribacy and I said to my father so you know I didn't say it actually I was like you didn't know you don't know his first name or last name he's like no and it shocked me bear in mind I was so let down by my family because of the FGM and then to have been let down by them again through beating and threats and now my own father had given me up as if I was just you know damaged goods I thought there was a serious problem with me maybe they saw something that I did not see and I hanged up the phone on him because I just could not process what was happening but I wasn't even given a chance to process what was happening I had women come to the house they put me in a green dress and this whole entire time I was in the days yeah like I was so confused as to what's what was happening and I thought this can't be real this can't be real this can't be real and I remember after they put this white makeup on me like it was I look like a ghost because it wasn't my Foundation color and they put you know they did my hair put so many pins in it it hurts um at least I have something else to focus on they put me in the back of a car and this whole time I haven't seen him they put him in the back of the car drove me around town everyone is singing and clapping and excited and I'm just you know in the days I'm not none of I'm not paying attention to my surroundings at all I was just in the days and then they brought me back to the house and my uncle's house there were women there everyone was dancing drinking eating and I was just numb because I knew I was going to be locked in a bedroom with this man oh is that the next bit yeah so I was absolutely numb I felt sick to my stomach I remember they presented me with so much clothes and fake jewelry and um the bed that they had bought was second hand all the clothes that was in front of me that were supposedly gifts was actually puts in debt under my name so it was my debt to pay off so the whole entire motive true motive came out and that was money take stock money from my mother because she lived in the UK and they didn't and so she was rich she was richer you know money just falls out of the trees and comes out of walls you know um Without You prompting it once all of that was done I was put into a room and I remember the bed was facing a mirror so they just lit if it was so surreal I was it was as if I was carried it didn't feel like I was walking it felt like I was walking but it felt as if I wasn't like I was right like floating yeah I was being you know just I was floating in but I was being guided in I'm just just because because of the previous bit we've talked about with the FGM were you still a virgin at this point I was yes I was although a lot of people had doubts I was yeah okay because that presumably that must have been a frightening thing as well yeah because you've never you didn't know how that was going to affect yeah the marriage okay 100 but thank you for reminding me because prior to me being put in that room prior to the wedding I think a week prior um I remember because I knew how serious they were about the marriage I thought because al-shabab is there if they take my um do you know how I explained when I was 14 I was ripping yes they took that as me losing my virginity then I would be stoned to death oh God so I was like all right that I might as well you know tell her what happens so she can speak to my mom so I don't die you know so I told my auntie and my uncle's wife she called my mother my mother explained and I I think without my mother's knowledge she took me to a Qatar and I was there to be examined to see whether I was a virgin or not because everyone had no faith in me and when she checked that she was like yeah yeah she's she's still a virgin because again the stitches were like that much it came off and then um she looked at me and she goes to stitching you back up I said hell no did you you just confirmed it for me I'm a virgin browser thank you so much I said bye take care close my legs together put my things on and I walked out before they can even resist that but I did ask why would I do that and she goes for your husband so ah so he can rip me open I said no thank you no thank you um so when I was put into the room I had that conversation playing in my head and I thought to myself imagine if he thinks that I'm not a virgin because some people don't have a a hymen yeah so I was like what if even though she just confirmed it I was like but what if what if what if and I remember I was facing a mirror and I was still trying to figure a way out even though there was no way out I was now point to that room I'm trapped I I still was trying to figure out how how do I get out how do I live and then he comes into the room and without saying hi are you okay what's going on he dropped he's wearing a um a material that they just wrap around yeah we call it Maurice he was wearing that and he just came in and right in front of the mirror that I was looking at because again I was just daydreaming he just he dropped it and because of the type of person I am and the way that it happened I didn't know whether to laugh or cry okay and I say this all the time I genuinely do not know which way to go because I thought the way it happened the way he did it was so ridiculous like it was like it was like I laugh at everything so it was like what the almost and but then I thought oh I know exactly what he wants and what the what am I gonna do so hit butt naked I told him okay please take this pin out of my head because you know I don't want to be touched with all of this on me and then he's there taken up because there were a lot of pins so I was just trying to slowly act like oh I was trying to take my time um try to give myself time to find out to figure out a way to escape but that was never going to happen and once that was done I thought to myself whilst he was actually in the process of taking off I thought something you have two choices as at 18 actually I was I need to stop saying I was something after I turned 18 is when they got married and I thought to myself you have two choices either be raped tonight or submit and just tell them to off tomorrow so I thought okay let me get it over and down with and then when it started again because of the FGM I would I was not I did not have defibrillation which means I was still shots um on top of you know all the other pain and that I endured I was just I was terrified but it was the pain was so overwhelming my whole entire body hurt and the stitches are slowly you know being ripped apart and then I said stop you know I don't I can't do it anymore I couldn't breathe like I was crying I was in pain and then the moment I think I tried to you know get him to stop I was just pinned down and he used all his force and his might um and then I was raped that night and three nights after that until so I spent seven days in that in that room because like your seven days honeymoon you can either leave to do your wadu which is to get ready for prayer you pray in your room you eat in your room you shower you come back in your room you don't leave at all he can leave sometimes but you can't leave was he talking to you and and he was was it just no it was just no no because I refused to speak okay and then he felt worried that you're upset or you're just his now so yeah I was I was his property basically and then so like I said I spent seven nights there um out of the seven nights I was raped for four right and then on the fourth day I just could not take it anymore and I said to him if you touch me again then I will kill you like I will actually kill you and I don't care whether I die they could kill me if they want if you touch me I will find something and I will hurt you and I don't know why that scared him um but because of the amount of pain I was in I was unable to urinate for three days actually not for three days I wasn't able to urinate for the period of time that I was in that marriage yeah um and with him there so what had happened is he caused so much internal trauma that it affected my urination so I couldn't the urine would not come out it would come out a little bit and it would shoot back inside so I used to like literally lay down on a dirty uh toilet because we didn't have toilet seats and things like that it's just a hole in the ground I used to lay down because I was in that much pain and they refused to give me any medical help because it costs money and you know they don't want to spend money and once the seven days was done he my uncle actually kicked us out of my my grandma's house and I used the money that I collected from the camera and the one that my friend sent me to rent a property so I thought that's my house you know I'm I'm the boss I'm the owner no you're not uh he was in there I'm thinking yeah because he's the husband he's the boss you've gone through this horrific process and you've now moved into a property with your husband that you're paying for but he's ultimately the boss of at what point did you think okay this has to end how long had it been before you were like I need to get out of here oh my God it's been months oh months yeah oh wow it was months before I think when I had my breaking point was on top of the rape I was also being beaten by him so domestic violence yeah I was involved and it was brutal so anytime I didn't do anything I would be beaten and the last time he beat me was so severe that I just could not I did not care whether I lived or died anymore and I called my mother and I said is this what you wanted for me for your family to abuse me forced me to get married and now I didn't tell her about the rape because I wanted to wait until I saw how scared she wouldn't believe me I want to look her in the eye um but I told her that he was beating me and my mother hates anybody laying a finger on us yeah and she just could not comprehend it and I said your family will lie to you as they have done for the past few months I said if I die here is all of user's fault and I think when she heard that she did everything in her power to get me out so because the family weren't listening and they were like oh you know they're just a married couple they'll be fine they were trying to justify it my mom wasn't having any of it um so me and her hatched a plan for me to escape and that plan was um for me to catch a bus covered from head to toe and use my pain as a reason to be going to a hospital but not go to the hospital just take a um a car and leave and I knew a woman who worked at the hospital who helped me previously because they wouldn't take me and so I said to her if my family come at any time it doesn't matter what time it is just say she just left then they would still think that I'm there so they said okay she said okay I remember I got into the car and my auntie the shamsa and the other one was waiting for me in Mogadishu so by then my mom told them what had happened and she said go and get my child but they couldn't come to this side because he had it was terrorism they were scared so they had to wait on that side oh the cheat so your mom told them she's escaping going yeah yeah so you'd set off in the car in in basically like I guess like it was a bus yeah full of people and were you wearing like a nicarbos yeah yeah I was wearing in the club I was wearing a big hijab which is like the big black cloth I was wearing gloves I was wearing socks I was absolutely terrified and I remember I kept asking God please save me please save me I'll never do anything bad in my life you know I just please save me and ultimately actually before I left one of my uncles went right past the window and I Oh I thought I was gonna get cold if you got caught trying to escape I wouldn't be sat here today wow I can tell you that I would not be sat here today and then once I got to modishu um where my auntie was my aunties were waiting for me they took me to their house but still I was so afraid of everyone yeah because I thought you guys would probably do the same if you had a chance um but I remember he actually called my the small phone that I had and he was like uh um my auntie picked up and he was like who's this and she said shamsa because Champs is her name just like me yeah and he's like he thought it was me he was talking to and he's like watch when I find you I'm gonna put you in prison you will not leave this country I'll make sure of it and Monty was like actually Champs is not the person you're speaking to you're speaking to her auntie the person she was named after and she goes all of these empty threats of yours she goes well how about stop behind it stop hiding behind al-shabab you know they couldn't go there so she said why don't you come here and show us what you're capable of and we'll show you what we are capable of this is our daughter you know you messed up big time and now you want to threaten her and she was like if you step foot and move the show I will shoot you myself and he was like oh I'm so sorry I didn't know it was you and he goes but it was okay for you to talk to my niece like that he never called after that um they knew that I had left successfully the uncle's never called No I refuse even if you had I still wouldn't have ever spoken to him I I haven't till this day to be honest and then a few weeks later I had my brother come to the country to bring me my passport and a flight ticket but come to find out nobody in my family apart from my mother wanted me to come back here each and every one of them let me just say my mother was the whole time I was there she was diagnosed and she was suffering from a brain tumor I didn't know she told everyone to keep it from me because I'm an emotional person and she didn't want me to go crazy because I had a attachment to her so she didn't want me to that's the word she used she said I didn't I don't want my daughter to lose her mind so she's already under a lot of pressure leave her until she comes here I was told whilst I was on the plane that my mother was dying and that she had stage four cancer oh God which meant that by the time I got back to the UK my mother was in a coma I left her healthy I came back to her and on her deathbed and this is the woman who for months on end was begging for someone to go and get me before she died and I had a conversation with her one day and she said if I die here and I just thought she was just a mom thing she was if I die here whilst you're there I want you to know that you will also die there and I was like yeah I know because there's bombs and bullets flying over my head so I just thought she was you know being just a warrior parent I didn't I didn't think that she quite literally meant that so she did everything she could until she went into that coma to ensure my return and that was the second time wasn't it because the first time when she brought you over from the when you're a child the second time she said yeah so okay as you can imagine I just went through something horrific I need to have to come back I had to push all of that aside and now grieve for someone I have not seen for a year and I thought you know I just kept thinking I wish I knew I wish I had known I wish I had known because I blamed her quite a lot whilst I was there so why is this happening to me it's her family but I didn't know that she was dealing with a brain tumor and my mother died exactly seven days after my return how did you get to where you are now what was the Turning Point what do you do now I am a educator I am a public speaker um I um have been I've had the pleasure of working with different charities here in the UK in terms of honorabase violence as a whole um including FGM I support survivors um on a daily basis you know um I also did a campaign with the mayor of London's office and I would like to make some changes within the NHS in terms of offering us better support with the complications that we have to live through it's not just and the practice also support the survivors you know we're living with these instrumental mental health issues and these physical complications help us you know there should be something under the NHS that doesn't involve just opening you up leaving your damaged you know damaged nerves and Scar Tissue there should be a lot more available for us you know we shouldn't have to suffer and um I work I help to train met police officers on the practice of FGM um I've been doing that for I believe two months I did it [Music] twice now and is one of the best experiences I have ever had and it made me realize that quite a lot of people are not educated on the topic they don't know what type of language to use when talking to survivors and they don't know how to approach it they don't know whether they um they mostly they say we're trying to be culturally sensitive stop being culturally sensitive okay if you want to ask a question ask a question you know otherwise there is no Avenue for you to learn if you don't ask the tough questions and you know there are people like me that can answer those tough questions but you need to understand there are people that cannot so you need to know who can and who can't you know um but I also play a massive part in trying to end it within my community because I don't want anyone ever ever ever going through anything that I have not just the fgma but everything else um understandably and when you and when you look when you look back over your life which is I mean you've got some in terms of me talking to you your experiences are unbelievable but sadly it sounds like there's lots of people that will have shared your experiences in the world but when you look back over your life so far you're still young what's something you think you've learned I learned never to silence my voice ever again I think I found so much peace and one I removed myself completely from that toxic environment that I was in which gave me enough room to grow to have Ambitions to have dreams to reprogram my mind so that I'm able to raise my daughter in a healthy happy environment so she doesn't ever have to go through any of the insecurities any of the abuse that I went through my daughter is very well aware of what FGM is she actually helps me educate people other people like her school for example um so she's very proud of me and I'm so so proud of her but being a mom now it made me realize yo like it's really not that hard to be kind you know you did not have to do any of that what what is amazing about you genuinely is you're one of the people that broke the cycle because when you were talking about the start of it you're talking generations of people in the same cycle never ending yeah never ending cycle and you're one of the people that has broken it and your daughter won't enter a cycle like that you're an amazing Storyteller I mean it makes my job so easy I just sit here going oh wow oh wow because if I don't do it that way then I'll I'll cry and who wants that well that's the thing you you tell it in a very engaging way despite the fact it's a very very or like difficult topic to listen to because I don't like it triggering me or triggering me if I you know if I don't laugh Okay so a happy place you're a genuinely amazing and inspirational person and um I'm so honored to sit here and talk to you today and um really do wish you all the best Champs thank you for the life I've had people feel young how old are you I'm like in my sick maybe 60s oh you feel like you're in your 60s okay 80s yeah but I'm 30 I 10 30 a lot this week actually oh happy birthday thank you wow thank you brilliant oh my God it's another shocking issue because in Korea you weren't allowed to put the newspaper in the bin I guess yeah never never thought if you just put the bin your own families public executions or send the political presence so we never talked about that wow

Channel: LADbible TV

Views: 1,015,449

Keywords: the lad bible, lad bible, lad, bible, videos, viral videos, viral, documentaries, exclusives, interviews, extraordinary lives, ladbible podcast, minutes with podcast, extraordinary lives podcast, minutes with, mental health, fgm survivor, mental health documentary, fgm survivor stories, uk, somalia, female genital mutilations, forced marriage, forced marriage drama, survivor, abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse, islam

Id: 36wDjvl394M

Length: 86min 28sec (5188 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 19 2023