Miss Somalia shares her heartbreaking experience of female genital mutilation

Standing on the Miss World 2025 stage, Zainab Jama, Miss Somalia, delivered a deeply emotional testimony that moved many to tears. 

Speaking during the “Head-to-Head” challenge, Jama recounted being forced to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) at the age of seven. 

Her story, painfully detailed and courageously told, highlighted a tradition that continues to harm millions of girls around the world. 

Now living in the United Kingdom, Jama is using her platform to advocate for the end of this brutal practice.

FGM encompasses procedures that involve the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 230 million girls and women alive today have been subjected to FGM, with more than four million girls at risk each year.

Born in Somalia, Jama grew up as a refugee, fleeing her homeland due to conflict and climate crises. After resettling with her family in the UK, she rebuilt her life—but the trauma of her past remained. “I’m the founder of the Female Initiative Foundation, a project to bond from one of the darkest moments of my life,” she told the audience. “I stand here today, not just as a voice for the voiceless, but as a survivor of female genital mutilation.”

Jama described the sense of powerlessness she felt as a child, remembering the moment her body and rights were taken away in the name of tradition. 

With a voice trembling from emotion, she recalled, “I was seven years old. I was outside, playing with my friends. When I was picked up, my clothes were ripped off, and I was taken to a room where three women waited with blades, scissors and old tools.” 

None of them were medically trained. The procedure was carried out without anaesthesia.

“They told me to be quiet, to be brave and proud—because this was our tradition,” she said. Once the cutting was complete, her skin was stitched together with thick thread, leaving a small opening barely enough for urine or menstrual blood to pass through.

This form of FGM is known as infibulation. Jama was then confined to a dark room for days, legs tightly bound, bleeding and in pain.

“That part, after the procedures, is where a lot of girls die. That moment changed me forever, and my childhood came to an end. I survived, but many girls didn’t, and they don’t,” she said.

Her mission now is to raise awareness and prevent other girls from facing the same trauma. Jama emphasised that her fight is for the future: “They were taught that suffering is part of being a woman, and that this is normal. But it’s not normal; it’s not okay, and it’s not part of our destiny.”

Through her foundation, she engages directly with communities, educating families and especially mothers. She speaks publicly, sharing her story to challenge cultural norms. “Love should never—tradition should never—come at the cost of a child’s body or soul. We can honour our traditions without harming our little daughters,” she said.

Jama pledged to continue her advocacy work until FGM is no longer tolerated, even if it means facing resistance.

Standing beside her on stage, Julia Morley, CEO of the Miss World Organisation, offered comfort and publicly supported Jama’s efforts. 

“We’ve heard a voice that needs to be listened to by grandmothers and mothers in your country,” Morley said, stressing the importance of educating women without condemning them for inherited beliefs.

Morley called FGM a “social denigration, cruelty and totally unacceptable, unnecessary thing to do to any female,” and praised Jama’s courage. “This isn’t politics. This is humanity.”

IOL Lifestyle

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