When Elham Ismail came to Cardiff from Libya in 1999 she had internal injuries which have caused a lifetime of ongoing pain. Elham was just seven years old when she was mutilated in her home country, Sudan, as part of an ancient cultural practice.
As a survivor of female genital mutilation (FGM) the accountancy graduate is sharing publicly for the first time the details of her horrific ordeal. She hopes speaking out will spare others from Wales, and elsewhere, the same fate and blames “cultural brainwashing” for the barbaric practice.
Prevalence of FGM in Wales is difficult to estimate because of the hidden nature of the crime but an estimated 137,000 girls and women in Wales and England have undergone FGM. It is believed 60,000 are at risk with almost 10,000 new cases recorded by the NHS UK-wide between 2016 and 2018. Nearly 140,000 women and girls aged under-15 to 50-plus who have migrated to England and Wales are living with the consequences of FGM. "No local authority area is likely to be free from FGM entirely," according to the UK Government.
