‘My mother apologised’: A survivor’s journey after genital mutilation

Sara Kahsai grew up in Sudan but moved to Birmingham, England, in 2022 after a marrying a bus driver from the city.

But as she settled into married life and her new home, she was coming to terms with a life-changing discovery.

Sara realised she was a victim-survivor of Female Genital Mutiliation (FGM), a procedure she had endured as a young girl.

She was floored by the revelation and, not least, the excruciating pain she was now beginning to fully understand.

“The shock was massive,” she said.

“It made it difficult with my physical relationship with my husband – but he was very kind and very patient with me.”

Warning: This story contains descriptions of the practices involved in female genital mutilation

Sara turned to the one person she knew must have orchestrated it – her mother – and asked her why.

“I was a baby. It was the culture to do it for everybody,” she said her mother, still living in Africa, told her.

“When I spoke to my mum she was really upset and she apologised to me.”