Jaha Dukureh, now 27, was only one week old when the incident that came to define her life’s mission occurred. That is when, as was the custom of her home town of Gambissara, Gambia, a traditional “cutter” removed her clitoris and labia and then sewed the opening together, leaving only a tiny hole to allow the flow of urine and menstrual blood.
Today she knows that she had been subjected to the most extreme form of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), called infibulation or Type 3 FGM.