Scarred but no longer scared, survivors of female genital mutilation embraced one another and lawmakers Monday at the State Capitol after the House voted to impose harsh new penalties on doctors who subject little girls to the painful ritual.

“I have two beautiful daughters. I don’t want my two beautiful daughters [to] go through what I [went] through,” said Waris Mohamud, a Somali immigrant standing with a group of women, young and old, dressed in bright headscarves of red, white or blue.

All had undergone genital mutilation as children. All vowed their own children never would.

Minnesota House cracks down on female genital mutilation