Anti-FGM campaigner Jaha Dukureh has been named one of the world’s most influential leaders by Time magazine alongside John Kerry, Angela Merkel, Aung San Suu Kyi, Bernie Sanders and Christine Lagarde.
Dukureh, the lead campaigner in the Guardian’s global media campaign to end female genital mutilation, was honoured in particular for her work in the US and the Gambia but is now campaigning to end the practice worldwide in a generation, using her experiences as a survivor to build public support.
She first came to prominence with the success of her change.org petition, which received more than 220,000 signatures, asking the Obama administration to conduct a new prevalence study into the current scope of FGM in the United States.
A feature film about Jaha’s life is being made by Accidental Pictures and the Guardian – a TV version of the film will also be shown in FGM practising countries, distributed by First Hand Films.
Now based in Atlanta, Dukureh has become the leading campaigner against FGM in the Gambia. She is of a new generation of young women in the country who are working through the media to make sure that the mutilation they have suffered is not repeated on their daughters.
In 2015 her campaign led to the Gambia announcing a ban on FGM.
The editor-in-chief of the Guardian, Katharine Viner, said: “Jaha Dukureh’s inclusion in the Time 100 list is wonderful news. Jaha has helped to put female genital mutilation right at the heart of the global human rights agenda, which is just where it should be.”
Last year FGM was banned in Nigeria, which joined 18 other African countries that have outlawed the practice, including Central African Republic, Egypt and South Africa.
The Guardian has been working with activists like Dukureh in the UK, US, Kenya the Gambia and Nigeria. The media campaign, supported by the Human Dignity Foundation, begins work in June in Sierra Leone, where 88% of girls are subjected to FGM – which means the forcible removal, usually with a razor blade, of the clitoris and the labia and the sewing up of the vagina.
Somalia, which has the highest prevalence of FGM in the world, has indicated it would like to end the practice, despite significant resistance in the country. Currently, 98% of girls aged between four and 11 are subjected to FGM in Somalia.
