Inspirational FGM survivor is training to become a police officer to help other victims

A female genital mutilation survivor who was forced to flee to safety in London after being operated on against her parent’s will is now desperate to help other victims - by training as a police officer.

Shamsa Sharawe, 29 - who grew up living with extended family in a small Somalian town called Muuqokore - was left in agony after being circumcised with a dirty razor at just six years of age.

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) - or Female Genital Cutting as it is now referred to thanks to Shamsa’s campaign to have the name changed - involves the partial or total removal of external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

The brutal procedure was arranged by someone known to Shamsa.

When her devastated mother, Gani, who was living in Saudi Arabia, found out what had happened, she hatched a plan for her daughter to escape to the UK.

In November 2001, Shamsa and her mother were able to secure visas and move to Wembley, Brent.

Shamsa joined a local school, and it was during sex education lessons that she realised the extent of the brutality she had faced.

Shamsa said: “The trauma hit me all at once. I felt like half a woman.

“I felt so insecure as a teenager and didn’t feel desirable at all.

“I thought it would be better if no one knew so I carried that secret for years, and it really affected my mental health.

“I was confused and struggling with my personal and cultural identity.

“I felt like I didn’t belong anywhere.

“I started making videos for YouTube about everything I had been through, and I realised that so many other women shared my burden.

“I wanted to join the police because of the experiences I had within the Somalian community.

“Crimes committed in our community are kept silent. It is very rare for young girls to report a crime due to fear of shame.

“The silencing culture within my culture is something I want to end.

“I want to show my community, and other communities that suffer from honour-based violence, that they have someone within the police that they can trust. Someone that looks like them and hears their concerns.

“It feels amazing to know that I can do something to help young people who haven’t had a voice for so long. I cannot wait to represent them and fight for them.”

After growing up in rural Somalia, Shamsa now describes herself as “oblivious to the rest of the world”.

She was not given an education and so did not question that she would have the genital surgery - and says girls who refused it were branded ‘shameful’ within the community.

A local doctor known as ‘The Cutter’ performed the procedure with dirty implements while a group of adults held her down.

Afterwards the doctor covered Shamsa in the blood of a slaughtered animal and forced her to stand in the sun while it dried.

The barbaric surgery was performed without pain medication or anaesthetic.

She said: “Being cut without anesthetic was crippling. It was horrendous.

“I was in so much shock I became numb.

“It took about an hour to complete but it felt much longer. When the blade hits the skin, you feel everything.

“They wrapped our legs together for 24 hours and we couldn’t walk for a week. We were carried to the toilet and fed in our rooms as we couldn’t get up.

“This lasted two weeks, and even then it hadn’t properly healed. I would cry every time I had to pee for months afterwards.

“After the ordeal I was horrified.

“I was in shock and didn’t understand what was happening.

“I was six years old, and the pain was just unbearable.

“We never spoke about what happened that day.

“I was just told that I was now pure and clean, and my family were proud of me.”

After being rescued by her mother and moving to the UK, Shamsa hoped her ordeal was over.

However, desperate to reconcile herself with her heritage she went back to live in Buloburde, Somalia, in December 2010.

But rather than being welcomed back she says she was quickly forced into an arranged marriage with a man she hardly knew.

The relationship was volatile and Shamsa managed to escape from her husband and returned back to the UK in February 2012.

She said: “When I got back to England, I was completely broken.

“But I was also given the chance to start again.

“My mother passed away when I was 18, and the rest of my family had disowned me.

“I was depressed and silenced, as no one in my community spoke about FGM/FGC or sexual and domestic abuse.

“I went through a really dark period, but after a lot of therapy I finally started to heal from my past.

“In my culture, these things are seen as normal and to talk about it would bring shame upon the family... but I didn’t have any family left to shame.

“So I decided to start speaking about my experience.”

Shamsa created her YouTube channel in February 2021 and now she has over 4,200 subscribers.

The student said: “I made videos about everything that I have been through and I was shocked that so many women could relate to what I was saying.

“They had never heard anyone speak out about shame and honour-based violence, and I realised that I could help others who have been silenced by oppression.”

Shamsa is currently in her second year at Burnley College, Lancashire, where she is studying policing and hopes to become a police officer.

She said: “I think my purpose is to help other survivors. It’s really helped me deal with my own trauma.

“I want to help women understand that in this country, you can report abuse and seek justice for the wrongdoings of our culture.

“I want to help other survivors seek help and therapy, and to know that they don’t have to struggle in silence.

“Trauma doesn’t define you, and I want to use the pain of my past to give other survivors a voice.”