‘My dress was lifted, then something sharp cut me’: American woman who was forced to undergo female genital mutilation at age seven details the horrific ordeal as she tells why she refuses to be ‘viewed as a victim’

Mariya Taher, 33, underwent the painful procedure while she was on holiday in Mumbai, India, as a young girl
The campaigner, who now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said she remembers being taken to an ‘old-looking building’
She said she does not want to be ‘judged’ or ‘viewed as a victim’
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 500,000 women and girls in the US could be at risk of FGM

Miranda Bryant For Dailymail.com

Published:
11:26 EST, 22 June 2016

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Updated:
11:26 EST, 22 June 2016

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An American woman who underwent female genital mutilation when she was just seven years old has spoken out about undergoing the painful and terrifying procedure while she was on a family vacation in India.

Mariya Taher, now 33, said she remembers being taken to a run-down apartment while on holiday in Mumbai, being made to lay down on the floor, before she had her dress lifted up and felt ‘something sharp cut me’.

The campaigner, who lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has previously spoken out about her experiences before – but used a pseudonym whenever she appeared on camera so as not to put her family in any danger of reprisals, she told ABC News.

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Survivor: Mariya Taher, 33, pictured, has spoken out about undergoing female gential mutilation when she was seven years old while on holiday in Mumbai, India

Helping hand: The campaigner hopes that by sharing her story so publicly, she will be able to raise awareness about the issue, and offer support to other women like herself

‘I remember being taken to an old-looking building and going up a flight of stairs and going into the apartment building,’ she said.

‘I remember being put on the ground and my dress was pulled up, and I remember something sharp cut me.’

She first told her story last year under the name Sarah, whose sister was cut in the US, with her face obscured because she was worried about people’s reactions and the impact it might have on her family.

She said at the time: ‘I remember feeling pain. I was crying… I was scared during it because it hurt.’

But she has now decided to speak out in a bid to highlight the issue in a bid to help prevent it from happening to others.

‘I felt it was important to let people know that it does happen here in the United States and that it’s something that I’m against and it shouldn’t occur…

‘It’s definitely scary to come out with my face on camera because I don’t want to be judged for having undergone female genital cutting, or viewed as a victim.’

The campaigner added that, while she wishes she had not been cut as a child, she wants to use the painful experience for good.

Mariya started Sahiyo, an organization working to stop cutting through community engagement and education, and she is on the Massachusetts Female Genital Cutting Task Force trying to get state legislation to ban FGM.

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Global issue: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 500,000 women and girls in the US could be at risk of FGM, a statistic which Mariya hopes to raise more awareness about

Traumatic: The campaigner, who now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts , said she remembers being taken to an ‘old-looking building’

Voice of strength: Mariya insists that she does not want to be ‘judged’ or ‘viewed as a victim’

Motivations for forcing young females to be cut vary but more than three million girls are estimated to be at risk ever year.

It is most common in western, eastern and north-eastern Africa, parts of the Middle East and Asia but also other parts of the world.

It is illegal to carry out FGM in the US and in 2013 a federal law banned people from sending their children to other countries to have it done.

But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 500,000 women and girls in the US could be at risk of FGM at some point during their lives.

The World Health Organization identifies four different types of FGM which vary in severity.

Type one is a clitoridectomy, ‘the partial or total removal of the clitoris’ or skin around the clitoris, and type two is often described as excision, when the clitoris and the labia minora are partially or fully removed.

The third type is infibulation – ‘the narrowing of the vaginal opening through the creation of a covering seal’ – and type four is used to describe all other harmful mutilation of the female genitalia for non-medically-related reasons such as pricking and piercing.

Potential side effects of FGM include bleeding, infections, problems during childbirth and potentially fatal for newborns.