FGM

Female genital mutilation is tantamount to sexual assault and despite people's religious and cultural traditions, experts say it needs to stop.

"Do you want every time you go and try to engage sexually with your wife for her to burst into tears? "If the system is never built to protect the women and children, there's no point of me running workshops every day saying FGM is wrong because the system allows for this to happen." She implores men to also ask themselves what it would be like for them to have sex with a woman who's in constant pain and distress when being intimate. Wade](https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2022/06/06/roe-v-wade-abortion-overturn-lead-mental-health-risk-experts/9853538002/) as a prime example of America prioritizing religion over women's bodies. Though the practice is notoriously associated with Islam, FGM also happens in Christian and Jewish communities as well, according to [ Building Bridges to End FGM](https://copfgm.org/2020/09/fgm-is-not-required-by-the-founding-doctrines-of-the-three-great-monotheist-religions), but is not mentioned in their holy texts. And this is being done by people you trust the most, so you lose trust in people. "Because there's nowhere in Islam that says this should be done to any woman." pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterizing the genital area." She and her older sister survived [ female genital mutilation](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/09/16/female-genital-mutilation-fgm-secret-network-doctors/8365052002/) and were circumcised as children, the model first revealed to a therapist during an emotional hypnotherapy session on a recent "Housewives" episode. "I have clients that I've worked with who've said, 'I'm not mutilated, this is a source of pride for me'." She's learned through her research that though it may be difficult to fathom, in certain cultures this is a way the elder women, with the approval of men, believe they are protecting their girls. Ayan's experience with FGM began when her grandmother and aunt came to pick her and her sister up under the guise of an ordinary family visit.