On July 16th, Sahiyo Cofounder and U.S. Executive Director, Mariya Taher was invited to attend the 3rd Annual Intersections of Violence:  Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, and Child Abuse Conference in Hampton, VA and host a break-out session on female genital cutting (FGC) in the United States. The conference is dedicated to enhancing the effectiveness of victims service professionals and brought together law enforcement, prosecutors, victim advocates, child advocates, and other allied professionals to highlight promising practices and emerging issues to effectively respond to domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse in our communities.  

Mariya’s presentation, the only one of its kind at the conference, covered an overview of who is affected by FGC, interventions used to address FGC, and how to work/respond to survivors. Most attendees had little experience with FGC and so throughout the presentation, survivor stories, from Sahiyo Stories project were shown to participants to help contextualize that FGC was an issue within the U.S. affecting women of all different backgrounds, including religion, ethnicity, socio-economic status, education level, citizenship status, etc.