Community Voices in Europe: Mama Sylla empowers the Guinean community in the UK to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

Mama Sylla: from survivor to mobilising the Guinean community to end FGM

“I grew up knowing that FGM was normal, something we do to girls”, Mama recalls. “Until not long ago, about seven or ten years ago, in 2015.” For her, it was part of everyday life, until she moved to the United Kingdom and discovered a completely different reality.

“In 2015, when I was pregnant with my baby. I went for a routine check-in at the hospital. When you come from affected communities, your file will always include a question asking if you are a survivor of FGM or any other harmful practices. Once you say yes, they will just do a follow-up.” she explained. During the antenatal check-up, Mama found out about her FGM, its types and the legal consequences in the UK, where anyone who commits FGM faces up to 14 years in prison.

That medical appointment marked a turning point for her. “When I left the appointment, I was sitting on the bus, coming home. I started googling organisations working on FGM in the UK. But when I checked, they were working in many countries, yet Guinea was not there. I though wow, how come Guinea has such a high prevalence, and in the UK, FGM is a huge deal, but still, Guinea is not included? I called some of my friends. When I called them, I wouldn't say, ’Have you been cut?’ because I already knew they had. I would just ask : ‘What type of FGM do you have?’. And nine out of ten didn't know the type they had. That’s what prompted me to say, okay, we have our organisation, La Fraternité, which was set up in 2007.”

Building La Fraternité

Determined to change the lack of awareness about FGM in her community and to address the underrepresentation of her community in discussions on the issue, Mama transformed La Fraternité, originally a student support association into a community platform to address FGM and other practices. “Knowing that there are not many people in our community in the UK who understand the legal side of FGM, we started running sessions. La Fraternité was the first Guinea organisation to bring FGM to the table in the UK.”

Creating spaces for change

Mama’s first awareness session took place at a mosque in Peckham, where she worked with local religious leaders to engage the community. “To this day, it is still a taboo subject in our community” she said. But change comes unevenly.

Through her awareness sessions, some families vowed never to cut their daughters again. Others admit, “The only reason I'm not putting my daughter through it is because I live in this country. If I had the chance to go and do it and come back without no hassle, I would.”

Mama remains undeterred: “They are listening. We're starting somewhere.”

Barriers to progress

During these years, Mama has been deeply committed to driving change, showing that shifting perceptions of FGM within affected communities, especially by involving men in the discussion is possible. “In June, I held a session on FGM, and we had ten men and two women. They were sitting there, listening to what I was saying.”

However, challenges persist, as prejudices and taboo around FGM remains a constraint during awareness sessions, limiting the possibility of having an open dialogue. The lack of funding also poses difficulties. As Mama explains: “The main challenge is my community still wanting to continue this, especially the men. The second one is not having the tools to do so, as a UK-based charity, to go to Guinea and do the work. And thirdly, members of the same community see you as someone that has been westernised, thinking you have all the money and that's why you want to talk about it, but that's not the case. I want to talk about it because of my own experience.”

Recognition and impact

In 2015, Mama’s organisation received the Point of Light Award from the UK Prime Minister’s Office for its work in raising awareness about FGM. “I'm proud of that and the fact that it's us, La Fraternité, who brought our community into the discussion on FGM. I'm also proud that, through my experience and through the charity, we involved a lot of people into our fight to end FGM.”

Looking forward

Despite the challenges, she remains hopeful. Mama believes that real progress will come when grassroots voices are truly heard from institutions and stakeholders: “We know better, because we are the ones that went through it, and we know our community better than they do.”

Her vision is one of shared responsibility and collective action: “Invest on grassroots organisations. Work with them, listen to them, and invite them to the table, and make decisions together.”

In Europe, the issue of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) has only recently entered the public sphere. It wasn’t until the ratification of the Istanbul Convention in 2014, the Council of Europe’s landmark treaty on preventing and combating violence against women, that FGM was officially recognised as a form of gender-based violence within European borders. But this formal recognition was the result of years of persistent grassroots efforts by survivors, community advocates, and frontline organisations who refused to remain silent.

The Community Voices Project aims to spotlight six of these powerful voices: activists from FGM-affected communities across Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Through their stories, this project wants to spotlight how survivors are influencing policy, reshaping public discourse, and challenging the deeply ingrained social and cultural norms that continue to perpetuate FGM in diaspora communities.

To find out more about the project and the other activists’ journeys, click here!