Hoda Ali is a nurse and human rights activist defending the rights of girls through working and campaigning to end female genital mutilation in the United Kingdom.

Hoda Ali
Hoda Ali in May 2018

She works as a Community Outreach Project Manager for Safeguarding in Perivale Primary School, one of the first schools to set up an outreach programme on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), a practice carried out on young girls normally up to age. Ali believes education is very important for preventing FGM.

Life and work

edit

Ali underwent FGM in Somalia at the age of 7.[1] Complications she has endured since then include acute hospitalisations, inability to have children and early menopause. She now campaigns against female genital mutilation including that carried out by medical professionals.[2][3][4]

In 2014 Ali co-founded the Vavengers, an FGM awareness-raising group. Their first event funded 'It happens here', a campaign of billboards in Islington and Ealing. This campaign won the CLIO Award for Advertiser of the Year in 2015, and Ali was delegated to New York to accept the prize on behalf of the advertising agency Ogilvy Mather.[5][6][7]

In March 2018 she was nominated as an Amnesty International Human Rights Defender, and appears on the Suffragette Spirit Map.[8][9]

She is a trustee for 28TooMany, a registered charity established "to undertake research and provide knowledge and tools to those working to end FGM in the countries in Africa where it is practised and across the diaspora worldwide".[10]

Media appearances

edit

In 2013 Ali appeared in 'The Cruel Cut', a BAFTA-nominated Channel 4 documentary about female genital mutilation presented by psychotherapist and activist Leyla Hussein.[11][12]

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ "'FGM is child abuse. Full stop.' - Ealing News Extra". ealingnewsextra.co.uk. Archived from the original on 21 July 2021. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
  2. ^ "Meet the British survivors of genital mutilation". Metro. 4 November 2016. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  3. ^ Carson, Mary; Daly, Claire (16 June 2016). "The sickening trend of medicalised FGM". the Guardian. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  4. ^ Attias, Aviva. "RCM launches powerful animations to help end FGM | Royal College of Midwives". www.rcm.org.uk. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
  5. ^ Commons, Jess. "Meet The Vavengers: Get To Know The Activists Working To End FGM". Refinery29. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
  6. ^ "Ogilvy & Mather London Wins Grand CLIO". O&M UK. Archived from the original on 26 September 2020. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
  7. ^ "Mission partner's charity wins prestigious advertising award". Church Mission Society. 1 October 2015. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
  8. ^ "The Suffragette Spirit Map". Amnesty International. 2018.
  9. ^ Patel, Salina (8 March 2018). "Meet the inspirational west London women defending human rights who are being celebrated in the suffragette movement". Get West London. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  10. ^ "About Us - 28 Too Many". www.28toomany.org. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
  11. ^ "Bafta TV awards 2014: Winners in full". BBC News. 18 May 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
  12. ^ "Raising awareness about female genital mutilation: What can we do to help? - Institute of Global Health Innovation". Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London. 27 October 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2018.