You might be shocked to learn that one of the most brutal practices imaginable, the female genital mutilation (FGM) of little girls, is an Alabama problem. I was born into a world where FGM was not an exception but the norm.

In Somalia, where I grew up, the chance that a girl will be cut is almost a certainty — 98 out of every 100 are. It is not a question of whether but of when. Although the percentage of Alabamian girls cut is much smaller, the two counties with the highest impacted population in the Southeast U.S. are in Alabama: Jefferson and Madison Counties.

I did not escape FGM, nor did anyone else in my community. I cannot keep quiet as girls in Alabama suffer the same fate.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: I survived female genital mutilation — Alabama’s girls shouldn’t have to – 1819 News