Sarian and Alima, Two Women from Sierra Leone Everyone Must Know #16Days
Real activists make us uncomfortable. They challenge the status quo and force us to question our values and beliefs. Activists hold a mirror up to society to show how laws offer unequal protection or none at all to marginalized groups and individuals. While I often do activist work, I am not an activist. I am an activist ally; my role is to amplify. Being an activist is a calling. As we mark the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, I would like to spotlight two Sierra Leonean activists who answered that call and work at the frontlines against female genital cutting which causes female genital mutilation. In Sierra Leone, 90% of girls and women have experienced the violence of female genital cutting.
Sarian Kamara and Alima Dimonekene are FGM survivors who turned their trauma into activism. Sarian is the founder of Keep The Drums Loose The Knife, and Alima leads A Girl At A Time.
Both online, offline, in the diaspora, and in local communities, Sarian and Alima are frontline activists. They educate and advise policymakers and activist allies to increase FGM awareness and inform policy changes and programs that protect girls and women from FGC's violence. They also train healthcare and social workers in the diaspora on addressing FGC & FGM in the UK. It is illegal to cut a girl in the UK; it is legal in Sierra Leone.
You may know Sarian from WomenDeliver 2019, where she successfully engaged the First Lady of Sierra Leone on the damage caused by FGC. She was also recognized by Prime Minister Theresa May as a Point of Light for her outstanding volunteerism to end FGM's practice in the UK. Even before she officially founded KTDLTK, Sarian self-funded countless trips to Sierra Leone to work with communities to develop alternatives to cutting. She speaks her truth and is also the first to offer an olive branch to those women's leaders from Sierra Leone who seek to preserve the cutting to maintain their social standing.
If Sierra Leone had a global anti-FGM campaign, Alima Dimonekene would be its North Star. More than any other activist in recent times Alima has caused me the most discomfort (read as growth). She is a right pain in the ass for anyone who is a leader in Sierra Leone or has a platform and isn't against FGC. When I was on the fence about being an anti-FGM ally, she never let my tweets that were pro-women and girls rest without a challenge. How can you be for women's equality, a feminist reimagining a new world order, and be on the fence about lending your voice to end FGM? Indeed I could not.
Before Alima launched A Girl At A Time, she formed the Not In My Name Coalition, a group of local and foreign-based #endFGM activists calling for a ban on FGM in Sierra Leone.
Alima's activist life began six years ago in the UK House of Parliament. For the first time, she spoke out about the pain, trauma, and depression she endured since undergoing female genital cutting in Sierra Leone at the age of 16. She explained out the cutting left her with post-traumatic stress disorder and caused pregnancy complications.
Like Sarian, Alima primarily uses her resources to safeguard Sierra Leonean girls against FGM and engage communities both locally and in the UK Diaspora about the painful costs of female genital cutting.
What makes Alima outstanding is her commitment to local collaboration and uplifting local women activists. Through the Not In My Name Coalition, she amplifies the voices of many young women who otherwise would not be heard.
Alima is also a cheerleader for Sierra Leonean women, even those on the other side of the FGC debate. Like Sarian, she is open to educate and agitate with love and empathy, believing that she can convert even the most staunch Pro-FGMer (of which there are many amongst the ranks of Sierra Leone's most respected women's leaders).
The fight to end FGM in Sierra Leone is still early days. Most women who have undergone the cutting are either too scared to speak or believe that the cutting though painful, is still a necessary rite of passage for girls.
Also, we allow our leaders to be duplicitous about their positions on girls and women's rights. They commit to girls' education but not their protection from violence. Thankful for Alima and Sarian, who do not let anyone slide; they are activists who understand that to safeguard girls and women against gender-based violence like female genital cutting, you have to make people uncomfortable by feeding them the truth.
More of us should be like them.
