ctivist and UN goodwill ambassador Sabrina Dhowre Elba stated she felt it was her “moral duty” to assist a marketing campaign in opposition to feminine genital mutilation/reducing (FGM/C) which is “prevalent” in her Somalian tradition.

Ms Elba, who married Luther actor Idris Elba in 2019, was on the House of Lords on Monday with London-based charity The Vavengers, to launch the One Question Campaign which was born from the NHS’s lack of information on the dimensions of FGM/C within the UK.

FGM/C is the reducing or removing of the exterior feminine genitals, which is unlawful within the UK, and leads to “lifelong pain, trauma, and mental and physical health problems”, the charity stated.

At the House of Lords occasion, hosted by patron Baroness Boycott, the charity introduced the FGM/C healthcare inequalities report back to the chief nursing officer for England, Dame Ruth May.

The report recommends including the query “Have you been subjected to FGM/C” to the nationwide database and all affected person types within the UK; making reconstructive surgical procedure out there on the NHS and providing sustained psychological well being providers out there to survivors.

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Ms Elba instructed the PA news company: “It was extremely emotional, I think in part because I was so surprised even as someone who comes from a culture where this is still practised.

“I thought perhaps I did know everything, or knew more than I did, but there’s so much more to be learned and understood, and I think what was most prevalent today was how much there has to be learned at the systematic level, to be able to create the changes that need to be changed, because really what was asked for inside is not a big ask, it’s just basic standards of practice that should send the signal that the UK does care.”

Ms Elba stated it was her first time visiting the House of Lords which she described as “quite grand”, notably as she comes from Canada.

The mannequin and activist has been an advocate for gender equality and the empowerment of girls and women worldwide for a few years, changing into a UN goodwill ambassador alongside her husband in April 2020.

Speaking about her ardour for championing the case in opposition to FGM/C, she instructed PA: “There is a cultural closeness because I am a Somalian woman.

“It is something that is prevalent in my culture but also because I feel I have a responsibility, a moral duty, to speak out about something that is abusive towards children.

“I think it’s easy to hide behind the cultural aspect of it, but really when we’re looking at the root cause, it’s gender violence and it’s child abuse.

“It’s about controlling women and their bodies, so I feel a moral duty to stand up and speak against it.”

Ms Elba additionally stated “it is about time” that we noticed the top of FGM/C and she or he hoped the House of Lords occasion will spark change as a result of “the longer we wait the more abuse is happening”.

Baroness Boycott stated it was “tremendous” to have Ms Elba supporting the marketing campaign and she or he stays “completely puzzled” why the UK has not acknowledged and recognised the issue.

She instructed PA: “This is not a small problem. This is not an isolated case of something happening.

“This is massive and we don’t even know how many people in this country have undergone it, not every case gets found by any means.

“It’s incredibly important that we break the barrier now and that it doesn’t pass on generationally, because even though there have been laws in place, it has still been passed on generationally.”

The marketing campaign hopes to get vital figures to signal a pledge to implement the obligatory one query about FGM/C in addition to advocate for higher long-term psychological well being assist and reconstructive surgical procedure for survivors.

Hoda Ali, co-founder of the charity and survivor of FGM, stated it was her expertise as a nurse within the UK which made her realise the significance of training on the subject.

She instructed PA: “This today is very emotional for me but also it is one of the best days in my life.

“Twenty-one years I have been campaigning and doing activism work and training doctors and nurses single-handedly when no-one was talking about it in the NHS.

“I know that we are opening the door for the future generation but also empowering and paving the way for those girls, so they can come and speak up for themselves and the people around them.

“My body belongs to me, it doesn’t belong to nobody else.

“Female genital mutilation took away my childhood because being hospitalised all the time, but also it denied me to be a mother. I can’t have my own child.

“So it’s breaking that barrier. Yes, I can’t change what happened to me, but being here today, I have so much hope.”

Anti-FGM activist Dr Leyla Hussein, who was a sufferer of the observe as a baby, and Dr Jasmine Abdulcadir, who based a clinic for the care of girls dwelling with FGM/C in Switzerland, had been amongst these on the occasion.