A survivor of female genital mutilation is training to be a police officer so she can help other abuse victims.
Shamsa Sharawe, who grew up in Somalia, hopes to bring perpetrators to justice after she was circumcised with a dirty razor at just six years old.
Without anaesthetic, she was held down by adults as the cultural ritual was performed.
Her mother was horrified and they fled to the UK – where the barbarity of what happened dawned on Shamsa.
She is now in her second year studying policing at Burnley College, Lancs, and will qualify in summer 2023.
Shamsa, 29, says: “I think my purpose is to help other survivors. It’s really helped me deal with my own trauma.
“I want to help women understand that in this country, you can report abuse and seek justice for the wrongdoings of our culture.
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“I want to help other survivors seek help and therapy, and to know that they don’t have to struggle in silence.”
FGM – which involves partial or total removal of external female genitalia for non-medical reasons – is illegal in the UK.
Shamsa, who is campaigning for FGM to be renamed female genital cutting, lived with extended family in Moqokori, where girls who refused surgery were branded “shameful”.
A doctor known as “The Cutter’’ performed the op. Then Shamsa was covered in the blood of a slaughtered animal and made to stand in the sun while it dried.
Shamsa said: ‘’It was horrendous. I was in so much shock I became numb. It took about an hour but it felt much longer. You feel everything. They wrapped our legs together for 24 hours and we couldn’t walk for a week. I cried for months afterwards.”
Her mother Gani, who was working in Saudi Arabia at the time, secured UK visas and, in 2001, they moved to Wembley, north-west London. It was during school sex education lessons that the past trauma hit Shamsa.
She says: “I felt like half a woman. I felt so insecure and didn’t feel desirable at all. I carried that secret for years, and it really affected my mental health.”
A trip back to Somalia in 2010 brought more pain – she was forced into an arranged marriage and ended up fleeing to the UK again, in 2012.
Her mother had died and Shamsa – disowned by her family – felt broken.
Police studies brought a vital focus and last year Shamsa created a YouTube channel highlighting abuse. It has 4,200 subscribers.
She adds: “So many other women share my burden. I want to show they have someone within the police they can trust. I can’t wait to represent them and fight for them.
