Mother-of-two seeking asylum in Portsmouth is scared her daughter will go through same FGM experience

Asuma (her name has been changed to protect her identity) from Sierra Leone in West Africa is one of at least 200 million women and girls alive today who are thought to have undergone some form of FGM.

She fled her village in August last year before coming to Portsmouth.

The 31-year-old said: ‘In my village my grandmother was the lead on FGM and when she died my father told me as the oldest daughter I would have to take her place.

‘I did not want to. I wanted no part in FGM against women and children.’

Asuma was nine months pregnant at the time and was forced to undergo FGM herself.

She said: ‘It made me lose my baby.

‘I had to go to hospital with my baby who had died in my stomach. It was then that I decided that I needed to leave. I had to leave.’

Asuma fled the village with her eight-year-old daughter and stayed with friends.

She said: ‘My family came looking for me and so I kept moving and staying with other friends. I knew that I had to leave the country and paid lots of money to join a programme to help me.’

With tears in her eyes she speaks of the hard decision to leave her daughter behind while she made the move to England.

She said: ‘I tried to find the women who helped me move but I met a man who said he would help me. I lived with him and worked for him but he forced me to do things.

‘I ended up pregnant but I wanted to keep my baby.’

Asuma, who is currently seeking asylum, moved out to live with another woman but was kicked out after suffering from terrifying nightmares.

She said: ‘I would wake up screaming. I could not sleep and when I did I would have nightmares. I was thinking about what had happened to me and I was thinking about my daughter.

‘I am scared my mother and sister will find her and take her back to the village. I am scared the same thing will happen to my daughter.

‘My family agree with the FGM practice but I do not. If I go back to my country I will lose my life.’

Now living in Portsmouth, Asuma is hoping the future holds better things.

She added: ‘I have my daughter with me and I hope my other daughter will be able to join me here.

‘That will make my life better.’