Sahiyo

Sahiyo (the Bohra Gujarati word for 'saheliyo,' or friends) was founded in 2014 by five women: Mariya Taher, Aarefa Johari, Priya Goswami, India Dariwala,[1] and Shaheeda Tavawalla-Kirtane, who felt strongly about the ritual of 'khatna' or female genital cutting (FGC) in the Dawoodi Bohra community.[2] Sahiyo partnered with national and international NGOs such as German-Iraqi NGO Wadi, WeSpeakOut, Orchid Project, Tostan, and Breakthrough, among others.[2] In December 2015, these five women officially established the collective.[2]

In 2017, Sahiyo produced a report that indicated that female circumcision was practiced in India's Dawoodi Bohra community, as well as by other Muslim sects. In February 2019, Sahiyo investigators found a clinic in Kozhikode that practiced FGM.[3]

In November 2017, Sahiyo attended the European Forum to Build Bridges on FGM to encourage transnational cross-border cooperation to end FGC globally.[4] NGOs, lawyers, service providers, practitioners, donors, researchers, experts, lawyers, academics, civil servants, and activists from across the globe were in attendance.

From January 19 to 21, 2018, Sahiyo hosted their first annual U.S. Dawoodi Bohra Anti-Female Genital Cutting Activist Retreat.[5] The purpose of this retreat was to create a space for anti-FGC activists to share the challenges and opportunities they have found in advocating against FGM/C. Its purpose was to allow activists to share their pain and fears and to feel less alone in their work.

In August 2018, India Dariwala, a co-founder of Sahiyo, received a Shoor Veer award for her films, The Candy Man and Cock-tale, which delve into child abuse and sexual violence against women.[6]

Sahiyo was recognized by the Population Reference Bureau as one of the six inspiring organizations working to fight FGC.[2]

In September 2018, Sahiyo founder Aarefa Johari and Aysha Mahmood won the prestigious Laadli Media and Advertising Award for Gender Sensitivity for the year 2017 for their work on Sahiyo's investigative report on the prevalence of FGC in Kerala.[7]

Sahiyo established a U.S. Advisory Board to guide organizational direction.[8] The board consists of Arefa Cassoobhoy, Zehra Patwa, Alisha Bhagat, Maryum Saifee, Renee Bergstrom, India Dariwala, Joanne Golden, Priya Goswami, Aarefa Johari, Sakina Sharp, Murtaza Kapasi and Joanna Vergoth.

In 2019 Sahiyo launched "Saathi," a peer support network of veteran activists tasked to connect to and help young activists in their work as well as support their mental health.[9] In March, Sahiyo hosted its second annual Activists' Retreat, both in Mumbai and in New York, for women connected to the Bohra community who are concerned about FGC.[10] The purpose of the retreat was to forge stronger relationships with one another, share best practices, and provide tools for activists to use in their anti-FGC work. In 2019, Sahiyo was awarded a winner (1 of 3) in the ViiV Healthcare #EndFGM Positive Action Challenge. The #ENDFGM Positive Action Challenge supports innovative interventions to bring about a sustained change in attitudes and social norms toward ending FGC.[11] From March 16-19, Mariya Taher represented Sahiyo at the Women Deliver 2019 Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.[12] The purpose of the conference was to allow activists to have a place to speak openly and to give local issues a global stage. Taher spoke on a panel highlighting the prevalence of FGM/C globally, which is often not understood as such. She spoke about the prevalence of FGC specifically in the Dawoodi Bohra community both in India and across the world. From June 2-6, Sahiyo co-founder, Mariya Taher took part in Women Deliver 2019 held in Vancouver, Canada.[13] Over 8,000 participants took part in the conference and for the first time ever, a pre-conference on female genital cutting was held on June 2nd, a day before the official start of the Women Deliver Conference.[14] On June 13th, Sahiyo organized a roundtable of almost 60 experts from different disciplines and cultural groups that took the first steps to create a Massachusetts End FGM/C Network, to highlight the largely unrecognized global issue of female genital mutilation/cutting, and to share knowledge and resources to help end the practice.[15] The event was co-sponsored by the Muslim American Leadership Alliance (MALA), Tostan International, MassNOW, Lesley University, the U.S. End FGM/C Network, and the Women's Bar Association of Massachusetts. On December 8, Sahiyo partnered with FemmeCon, India's first women's health festival organized by TheaCare, a multimedia knowledge platform for women's health that uses interactive technologies to inform & empower women.[16]

On February 1, 2020, Sahiyo co-founder, India Dariwala was invited to speak on FGM/C at the 63rd annual conference of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, AICOG, in Lucknow, India. The conference was attended by 10,000 doctors from the Ob/Gyn field, and the focus was on Women's Sexual Health.[11] In April, due to COVID, Sahiyo hosted its third annual Activists' Retreat online.[11] On April 16, Sahiyo co-founder Aarefa partnered with StoryCenter's Silence Speaks program to offer a safe, online space where South Asian women's personal struggles and moments of courage could be shared and virtual community could be cultivated.[11] On April 21, Sahiyo partnered with API-GBV and U.S. End FGM/C Network for an educational webinar aiming to explore FGM/C in the United States, its connection to the broader anti-gender-based violence movement, and learning about the intervention and community engagement efforts occurring in this country.[17][18] In May, Sahiyo held a COVID-19 storytelling session for Voices to End FGM/C, whose purpose was to continue to create an online community for workshop alumni and survivors.[19] It provided a non-judgmental space for women to express their emotions regarding the practice. On June 13, Sahiyo co-founder Priya Goswami gave a keynote speech titled "Bringing Change through an On-ground Movement," at India's student-run online festival, Intesaab Fest 2020.[20] Voices to End FGM/C alumna Mariam Sabir's presentation on Sahiyo's storytelling workshop is selected for virtual display at the July 2020 AAFP National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students.[21] In October, one of the Voices to End FGM/C videos receives an honorable mention from the Sunhak Peace Prize at the Peace Motion Graphics Contest.[11] Mariya Taher, co-founder and executive director of Sahiyo U.S., received a Crave Foundation for Women grant in recognition of her work against FGC.[11] On July 30, Sahiyo joined forces with the Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation and the Council of the Great City Schools to host the webinar "Learning about Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) in the Classroom: The Importance of Nationwide Education as a Tool for Prevention".[22][23]

On February 26, 2021, Sahiyo launched Bhaiyo, an organization for male advocates against FGC. Bhai's mission is to work with Sahiyo, survivors, and community members to raise awareness of female genital cutting (FGC) in Asian and other communities, and support efforts to create a social norm shift toward ending FGC.[24] It aims to create a space where male allies can come together to collaborate, spark dialogue, and spread information about this form of gender-based violence and its harmful impacts. Bhaiyo has tasked itself to host online webinars, town halls, and community education events; role-play conversations/create short sketches; create international relationships in the form of exchange/mission trips to capture the groundwork of what is happening in regard to FGC; and to build awareness of the cultural, economic, and emotional consequences of FGC. In March, Sahiyo co-hosted a parallel session and organized the United Nation's Virtual 65th Commission on the Status of Women.[25] At the commission, they introduced their Voices to End FGM/C project, which brings the voices of survivors to the helm of the movement to end FGC.

In 2022, StoryCenter and Sahiyo hosted the sixth annual Voices to End FGM/C digital storytelling workshop virtually from January 14th, 2022 to February 25th. Sahiyo also launched the Critical Intersections research project, which explores how FGC survivors and advocates for change have often had to push back against racist narratives and/or other critical oppressive intersections in their work and in their journey towards healing. On January 20th, Sahiyo India held the webinar "How to Stop the Rising Trend of Medicalisation of Female Genital Cutting in Asia.[26] On February 1st, CARE Atlanta Global Innovation Hub[27] hosted a webinar on reproductive rights and justice and invited Sahiyo's U.S. Executive Director Mariya Taher to speak about FGC in the U.S. On February 6th, Sahiyo hosted the second iteration of the Sahiyo Discusses club with author Shabnam Samuel about her memoir, A Fractured Life.[28] Also on February 6th, Sahiyo officially launched the social media campaign, Each Bhaiyo, Reach Bhaiyo.[29] The goal of this campaign was to encourage members of the Sahiyo community to engage male allies in their communities and start conversations about FGC. On March 14th, Sahiyo partnered with the Global Platform at the 66th NGO Commission on the Status of Women to host a webinar called "Engaging Men to End Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting."[30] Sahiyo began a partnership with students from the University of Michigan, who conducted an analysis of Sahiyo's website and virtual services to assure their accessibility to all communities – with a particular focus on how communities impacted by disability are able to navigate our new website.[31]

• Official website
• Pinch of Skin (Short film)