Original subtitles

(chuckles)

(tense music)

(bright guitar music)

(tense music)

(chatters)

(bright upbeat music)

(air whooping)

- I remember that last day.

The day I felt 'that's it'

My life had ended.

(airplane engine roaring)

There was a lot of fighting.

(airplane engine roaring)

(bomb blasts)

The day they now call 'the last fall of Mogadishu'

(gun fires)

I had run away from the man my grandma made me marry.

(gun fires)

He was 50 years old

When you're 15, 50 feels very old.

(gun fires)

There was a woman running beside me.

She was very pregnant.

She could give birth at any moment.

(gun fires)

And the woman ahead of me,

she kept on screaming,

"Don't look back!

Don't look back."

God forgive me, I kept on running.

I will never forget that woman

(tense music)

(gun fires)

Every which way I tried to go, the road was blocked

There was no way out of Mogadishu.

(gun fires)

So I tried to go back home to Hamar Weyne.

I wanted to see if my father and brother were there.

It was the last day I saw my father.

- Ifrah!

- And the day my brother disappeared.

(foreign language)

(dramatic music)

- There was no light that night in Mogadishu,

no electricity at all and no sign of anybody at home.

I waited and waited

but they never came back.

(gun fires)

(car engine roaring)

(dramatic music)

All day I kept on looking out the window,

hoping my father might come home.

Or send a sign.

But it wasn't them.

That was when the military occupied the house.

(woman crying)

(chatters)

(tense music)

They had used me hard

pushing and pushing again and again.

My grandma called my uncle, the doctor, to fix me.

(tense music)

My auntie had sent the money from America

to pay my uncle, the doctor.

- Bye-bye.

- My grandma had to leave to fetch food for my sister

at the camp in Afgooye.

But I was still too weak to travel

(foreign language)

I couldn't read and I couldn't write

but he was sure we had her telephone number in America.

(foreign language)

- So we went to a place called Al Braquaad

where you can make international phone calls.

(chattering)

(foreign language)

- It was a lot and lot of money.

They made the arrangements, and my auntie,

she sent some money for us to collect from a local bank.

(foreign language)

(dramatic music)

- Ifrah.

(foreign language)

(gun fires)

(foreign language)

- When we were half way there,

we were stopped by the military.

(fire roaring)

(tense music)

(foreign language)

- They threatened to rape all of the women without papers

unless the bus driver paid a ransom.

(foreign language)

(gun fires)

(tense music)

(bus engine roaring)

(foreign language)

(bright upbeat music)

(bus engine roaring)

(bus engine stops)

(foreign language)

- Ifrah?

(foreign language)

- I wasn't the only girl with the trafficker

but I was probably the youngest.

(foreign language)

- Maybe that was why he was watching me.

(foreign language)

(bus engine roaring)

(foreign language)

- When we get to Addis,

a family comes to meet the bus driver.

And the woman waiting for him is dressed Somali.

(foreign language)

- Ifrah?

(dramatic music)

Ifrah?

(dramatic music)

(foreign language)

- I stayed there maybe two or three days.

Then the man they call Hassan,

he came to collect me.

(knocks door)

(foreign language)

(bus engine roaring)

(foreign language)

- Then he took back the passport.

And he told me he would give it to me again at Immigration.

I wasn't to talk to him there either.

(plane engine roaring)

They brought food to eat wrapped up in silver packets.

The smell was so terrible.

It made me want to vomit.

Or maybe it was my nerves making me nauseous.

(plane engine roaring)

(foreign language)

- I didn't know what country it was.

Or that we were only there to go through Immigration.

I had to make sure to wear my scarf differently

and hide my face.

I think that he knew it wasn't me

because of the way he was looking.

But God was with me.

We stayed a long time in transit.

For hours and hours we waited.

I couldn't understand the food.

I could drink the Orange Juice.

It was sweet and at least I knew what it was.

That's why I still love so much Orange Juice.

(soft piano music)

(orchestral music)

- When you wear the scarf like this,

how do they know it's your face?

They don't.

And they couldn't tell me to remove it

because this is my religion.

- How are you Ifrah?

Welcome home, love.

(tense music)

(foreign language)

- I'd heard of America, and Australia and England

and Italy of course because Italy colonized Somalia.

But never Ireland.

- Where are you off to? - Ballsbridge.

- Near the American Embassy.

(foreign language)

- I had no idea what is a refugee.

What asylum is.

Nothing.

(foreign language)

- 28 euros now.

- Here is your money.

Thank you very much.

(foreign language)

(tense music)

- What's your name, dear?

Where are you from?

Ni-o-wa-ti-o-lati,

Nigeria?

(foreign language)

I think he knew by the look of me.

and me when I hear him say 'Somalia'.

oh my God.

- [Voiceover] So yes, she has just arrived from Somalia.

Her name is Ifrah.

Ifrah Ahmed.

And she is alone.

(foreign language)

- No, she's just feeling cold.

Very cold.

- Tea, water, coffee, anybody?

- Somalian.

Maybe 16.

No question.

Definitely a minor.

- She brings me water.

Cold water.

And I drink the water and I feel even more cold.

Then I had lots of long, very, very long interviews.

- That's all the information.

I just need a signature.

I just need you to sign here.

- They kept asking me where I had come from.

Why I was in Ireland?

How I got here?

- Muhamad, would you ask Ifrah why her hand is shaking?

- [Interpreter] Probably because she cannot write.

(foreign language)

- [Interpreter] It's true.

Her hand is shaking because of cold.

But she can't write.

- Because I was an unaccompanied minor seeking Asylum,

they put me into care with a social worker.

- Give your hand.

- [Woman] Ifrah.

(soft piano music)

- To this day I still wonder where she got that jumper.

- Thank you, Muhamad.

We've got everything now.

- I wish I knew who it was

that gave it me so I could go and thank them.

- Hi Amala.

Thanks for staying so late for us.

(foreign language)

- Do you know each other?

- No.

We meet here.

But still we are sisters.

(flute music)

(foreign language)

- And when I couldn't sleep,

she let me lie with her to feel safe.

The most obvious challenge I faced in my new life

was the language.

- Cornflakes?

- As well as the food.

- Make sure she's okay there please, Amala.

(soft piano music)

(chatters)

(laughs)

- Out.

Now.

Please.

Out.

Come on.

Amala.

We do not resort to violence to resolve our issues here.

Amala, translate, would you?

If we have a problem, we discuss it and find a solution.

(foreign language)

- Amala, do you still have your translator?

Do you know,

I have a feeling you don't actually need it anymore.

Do you mind if we give it to Ifrah?

(foreign language)

- She wants you to teach her English.

- We'll need Ifrah now for her intake medical screening.

Amala, would you explain to Ifrah

that in order to process her Asylum application

she's required to have a routine medical examination.

- Yeah.

(foreign language)

- Okay, girls.

Let's go back and have breakfast.

(soft piano music)

- My social worker made all my appointments for me.

- Ifrah, that's Muhamd.

Who translated for us on the telephone.

(foreign language)

- First, they try to explain me the blood tests

and medical exams.

- Can you explain that

I have put myself down as Ifrah's guardian

until she's 18.

(foreign language)

- And we will need to do a routine test for HIV.

(foreign language)

- So now I have somebody from my own country

translating what HIV is.

And telling me that I'm not to worry,

that if I have it I will be treated and given medication.

And Hepatitis.

Don't worry if you have it, he says,

there's medication and you'll be treated for that too.

The same for tuberculosis and STDs.

There were more diseases than I had ever heard of.

- For girls,

there's also a routine gynecological examination

and a pregnancy test.

(foreign language)

- She asks,

"Even if you are pregnant,

is there a solution for that, too?"

- Great.

So, it seems that we're almost done.

Just the smear test and that's it.

- Smear test.

Smear test.

- But there was one condition

for which they had not legislated.

- Let's get you changed.

Can you explain?

- She means you put this on.

(foreign language)

- You take off your clothes.

(foreign language)

- Put your arms through here.

(foreign language)

- Tie at the top.

(foreign language)

- And pop up on the seat.

(foreign language)

We'll leave you to get changed in private.

(foreign language)

- The doctor will be in soon.

He will do a quick examination and then we're done.

(foreign language)

(soft piano music)

- Ready?

Just pop yourself up here, okay?

Don't worry.

The doctor will be with you shortly.

- So, who do we have here now?

Ifrah Ahmed all the way from Somalia.

If you can just get Ifrah ready there, thank you.

Ifrah, we're going to just do a little examination

down below.

Nothing to worry about.

If you can just stand close to me while I'm examining Ifrah.

Ifrah, everything's going to be okay now.

Just relax now.

We'll just do a little examination down below, okay?

- Don't worry.

You're safe.

Very good.

Okay, Ifrah.

Now

Okay. we're not going to proceed in here.

(tense music)

- Here's something to drink, darling.

- Then they explain me that they got a shock

and they keep apologizing and talking and asking,

how did you get injured and what happened to you?

- Ifrah, I've asked Muhammad to come down and join us.

Muhammad, Ifrah has been upset by the examination.

Could you explain to her that

we're sorry if she has been upset.

(foreign language)

- I'd follow the rest up I thought, yeah.

- Muhammad, would you ask Ifrah why this happened to her.

And I just kept saying to Muhammad,

"I'm not injured.

It is not an injury."

(foreign language)

And I have to go with another doctor.

A woman doctor.

- Ifrah, this is a colleague of mine

who is going to look after you.

- Would you ask her, how did it happen?

(foreign language)

(Ifrah sobbing)

My name is Ifrah Ahmed.

I am citizen of Ireland.

And a survivor of Female Genital Mutilation.

Adding my voice to the campaign

for awareness and understanding,

for legislative reform and the eradication of FGM/C

has been the greatest gift of my life so far.

The gift of survival.

The gift of a voice where before there was only silence.

Silence may be the rust on the razor

with which they threatened to cut my throat.

But it was not my tongue they cut!

- So Ifrah would have had Full-on Type III FGM/C.

- Yeah.

- That would be typical in Somalia.

- The procedure is carried out

by a traditional practitioner.

And they use a razor blade

without an anesthetic to cut her.

- Cut her how?

- Well, they cut off her clitoris completely.

- Oh, holy God.

- And then they sew it back up.

- Horrific.

- So now I'm thinking it must be time for some answers.

And from the looks on their faces,

I'm thinking they are going to tell me that the tests say

I have some other disease.

(foreign language)

- Oh, no.

No, Ifrah.

There's nothing like that wrong with you.

(foreign language)

- But in my head I was thinking,

that the way they did this check-up thing to me,

with the special tests for girls

I knew it.

If it happened to me,

this FGM thing,

then it must have happened to them too.

So I ask them first.

Because we speak the same language.

And it's something personal to all of us.

(foreign language)

- I asked them if it had happened to them.

(foreign language)

(Ifrah sobbing)

(tense music)

So I say to her,

look, we have to do something.

To explain to Irish people about our tradition.

So they understand our culture.

And I say to myself,

until girls like me are free of the fear,

the pain, the shame and medical consequences of cutting,

I will not stop.

I will not stop talking.

I will not stop talking, until we are free of FGM.

But first, I had to learn the language.

So I went to all the English classes I could.

- Right, so this is parts of the body.

Parts of the body, right?

The first one is, eye.

Eye.

- [All] Eye.

- Very good.

So this one here is ear.

Ear.

- [All] Ear.

- Very good.

This one is nose.

Nose.

Come on, nose.

- [All] Nose.

- Very good.

This one is hand.

- [All] Hand.

- See this one?

Hand.

That's it exactly, hand.

- What is this?

- What is it?

- What is this?

- That would be,

that would be private parts.

Private parts.

Say it, yeah?

- Private parts.

- Yep.

- I-F-R-AH.

Ifrah.

- Excellent work.

I promise you.

Well done, Ifrah.

That's really impressive.

How's it going here?

- Amazing.

- Great.

(soft piano music)

- Walk.

- Walk.

- [Voiceover] Walking.

- Walking.

- [Voiceover] Walked.

- Walked.

- [Voiceover] Walk.

- Walk.

- [Voiceover] Walked.

- Walked.

Oh! Walk.

Walking.

Walked.

Walk.

Walking.

Walked.

Walk.

Walking.

Walked.

Walk.

Walking.

Walked!

Walk.

Walking.

Walked!

(laughing)

- 'The' the most common word.

- Be, the most common verb.

- "Good".

The most common adjective.

But we're in Ireland, so grand.

it's grand!

Yeah, the weather is grand.

Sure, that's grand!

- Grand.

- Grand!

(laughs)

(soft piano music)

Va-gee-na.

Vah-Ghuy-na.

Vah-gi-nhu.

- [Voiceover] Vagina.

- Vagina.

(laughs)

Vagina.

I needed to learn it fast first.

So I could tell my story.

Studying the language and the issues.

So I could start to talk about

a thing I think we all know a lot about.

But a thing we don't talk about

About the cutting.

I remember when we had our FGM done,

they brought us all to a small room.

It was my grandma's hut.

(tense music)

There were soft straw mattresses, one for each of us.

I was eight years old.

And very excited.

It was Eid Al Fitr.

A little like Christmas.

I remember the doctor, my uncle,

he was in a smaller room.

Hiding behind a dried grass curtain.

But I could see him.

And my grandmother organized it.

And it was her brother, my uncle,

who made his living doing the 'cutting'.

They were close

and they decided to do the 'cutting'

for the whole family that holiday.

For Eid.

Me, my sister Hanii, my uncle's daughter,

my father's two daughters and six of our other cousins.

(screaming)

You could hear the screaming

from the other room and nothing you could do.

Every second or third girl,

he was pouring boiling water on the razor blade.

For to clean it.

My grandma,

she was holding the girls for my uncle to cut.

And my Father's other wife

was carrying the girls into the room

and tying their legs together.

They kept us tied for 40 days and 40 nights.

So we couldn't move.

The worst thing is the pain.

When you have to wee.

With your legs that are tied.

And you have to lie their on one side

and you can't go to the toilet.

It's hard to describe how horrific.

How much it hurt.

One of the girls who was cut at the same time as me,

she just wouldn't wee.

So she got an infection.

And her stomach swelled way up.

She was crying and moaning all the time.

And her blood pressure got sky high.

Then, she went quiet.

She died.

I got my Type III,

which is the worst kind of cutting.

They cut everything.

I wasn't the first and I wasn't the last.

But I was somewhere in the middle.

- [Woman] DJ, cut to graphics!

- I remember my grandma was holding me by my arm,

very, very tight.

Pulling me in.

But what I didn't know then was

what we all now know here today.

That this cutting thing,

this so-called cultural ritual.

It is not some Muslim tradition condoned

in the name of religion.

It is mutilation.

Female Genital Mutilation.

- She's fantastic.

Christ, can she hold a crowd.

- I thought you'd be impressed.

- A human rights violation

that detrimentally effects the health

of 140 million women worldwide.

- It's still a bit too taboo a topic, though.

To position it front and center

of the Presidential Campaign Human Rights Agenda.

- I'm processing her for political Asylum, anyhow.

- Thank you Ifrah for sharing

your story with us here today.

- [Woman] FGM is torture.

- Nice to meet you.

- Joe Costello, TD here.

If there's ever anything I can do,

don't hesitate.

- Oh, me take picture?

- Sure.

Sure.

(soft orchestral music)

You look good.

Nice to meet you.

- I could tell he was important.

An Irish Labor Party Minister.

Of course, I didn't hesitate, I mean, to seek his support.

As we say in Ireland,

'I'm not backward about coming forward!'

(chatters)

So when we launched the campaign

for FGM legislation in Ireland

he was with us all the way.

- Hold it there.

Hold it there.

- I'm here to meet Joe Costello TD.

- Is he expecting you?

- Yes.

He is.

We should be inside and in our seats,

Ifrah, before the President arrives, Pronto.

- Okay, Amala.

Come on girls.

- No, no, no, no

- Ifrah, love, this is a tough event ticket-wise.

President of the United States!

I've only the one invite and that's made out to you.

- Oh, sorry.

Me and my English.

I'm always mixing up, you know, when 'you' is just 'me'

and when 'you' is 'all of you'.

But sure, we're all here now anyway now sorry.

- All right, I got to move them along.

- Okay, girls.

We can go in.

- But, they're part of the Presidential entourage.

- You're pulling my leg.

- I'll vouch for them.

- Let's take a picture.

Smile.

- Well, it's more than my job's worth.

When you're splashed across the six o'clock news

for turning away 20 African Irish women

from the first African American President address

to the Dail.

It'll be more than your job's worth then.

The woman taking the photographs there;

I've seen her on the telly, right?

- She's huge on social media too.

Did you get me?

- Which was true.

We were getting a lot of traction on social media.

A little more conventional press

and we could push the FGM agenda

to a whole other political level.

(shouting)

- All right.

Okay.

Listen to me.

Public Gallery, though.

Your public conscience will be clear!

This way, Ifrah.

- We were thinking bit, but it was still a big risk.

Of what we did.

We had no idea what to expect.

If we'd be thrown out of the Obama event.

Or even out of the country.

But I knew we'd get attention for the FGM campaign

and that's all that mattered in the moment.

- In dreams begin responsibility.

(applauding)

And embracing that responsibility, working toward it,

overcoming the cynics and the naysayers

and those who say "you can't"

that's what makes dreams real.

(applauding)

This little country, that inspires the biggest things,

your best days are still ahead.

Our greatest triumph is still to come.

In Ireland, if anyone ever says otherwise

if anybody ever tells you that your problems are too big

or your challenges are too great

just respond with a simple creed:

'Is féidir linn.'

Yes we can!

(applauding)

- Yes we can!

Yes we can!

- Yes we can!

Is féidir linn.

For all you've contributed

to the character of the United States of America

and the spirit of the world,

thank you.

And may God bless the eternal friendship

between our two great nations.

Thank you very much, everybody.

Thank you, Dublin.

Thank you, Ireland.

Yes we can!

Yes we can!

- So now suddenly everybody wanted to interview me.

To hear my story.

It was an endless whirlwind of media events and interviews.

On the occasion of President Obama's visit to Ireland,

I can't help but think what better way

to recognize that whether black or white we are all women.

Women who share the same fears

and are entitled to the same rights,

the same human rights,

no matter where we come from.

- Ifrah, are you ever in touch with your family

in Somalia at all?

- When I get my passport, I'd like to go back to Somalia

to look for my Father.

And if ever I see her again, I'd like to ask my grandma

what was it all about.

All this cutting.

But that was the question I should never have answered.

- What is it you hope to achieve tonight

with this Irish Ethnic Fashion Show?

- The FGM Campaign Fund-Raising Fashion Show

is meant to be a positive celebration of women.

All women of any ethnicity.

Whatever their experience of FGM.

- And is it appropriate, do you think,

to mix FGM and a beauty pageant?

- It is not just about beauty, or body image.

But about appreciating beauty in diversity.

And celebrating all that is worthwhile

and beautiful in being female.

- Still no sign of him.

Sorry, sorry.

(phone vibrates)

- Oh fuck Emer!

- What?

- Big favor.

You're free tonight, aren't you?

- Yes.

- Joe?

We've started.

Are you nearly here?

- Ifrah, would you be really angry

if I didn't make it tonight?

Emer says she'll go.

Of course not, I said.

Just heart-broken!

So he sent a stand-in.

The then Mayor of Dublin and now an MEP here,

his wife Emer Costello.

(applauding)

Please, everyone,

be up-standing for the Mayor of Dublin, Emer Costello.

(applauding)

- Thank you.

So, with events like this,

Ifrah, you are gaining more and more support

from an electorate

who believe that we must make FGM illegal in Ireland.

Tonight, we will be celebrating Helen Steel

and her take on hijab chic.

(applauding)

(flute music)

- And even if I knew it before

I really felt it now.

We are all girls, born beautiful.

Born perfect, just the way we are.

- This week's, 'Who Would Believe' follows Ifrah Ahmed,

in the lead up to her Miss Ethnic Ireland fashion show

while on her journey to become

one of Ireland's newest citizens.

- Here we were on national TV

and we weren't even citizens yet!

Sometimes I worry, you know.

Maybe somebody from our families

will find out about all of this?

I know, my grandma would kill me!

And me talking away on the telly about my past

and everything that happened to me.

So after all the stress of giving myself up to asylum.

I had to tell my story

over and over again to the immigration authorities.

And explain very painful

and personal experiences to the doctor.

Who was a man.

- Now, here she is.

- And share intimate details of my mutilation

with the translator.

Who was another man.

- Here's the bit here.

- But I do know that the Labor Party

has undertaken to present

the Female Genital Mutilation Criminal Justice Bill

to the Dail prior to the presidential election.

So that Ireland will have its own FGM legislation

with provisions against the practice of FGM.

Against traveling to procure FGM.

To support our social services

responsible for refugees who have undergone FGM.

And to ensure that immigrant experiences like mine

never happen here in Ireland ever again.

(applauding)

Passing the legislation in Ireland was a breeze after that.

We were recognized everywhere we went.

- Well, well.

You lot again.

- We're all official now!

- Very nice.

- We take picture.

- Yeah, sure.

- Very good.

- Good luck to you.

- It was just the beginning.

Next stop Brussels, Emer said.

Europe.

Then the world.

We even got the President

to host an appreciation ceremony for us.

And it was the very first bill he signed

into Irish law on taking up office.

- I salute the efforts which Ifrah Ahmed

and others have made to have FGM outlawed here in Ireland

and I very much welcome the fact

that the Female Genital Mutilation Criminal Justice Bill

has been passed into law.

You're a credit to our country, Ifrah.

(applauding)

And within a week

this entirely uneducated asylum seeker ceased

to be a Somali refugee

and became a naturalized citizen of the Republic of Ireland.

- [All] I, Ifrah Ahmed hereby solemnly declare.

hereby solemnly declare.

My fidelity to the Irish nation.

- [All] My fidelity to the Irish nation.

- And my loyalty to the State.

- [All] And my loyalty to the State.

- Two final words:

Do not forget your own country.

Your own people.

Your own traditions.

Such memories are not contraband.

Lastly:

Remember that under the constitution,

all citizens are equal.

Congratulations to you all.

Thank you.

(applauding)

(orchestral music)

I want go to Milan,

first, and see Inter play in the European Cup.

- I should really go and see my auntie in Minnesota

to thank her, but Pazza Inter Amala!

♪ Amala, Amala! ♪

♪ Pazza Amala! ♪

(foreign language)

I am citizen of Ireland!

Oh my god, Amala

- I'd had hate mail before

from some of the more radical members of the diaspora

reacting to my campaign.

- Shut it down.

Just ignore it.

- But I am a good Muslim girl.

But never anything on this scale.

- Shut it down.

We knew this was going to happen

after all the media attention.

- How can people write this sort of thing?

- Look.

A message from your auntie in Minnesota?

"Dear, Ifrah.

I am so pleased you got your asylum.

And I'd love to see you in Minnesota

but I'm returning to Somalia

to pick up the pieces of our family there.

Your sister is in Italy.

Still no word of your brother.

But through the UN I've found

out that they think your father has registered

at a refugee camp in Uganda.

I don't want to raise your hopes.

But if it is your father, he is being repatriated

and is now on his way back to Mogadishu.

Ifrah, I read about you a lot online

and your campaign.

Be careful.

Not everybody in the family supports your cause.

Auntie Sar."

- It had never occurred to me

that my Father might still be alive.

Let alone aware of what I was doing.

I had to find a way to get back to Mogadishu.

- You know it'll be all right in the end.

And if it's not all right?

- [Both] It's not the end!

- It's got to be around here somewhere.

- There, on the corner.

- I'll go in and get us a ticket for the queue.

- Somehow Emer got Turkish Airlines to sponsor my flight

and UNICEF to pay me to write a report on FGM.

I don't know what to say.

- That's not like you.

- Hassan

- Ifrah.

(foreign language)

- I will not be silenced.

Not now.

Not ever.

Not even for my family.

- Now, be a good girl.

(foreign language)

- Or what?

- Or I'll fucking stitch it shut for you.

- Ifrah!

Who the heck was that guy?

I said who the heck was that guy?

- Nobody we want to know.

(phone rings)

- Emer.

- Listen,

you've got the envelope with the boarding passes?

I know it's via Istanbul but it's the only route these days.

- As well as liaising with UNICEF

Emer had just been elected to the European Parliament

- And you did remember to get your passport?

- Passport?

- Ifrah

I'm only kidding (laughs).

Okay.

All right

- Listen, Emer, I've been thinking

about the European Parliament presentation.

- No, we can talk about that when you get back.

- You need to find somebody else.

I'm sorry. I can't explain.

It has to be somebody else.

- What's wrong?

What's going on?

- It has to be somebody else.

- Madame, the door is closing!

- Sorry, I have to go.

- Boarding pass?

Okay, have a good flight.

- And for the first time in my life,

I legally boarded an international flight.

Back to Mogadishu.

I was welcomed back like a foreign NGO.

The heat was welcome and felt faintly familiar.

But everything else was different.

- I'm sure you'd like to get straight to it.

- Please.

Have they found out where he is yet?

- Well,

we've traced a man with the same name as your father.

Your auntie was right.

He was listed at a UN camp in Uganda until last month.

- And?

- Well, we believe the same man might re-register

at the IDP camp outside Mogadishu.

- Tens of thousands of Somalis, ever resilient,

coming home after years of conflict.

A great gathering, as we would say in Ireland.

- But we've had such an influx in the last few weeks

that it's impossible to verify or locate him exactly.

- Couldn't I just go there and look for him?

- It's not that simple, I'm afraid, Ifrah.

The area is not clear and the camps are very --

- Dangerous?

Do you know where I come from?

Where I was brought up?

- Came from.

You're diaspora now.

They'll smell that from a mile away in Afgooye.

(upbeat music)

Who's Miss Diaspora now?

- Okay.

Let's go.

Do the Minister for Women and Health has agreed

to meet with you about your FGM report.

- That's good.

- Listen, you've been away for a while, Miss Diaspora!

You need to be careful about what you say.

- I am a good listener too.

That's how I find out what's really going on.

How I report on what's really happening on the ground.

I talked to women who have had multiple rape.

I spoke to kids whose families

had been thrown out of their homes.

I met old women who'd lost everyone

and children all on their own.

But I didn't find anyone who knew my father.

(children singing)

- Ifrah, we gotta go if we want to be back by curfew.

- They were really happy playing.

They say, the little girls, they are so excited.

Because on Friday they are going to be cut.

I was silenced.

I knew I couldn't let it happen.

- Beautiful, isn't it?

- That's the last thing I remember seeing when I left.

The sun setting over the beaches at Hamar Weyne.

Is it safe to go there?

- There's not much of it left.

- Can we check it out?

You never know.

Maybe he just went home.

(tense music)

Oh my God.

He's here.

- Ifrah!

Ifrah!

Ifrah!

(tense music)

(foreign language)

And that was it.

That was my heart breaking

because I really want to upset her.

Even though I really wanted to ask her, why did she do it?

Her brother,

he was a doctor.

Why did he do it?

And why didn't she explain the pain.

Why didn't she explain?

I just couldn't ask her.

Now I knew,

that the best way to fix the past was

to focus on the future.

And that I would go to give my testimony

to the European Commission.

Those three little girls are going to be cut on Friday.

That's three days from now.

What do I do?

- What do you wanna do?

- Whatever it takes to stop it.

I can bring it up with the Minister for Women and Health

- Who is a man.

- Or I could go back to the camp

and try to convince the families.

- Now that they call fieldwork!

- But I still felt scared. Like I was a girl again

and about to be cut for the first time.

- Ah, Miss Diaspora!

Welcome home.

What can I do for you?

- I told the Minister everything I had learned,

everything I had been doing.

And about the three little girls in the camp at Afgooye.

- My dear Ifrah.

There is very little I can do or offer you

other than moral support.

- Moral support!

- You have to appreciate the reality

of a diaspora dependent economy.

Cultural resistance, for sure.

Religious resistance, of course.

But most of all, commercial.

- The pirates, he said and the traffickers.

They kept the basic economy alive

when we were away during the war.

But most of all, the diaspora.

It was we who sent the money to pay the dowries for the men

who were marrying the daughters of the families

to whom we'd also sent money to make sure they were cut.

- Moral support.

Moral support.

They say you went away to Ireland during the war.

- Yes, I was educated in Ireland.

- You know that the British explorer, Sir Richard Burton,

who 'discovered' Somalia?

1852.

He once described us as "the Irish of Africa".

- He probably didn't mean it as a compliment at the time.

But I can assure that nowadays, it is.

(flute music)

Let's go.

(tense music)

(foreign language)

(tense music)

(Ifrah sobbing)

(tense music)

- Then she gave me back the three $100

she had hidden in the seam of her skirt

and told me to put it to good use.

So I went right back to the camp early the next morning

before the families go out to look for work.

(dramatic music)

(foreign language)

- I said, you know the issues.

Think about it.

All that suffering can stop with you.

And the women, they say. 'What can we do?

We have to protect the purity of our daughters.

And anyway, what's it to you?'.

So I explain that I work for UNICEF.

That I am now an advocate against FGM.

That I've studied the issues.

And most of all,

I understand

And so they say,

"Okay, what's your deal?"

So I made a proposal and they agreed.

(foreign language)

They say,

"Yes, we're not going to cut."

So I ask them to swear it on the Holy Koran

in the name of Allah.

(foreign language)

- And I can hear them laughing at me outside.

(chuckles)

They think I'm crazy.

(men laughing)

And more people come back in

and surround me and I was scared.

So I start shouting.

(foreign language)

They say,

"Wait, okay, we're not going to cut,"

they say, but just to make sure they can marry

we're only going to make bleed.

We just cut a tiny little bit then we leave it.

So I say no, that's not the deal.

But I insist that they swear.

(foreign language)

And they say it's okay, don't worry,

we're not going to circumcise.

So they took the oath.

Then I gave them the money.

(foreign language)

And for fear that other families will line up

to threaten to cut their daughters.

God forgive me.

I ran away.

Far from a perfect or practical long-term solution.

But if I hadn't done it

I know I would always have regretted it.

And forever feel that it would be on my face seeing

that I could have done something but I didn't try.

A tiny achievement when we think

that there are 20 to 30 million young girls

at risk of FGM cutting as I speak.

Please, protect their futures.

So that stories like mine become a thing of the past.

(applauding)

- Thank you, Ifrah.

We establish February 6th as

International Zero Tolerance for FGM Day.

We act to end FGM!

(applauding)

- Your Excellency,

I would like to offer my services to assist in the task

of eradicating FGM in Somalia.

- Her name is Ifrah Ahmed.

She is a citizen of Ireland

But, Ifrah, you will always be a girl from Mogadishu to me.

♪ But no one knows me, no one ever will ♪

♪ If I don't say something, if I just lie still ♪

♪ Would I be that monster, scare them all away ♪

♪ If I let them hear what I have to say ♪

♪ I can't keep quiet, no-oh-oh-oh-oh ♪

♪ I can't keep quiet, no-oh-oh-oh-oh ♪

♪ A one woman riot, no-oh-oh-oh-oh ♪

♪ I can't keep quiet ♪

♪ For anyone ♪

♪ Not anymore ♪

♪ 'Cause no one knows me, no one ever will ♪

♪ If I don't say something, take that dry blue pill ♪

♪ They may see that monster, they may run away ♪

♪ But I have to do this ♪

♪ I can't keep quiet, no-oh-oh-oh-oh ♪

♪ I can't keep quiet, no-oh-oh-oh-oh ♪

♪ A one woman riot, no-oh-oh-oh-oh ♪

♪ Oh, I can't keep quiet ♪

♪ There'll be someone who...who understands ♪

♪ There'll be someone who understands ♪

♪ Must be someone who'll understand ♪

♪ Let it out, let it out ♪

♪ Let it out now ♪

♪ There'll be someone who understands ♪

♪ Let it out, let it out ♪

♪ Let it out now ♪

♪ I can't keep quiet, no-oh-oh-oh-oh ♪

♪ No, I can't keep quiet, no-oh-oh-oh-oh ♪

♪ I can't keep quiet, oh-no ♪

♪ No, I won't keep quiet ♪

(soft flute music)

(orchestral music)

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