Can art help curb female genital mutilation? Hibo Wardere underwent female genital mutilation aged six but now she's campaigning against it in her London borough with a little help from an amazing local artist. Radhika Sanghani reports
Hibo Wardere was six years old when she was taken from her bed in Somalia and dragged into a makeshift hut by her mum. Three women were there waiting for her.
"I didn't think anything bad was going to happen but then they restrained me," says Wardere, now 45. "As a child you start to recognise something weird's about to happen and you don't know what it is. What happened next was the stuff of a nightmare."
Wardere was subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM). Those women were a 'cutter' and her helpers who restrain screaming girls.