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“Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) culminates all the misogyny in the world into a single act. It speaks volumes about the fear of women in patriarchal societies. It is oppression on steroids,” says Dana Jade, creator of Clit Rock.

Before you ask, Clit Rock is an upcoming night of musical performances by various artists, launched "out of sheer rage" to raise funds and awareness about FGM, after Jade, also a singer, discovered the work of anti-FGM campaign group Daughters of Eve. The co-founder of this group, Leyla Hussein, who has undergone the procedure, is to be featured in a documentary called The Cruel Cut, which airs on Channel 4 tonight (Wednesday).

For Jade, her musical project is an in-your-face way of getting a serious message out of there. And it's also about busting some of the myths that inevitably come along with such a sensitive and widely not-talked-about subject of FGM.

Hussein, for example, refuses to be called a victim. She instead demands that she be referred to as a survivor. And contrary to what many might think, she says that there is a lot of humour among her peers when dealing with the subject. I'm a stand-up comedian. Telling her I can’t see anything funny about it, she laughs and says one of the members of her group joked: “They cut us in order to stop us sleeping around … well that didn’t work did it?”

It is that attitude that has helped her through some of the more unsavoury results of her work. Many people in the cultures where FGM is happening do not appreciate her speaking so publicly about it. They feel that this is a private matter and she is shaming them.

“I have been spat on, shouted at and attacked by men in balaclavas. I have had to have three different types of alarm fitted at my home. I do not let many people know where I live now. The worst offenders have been Somali women. Women from my own community.”

PC-mad

She believes that there are several reasons why people don’t want to get involved in the fight against FGM. The first being political correctness. As part of the documentary she conducted an experiment. Pretending to be pro-FGM, she stopped shoppers in Northampton asking them to sign a petition helping her to protect her "culture, tradition and rights". Nineteen people did so in a 30 min period leaving Hussein in tears that they would support this.

I asked her if she believed that this was really a true reflection of people’s attitude to FGM in the UK. Who were these people? Did she know if they came from a culture that did believe that the practice was appropriate? Did she think that it may have been a little too confrontational? What if they just didn’t want to offend her or felt as though they were put on the spot?

As a black woman, I am well aware that people will say things behind your back that they would never, ever say to your face. When confronted by someone that says they see it as part of their culture, did she believe that they were being honest with her?

“But if they don’t want to offend me then surely that is political correctness gone too far,” Leyla replies. “This is happening to children. We are talking about child abuse here and offending people is the last thing that anyone should be worrying about. The moment that you put that child on a table and pin them down you’ve violated them.”

'Female circumcision is not a culture. It is mutilation and discrimination against women' Credit: AFP

'FGM is happening to children'

Her colleague Nimko Ali says that the mutilation is the first of many abuses that will take place. Many of the girls will go on to suffer in many different ways, emotionally, sexually and physically. Depending on the type of circumcision that they have been subjected to, some of the girls can have difficulty menstruating, during intercourse and during childbirth.

“I used to blackout every time I went for a smear test,” Hussein tells me. “I used to get flashbacks of when I underwent the procedure. Many of these girls are pinned down by people that are supposed to love them. How can they trust anyone after that?”

She acknowledges that she was one of the luckier ones. She wasn’t held down and cut with unclean equipment like some girls are. She came from quite a middle class family and a male doctor carried out the procedure.

“They even had a party afterwards,” she adds dryly.

'Pure racism'

Another reason that Hussein believes that people don’t bother to get involved is because of racism. Most of the children that this is happening to are black and people simply don’t care. She doesn’t, however, want white middle class women to speak for them. She believes that women of all cultures need to have a conversation about what is going on. She points to the trend of Western women undergoing surgery to get "designer vaginas". They are also doing this to please men. She tells me of a young woman at a school that she visited who confessed to her that her boyfriend thinks that her "labia are too big".

What about the inevitable comparison to male circumcision?

“It doesn’t compare,” she says shaking her head vigorously. “As part of the documentary we showed what the equivalent would be on a man. If they had Type 1 they’d have to remove the top of the penis. Type 2 would be equivalent to removing half of the penis and Type 3 would be equivalent to having the entire penis removed. But I don’t agree with male circumcision in its current form either. You just don’t mutilate children of either sex. Period.”

Hussein wants the Home Office to become more involved in stopping the practice but she acknowledges that many people simply don’t think that this is a British issue.

“It is. Many of these girls that attend out meetings are British citizens and the government has a duty of care to them. Although the practise is illegal in Britain I have spoken to girls that have been cut here.”

There are as many as 23,000 young girls at risk of being under the age of fifteen from Wales and the UK alone. They are mainly from African, Asian and Middle Eastern backgrounds.

Hussein believes that many people need to be educated about the subject as there are so many areas of life being affected. She has spoken to schoolgirls that have been given detentions because they are spending too long in the toilet. Doctors are giving women antibiotics every two weeks without questioning why they need to take them so frequently.

Health visitors need to tell women that this practice is illegal and no one can force them to make their daughters undergo it. Many are pressured by older women in the family worried that no one will want to marry the girls if it is not done. She even believes airport staff should hand out leaflets containing information, especially if they see young girls are being taken to one of the countries that is known for carrying out the procedure. Many women have told her that they have been taken to Dubai to be cut.

“Everybody needs to join forces to protect these vulnerable girls. This cruel practice must end. Now.”

The Cruel Cut will be shown on November 6, Channel 4 at 10.45pm. Clit Rock is on April 4, 2014, at The Underbelly in Hoxton, London.

Ava Vidal is a cool and composed British stand-up comedian, having appeared on Mock the Week, Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow, Comedy Central's The World Stands Up, Edinburgh and Beyond and C4 reality show Kings of Comedy. Ava became a mother at 18, and spent five years as a prison guard at Pentonville. She writes a refreshing blog, Twerking Girl, on life and culture every week for Wonder Women. Follow her @TheTwerkingGirl