Anti-FGM campaigner targeted on a bus by Muslim woman who was furious she had told children that female circumcision was abuse

• Hibo Wardere, 46, suffered FGM in Somalia when she was just six years old
• She now visits schools to educate children about the barbaric procedure
• Mother of one of the children she spoke to attacked her in Walthamstow
• She ran at Ms Wardere screaming 'You told my child FGM was abuse!'

A female genital mutilation survivor has spoken out about being attacked on a London bus by a woman whose child she had told that FGM was a form of abuse.

Hibo Wardere, 46, fled Somalia’s civil war when she was 18, 12 years after suffering FGM - the brutal and potentially lethal practice which occurs in the UK every 96 minutes.

The mother-of-four now visits schools educating children about the barbaric tradition, which angered her attacker who seized the opportunity to confront her after spotting Ms Wardere on the bus.

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Hibo Wardere, 46, had a scary confrontation with a woman whose child she had spoken to about FGM. Ms Wardere fled Somalia when she was 18, 12 years after she suffered FGM

Ms Wardere told The Evening Standard: 'I had a scary confrontation on the 257 bus in Walthamstow'.

'A woman with a full niqab recognised me and ran at me screaming my name and snarling, "You came to my child’s school, you told her FGM was abuse".

'I could only see her eyes but they were full of rage. 

'She was so angry she had to be dragged off the bus, but I was jumping for joy inside because that meant a child had confronted their parent.' 

Some 5,484 instances of FGM were reported from October 2014 to September 2015, and experts say many other victims go unreported.

Tanya Barron, chief executive of Plan UK, the charity which campaigns against FGM, said: ‘FGM has been a hidden danger – only now is the full scale becoming clear.

'Recognising that FGM is a fundamental abuse of girls’ rights is the first step to ending the practice.’ 

She warned that many more ‘unseen’ cases are not found in data from the Health and Social Care Information Centre.

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This graphic from research by City University London earlier this year shows that women who have undergone female genital mutilation are living in virtually every part of England and Wales

The data, released ahead of the International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM on February 6, show that 1,385 cases were reported between July and September.

Some 758 were in London with the next biggest cluster (227) in the Midlands and east of England.

Ms Wardere is pressuring the Government for the dangers of FGM to be put on the national curriculum so that the UK 'can raise an entire generation to protect themselves'.

Her memoir, Cut: One Woman’s Fight against FGM in Britain Today, is published on Thursday. 

FGM: THE HORRIFYING TRADITION WHICH HAS LEFT 125MILLION MUTILATED 

More than 125million women and girls have been cut worldwide in the mistaken belief that it makes them more pure or somehow more aesthetically pleasing – and more desirable to marry.

There are three types of FGM practiced in countries as diverse as Columbia, Indonesia and Kenya.

The first is a partial removal of the clitoris, the second involves the removal of the clitoris and all or partly removal of the labia minora.

The third is the removal of both in their entirety, with the vaginal opening closed by wire or thorns.

In Mali, where some eight million women are thought to have undergone the procedure, according to Unicef.

The most common procedures fall within the 'cut, some flesh removed' category, and involve complete or partial removal of the clitoral glans. 

Of the third type, which Mariam underwent, a single hole of 2–3 mm is left for the passage of menstrual fluid by inserting something, such as a twig, into the wound.

The vagina is closed with surgical thread, agave or acacia thorns, or covered with a poultice such as raw egg, herbs and sugar. 

The parts that have been removed might be placed in a pouch for the girl to wear.

To help the tissue bond, the girl's legs are tied together, often from hip to ankle, for anything up to six weeks. 

The vagina is opened for sexual intercourse, for the first time either by a midwife with a knife or by the woman's husband with his penis. 

In some areas, including Somaliland, female relatives of the bride and groom might watch the opening of the vagina to check that the girl is a virgin.

What is female genital mutilation?

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