By Kadiatu Sankoh
DATELINE: ISTANBUL, 17th Aug 2024
When Janet Kalatu Cole was 17, she says she was dragged from her bed in rural northern Sierra Leone, forced into the bush and subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM), a practice she describes as violent, traumatic and life-threatening.
Today, Cole is living in exile after speaking out against the practice an act she says put her life in danger in a country where FGM remains deeply entrenched.
“I did not consent. I was asleep when they came for me,” Cole said in an interview. “They held me down. There was singing and drumming to cover my screams. I bled until I lost consciousness.”
Cole, who comes from a mixed ethnic background, said she was raised by her Temne mother in Sierra Leone’s hinterland after her parents divorced. Her father, a Creole from the Western Province, died when she was a teenager — a loss she says left her vulnerable.
Shortly after his death, she says her mother arranged for her to be forcibly initiated into a female secret society, a ritual that included clitoridectomy, a form of FGM.
FGM typically involves cutting the female genitalia with knives or razor blades, often without anesthesia and in unhygienic conditions. Medical experts say the practice can cause severe bleeding, infection, long-term psychological trauma and death.
Cole said she woke up in hospital after the procedure, where doctors performed an emergency blood transfusion and administered tetanus treatment.
“My body healed, but the trauma never left,” she said.
Despite her experience, Cole said she was later pressured to become a Degba — a senior figure responsible for recruiting and initiating young girls into the same practice.
“They wanted me to continue the violence that nearly killed me,” she said. “I refused.”
Instead, Cole chose to speak publicly against FGM, advocating for the protection of girls and the abandonment of the practice. That decision, she said, came at a heavy cost.
“In Sierra Leone, speaking against FGM is extremely dangerous,” she said. “Powerful politicians and community leaders both men and women defend it. Once I began speaking out, I was threatened, harassed and hunted.”
Cole said there were attempts to have her arrested, and she feared she would be killed if she remained in the country.
On the night of Aug. 24, 2024, she fled Sierra Leone, crossing into Guinea before boarding a flight to Turkey the following day.
“I had no choice,” she said. “Going back would put my life in grave danger.”
Now in exile, Cole says she is determined to continue raising awareness about FGM and the risks faced by those who oppose it.
“I am telling my story for the girls who cannot speak,” she said. “FGM is not culture it is violence. And it must end.”