The silence around female genital mutilation and cutting must end. Female genital mutilation is hardly ever talked about in the news or on social media. Women and men get uncomfortable when the subject comes up and often change the conversation as soon as they can. Perhaps this silence is the reason that female genital mutilation has persisted for so long.

In 2016, the United Nations named gender equality as one of their Sustainable Development Goals. We cannot achieve this goal without definitively ending female genital mutilation. Female genital mutilation can cause lifelong health problems from infections to depression and infertility. Women who are cut are less likely to finish school and more likely to be victims of child marriage and abuse. Ending female genital mutilation lies at the heart of women’s empowerment, giving women a basic and fundamental choice to protect their health and their future.

Female genital mutilation is not a “regional issue,” or a problem only for women in developing nations. This abuse affects more than 200 million women and girls around the world and is even practiced in the United States where, recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found more than 500,000 girls are a risk.

Finally, however, the silence around female genital mutilation has been broken and change is on the horizon. Born in the Gambia, I, like more than 75 percent of Gambian girls, was mutilated when I was baby. I thought for many years that speaking out was too dangerous. I was afraid of being ostracized by my community and shunned by my friends. When my daughter was born, though, I knew I had to speak out to protect her and the thousands of other girls around the world who are cut every day.

I wasn’t the only one who broke the silence. In some of the countries that are the worst for women and girls, there are some of the best women’s rights activists. There is Kakenya Ntaiya in Kenya who agreed to be mutilated only if she could pursue her education. She went on to get her doctorate and to open a school for Maasai girls, which will not allow any student to be mutilated. There is Domtila Cheseng who not only saved herself from mutilation, but who stood up and saved hundreds of other girls. There is also the late Efua Dorkenoo, who spent all her life advocating against female genital mutilation when no one knew what the practice was. She knocked on doors like the U.N. and the World Health Organization and made sure female genital mutilation was a priority.

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These incredible women have made huge changes in their communities, but female genital mutilation is a global phenomenon and it needs a global response. That’s why this year marks such a turning point. For the first time ever, the international community is standing up. This December we hosted the historic End Violence Against Girls: Summit on female genital mutilation in the District of Columbia. The gathering brought together more than 200 activists, ambassadors, diplomats, religious leaders and lawmakers from around the world.

Former Senator Harry Reid of Nevada spoke beautifully about his own efforts to end female genital mutilation and performances by artists Inna Modja and Sona Jobarteh brought the room to tears. The summit, however, did more than inspire. One of the greatest challenges facing anti-female genital mutilation advocates is distance. While some are in India, others are in Somalia. I am based in Atlanta, but I want to know what strategies are working in Kenya or Mali or England.

At the Summit I spoke with Lucy Ann, an activist who works with Safe Hands for Girls in Sierra Leone. She told me about amazing advances they are making in Sierra Leone to ensure that uncut girls stay uncut. Law enforcement officers met with community and religious leaders to learn how they can help intervene and medical providers learned how best to support survivors.

As a new year of activism begins, we must continue to foster these important connections between countries, activists and organizations on the front lines of this change. We must trust survivors to lead grassroots campaigns around the world and we must empower women to stand up for their rights and their freedom. Above all, we must not be silent. Women and men around the world must come together and declare, once and for all, that female genital mutilation is unacceptable and that we will not let another woman endure it.

Women are standing together and advocating for their rights as never before. From Beyoncé to Malala Yousafzai, women are learning that feminism is not a dirty word, that education is their right — not their privilege — and that they deserve to be valued and protected by their families, their communities and their cultures. The summit was the first in a series of galvanizing moments, lead by millennials, that are changing cultures around the world and ensuring that every child — boy or girl — can grow up free from harm, from hate and from violence.

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Women Around the World Stand Up Against Female Genital Mutilation originally appeared on usnews.com