As International Women’s Day dawns, debate rages around the question some of us never imagined we would be asking: what is a woman? The dictionary definition is clear enough: an adult human female. Left-wing and liberal thinking think it is not so clear. For many, just like Alice, words mean exactly what I say them to mean. But people are losing their jobs, even being arrested by the 900 ‘hate crime officers’ of the Metropolitan Police over pronouns and over misgendering. One woman with forthright views on the matter is a broadcaster, journalist, and social commenter. She is Sonia Poulton. So, she came into the studio to help us try to understand the debate.
FGM, female genital mutilation, is a hate crime manifesting the fear and loathing in some male supremacist societies of complete, sexual women. So, there could hardly be a better time to discuss this matter of cutting women down than International Women’s Day. Hibo Wardere came to UK from Somalia in the late 80s, and through her own testimonials and lobbying she has become one of Britain’s most prominent campaigners about FGM. Her ambition is to see this awful practice eradicated in her lifetime. We invited her Into the Sputnik studio to tell us about her memoir ‘Cut’, her work and her tireless activism.
