--- title: Jaha Dukureh by Peggy Orenstein: TIME 100 description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. canonical: https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301327/jaha-dukureh-2016-time-100/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-20T20:48:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:13:46.899Z og:title: Jaha Dukureh by Peggy Orenstein: TIME 100 og:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. og:url: https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301327/jaha-dukureh-2016-time-100/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte2a5f98627783a47/69888fd60a4a2215cf9c951b/time-100-2016-jaha-dukureh.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Jaha Dukureh by Peggy Orenstein: TIME 100 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jaha Dukureh by Peggy Orenstein: TIME 100 twitter:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte2a5f98627783a47/69888fd60a4a2215cf9c951b/time-100-2016-jaha-dukureh.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 20, 2016 # Jaha Dukureh by Peggy Orenstein  NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 01: Honoree Jaha Dukureh attends the L'Oreal Paris Women of Worth 2015 Celebration - Inside at The Pierre Hotel on December 1, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for L'Oreal Paris) NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 01: Honoree Jaha Dukureh attends the L'Oreal Paris Women of Worth 2015 Celebration - Inside at The Pierre Hotel on December 1, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for L'Oreal Paris)Neilson Barnard—Getty Images Sometimes when a thing is unbearable to imagine, we do the opposite of what we should: we turn away, shielding our hearts and minds in order to preserve our own peace. In speaking out against female genital mutilation, Jaha Dukureh has refused to let horror be silenced. When she was an infant, her external sexual organs were amputated in her native Gambia. Now living in Atlanta, she founded Safe Hands for Girls to fight the practice both internationally and in the U.S., where 500,000 women have been or are at risk of being victimized. Dukureh’s efforts helped make it a crime to transport American girls abroad for FGM. Although she has faced anger and threats from her community, the thought of her three children keeps her going. “I don’t want them to have to face the challenges I did,” she says, “whether it’s early marriage or FGM. I don’t want them to have to live in fear. I don’t want any girl to ever feel that way.” _Orenstein is the author of several books about young women including, most recently,_ Girls & Sex ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301327/jaha-dukureh-2016-time-100/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301327/jaha-dukureh-2016-time-100/"},"headline":"Jaha Dukureh","datePublished":"2016-04-20T20:48:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:13:46.899Z","description":"Voicing the unspeakable","url":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301327/jaha-dukureh-2016-time-100/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte2a5f98627783a47/69888fd60a4a2215cf9c951b/time-100-2016-jaha-dukureh.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte2a5f98627783a47/69888fd60a4a2215cf9c951b/time-100-2016-jaha-dukureh.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301327/jaha-dukureh-2016-time-100/","name":"Jaha Dukureh"}}]}] ```