Khadija Gbla

Khadija Gbla (born 1988) is an Australian feminist and human rights activist She works as a cultural consultant, a keynote speaker and an anti- female genital mutilation (FGM) campaigner, based in South Australia. She founded the advocacy organisation No FGM Australia, which works to stamp out the practice.

Personal life Gbla was born in Sierra Leone around 1988. When she was three years old, in 1991 her family moved to the Gambia and later to Australia, for safety reasons, where they were granted refugee status in 2001, when Gbla was 13 years old.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) was performed on Gbla by an old woman in the Gambia when she was nine, removing her clitoris and labia minora. She helped educate doctors, police officers and the community about FGM and continues to work to abolish FGM in Australia. She founded the charity No FGM Australia to provide healthcare and educational support for women and girls. It provides cultural competency training for medical professionals and social workers.

Gbla has said "FGM impacts you at every stage of your life; every woman has her own shame and isolation in her experience. I want people to know how terrible this is, what a violation of women and girl rights. There is so much education that needs to be done. It’s up to us to end this human rights violation."

Gbla is an ambassador for Our Watch, an organisation established to change attitudes of violence towards women and their children,

Recognition Her work has been honoured many times:

2016 The Australian Women's Weekly and Qantas Women of the Future finalist 2014 The Advertiser'''s 50 most influential Women 2013 Madison Magazine Australia'' 's top 100 inspiring women 2013 Amnesty International Human Rights Activists to watch out for in 2013 2011 State finalist, Young Australian of the Year