Efua Dorkenoo

She was born in Cape Coast, Ghana, where she attended Wesley Girls' High School. She moved to London at the age of 19 to study nursing, and eventually earned a master's degree at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and a research fellowship at City University London.Jane Kramer, [http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/postscript-efua-dorkenoo-1949-2014 "Postscript: Efua Dorkenoo, 1949-2014"], The New Yorker, 23 October 2014. She was a staff nurse at various hospitals, including the Royal Free, and it was while training as a midwife that she became aware of the impact of FGM on women's lives.Emma Batha, [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-foundation-britain-fgm-dorkenoo-idUSKCN0I91HV20141020 "Anti-FGM campaigners mourn death of pioneer Efua Dorkenoo"], Reuters, 20 October 2014.

She joined the Minority Rights Group and travelled to various parts of Africa to gather information for what was one of the earliest reports published on FGM in 1980. In 1983 she founded the Foundation for Women's Health, Research and Development (FORWARD), a British NGO that supports women who have experienced FGM and tries to eliminate the practice.[http://www.forwarduk.org.uk/about "About Us"], FORWARD.[http://www.equalitynow.org/people/efua_dorkenoo "Efua Dorkenoo"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150304151830/http://www.equalitynow.org/people/efua_dorkenoo |date=2015-03-04 }}, Equality Now. She began working with the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1995 and was the acting director for women’s health there until 2001.Douglas Martin, [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/28/health/efua-dorkenoo-dies-at-65-key-foe-of-genital-cutting.html?_r=0 "Efua Dorkenoo, Who Campaigned Against Genital Cutting, Dies at 65"], The New York Times, 27 october 2014.Ella Alexander, [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/efua-dorkenoo-dead-influential-fgm-womens-rights-campaigner-dies-aged-65-9806894.html "Efua Dorkenoo dead: Influential FGM women’s rights campaigner dies, aged 65"], The Independent, 20 October 2014. She was Advocacy Director and, subsequently, Senior FGM Advisor for Equality Now (an international human rights organization). She was close friends with Alice Walker, advising on and featured in the documentary film Warrior Marks (1993) made by Walker and Pratibha ParmarTobe Levin, [http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/2009/04/founder-of-forward-efua-dorkenoo/ "Founder of FORWARD: Efua Dorkenoo"], Our Bodies Ourselves. and with Gloria Steinem, who wrote an introduction to Dorkenoo's 1994 book Cutting the Rose: Female Genital Mutilation.

In 1994, Dorkenoo was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. In 2000, she and Gloria Steinem received Equality Now's international human rights award.[http://cpnn-world.org/cgi-bin/read/articlepage.cgi?ViewArticle=1902 "Remembering our friend and colleague, Efua Dorkenoo"], Culture of Peace News Network (CPNN), 28 October 2014. In 2012, she was made honorary senior research fellow in the School of Health Sciences at City University London, and in 2013 she was named one of the BBC's 100 Women.[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-24579511 "100 Women: Who took part?"], BBC World News, 22 November 2013.

Dorkenoo's Cutting the Rose: Female Genital Mutilation (1994) was selected by an international jury in 2002 as one of "Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century".Leyla Hussein, [https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/oct/22/efua-dorkenoo "Efua Dorkenoo obituary"], The Guardian, 22 October 2014.[http://www.ascleiden.nl/content/webdossiers/africas-100-best-books-20th-century "Africa's 100 best books of the 20th Century"], Africa Studies Centre Leiden.

Dorkenoo died of cancer in London at the age of 65 on 18 October 2014,{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/efua-dorkenoo-who-fought-female-genital-mutilation-dies-at-65/2014/10/23/9236bca6-5a02-11e4-8264-deed989ae9a2_story.html|title=Efua Dorkenoo, who fought female genital mutilation, dies at 65|author=Emily Langer|newspaper=Washington Post|date=23 October 2014}} survived by her husband Freddie Green, her sons Kobina and Ebow, and her stepchildren.

• Cutting The Rose: Female Genital Mutilation the Practice and its Prevention (Minority Rights Group, 1994).
• Report of the First Study Conference of Genital Mutilation of Girls in Europe/ Western World (1993)
• Child Protection and Female Genital Mutilation: Advice for Health, Education, and Social Work Profession (1992)
• Female Genital Mutilation: Proposals for Change (with Scilla Elworthy) (1992)
• Tradition! Tradition: A symbolic story on female genital mutilation (1992)
• As Stella Efua Graham with Scilla McLean (eds), Female Circumcision, Excision, and Infibulation (Minority Rights Group Report 47, 1980)

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• [http://www.equalitynow.org/ Equality Now home page]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20051206014741/http://www.africanreviewofbooks.com/100best/100bestsamples/dorkenoo.html African Review of Books on "Cutting the Rose"]
• [http://www.forwarduk.org.uk/ FORWARD home page]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070505121828/http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/committees/equal/or-04/eo04-1902.htm Efua Dorkenoo and others addressing the issue at the Scottish Parliament in 2004]

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Category:1949 births

Category:2014 deaths

Category:Activists against female genital mutilation

Category:Alumni of City, University of London

Category:Alumni of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Category:Ghanaian feminists

Category:Ghanaian emigrants to England

Category:Ghanaian health activists

Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire

Category:Ghanaian women's rights activists

Category:Deaths from cancer in England

Category:People from Cape Coast