I had an abortion or maybe I didn't

In this address to the Pelvic Pain Victoria Symposium, held at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Gabrielle Jackson discusses her experience with endometriosis. The speech is based on the Jackson's book Pain and Prejudice; A Call to Arms for Women and Their Bodies.

In this speech, Khadija Gbla talks about growing up in Australia as a refugee and as a victim of Female Genital Mutilation. She talks about the impact of FGM on her body-awareness, on her sexuality and on knowing herself. Gbla grew up caught between two definitions of what it means to be an empowered woman. While her Sierra Leonean mother thought that circumsizing her — and thus stifling her sexual urges — was the ultimate form of empowerment, her culture as a teenager in Australia told her that she deserved pleasure and that what happened to her was called female genital mutilation.