Idris Elba’s wife Sabrina has revealed that her mother was a victim of female genital mutilation while growing up in Somalia.
The model and UN goodwill ambassador, 34, spoke on the Reign with Josh Smith podcast about how her mother Maryam Egal was subjected to the procedure.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) includes all procedures involving the partial or total removal of a woman’s external genitalia, or any other injury to the female genitalia for non-medical reasons.
This practice has no beneficial effect on the health of girls and women and causes severe bleeding and problems urinating, followed by cysts, infections, as well as complications during childbirth and an increased risk of death of the child. newborns.
As a result, Maryam almost died while giving birth to Sabrina due to the health complications it caused.
Horrible: Idris Elba’s wife Sabrina revealed that her mother Maryam Egal was a victim of female genital mutilation while growing up in Somalia (seen with her mother in September 2022)
Difficult: The model and UN goodwill ambassador, 34, spoke on the Reign with Josh Smith podcast about how her mother was subjected to the procedure.
Sabrina supports several campaigns against FGM, which she considers her “moral duty”.
Speaking about her mother on the podcast, she said: “My mother was actually trying to protect me from some of the things that she was going through or dealing with and I was actually having a conversation this morning and I was thinking about it.
“For example, I am a strong advocate of the fight against FGM, which is female genital mutilation. This is quite common in Somalia, but it happens all over the world.
“I knew my mother was a victim, but I was in the House of Commons, I was there advocating and speaking with some of the survivors, and they were talking about the difficulties during childbirth because of what they had lived and I call my mom, and I was like, “oh, mom, you know, some of the people I was talking to had experienced this.
“And she said, “You don’t even know that I almost died giving birth to you. “And I immediately was like, ‘What? We didn’t have these conversations because she was trying to protect me.’
“I always found myself, you know, defending things that happened to her because I think subconsciously what I was doing was trying to make a better world for the little girl that my mother was without even knowing it and kind of knowing it, because I knew she had experienced these things.
She added: “But it’s so hard to have these conversations with your parents. They are emotional.
Terrible: As a result, Maryam almost died giving birth to Sabrina due to the health complications it caused.
Gender: Sabrina has been campaigning for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls around the world for many years, becoming a UN Goodwill Ambassador alongside her husband in April 2020 (view with Idris in September 2023)
“And I can’t tell you that day, I was like, ‘I just want to do so much more.’ I can do more. It is not enough.’
“And there are so many people like her who suffer in silence because they have to be or need to be powerful because the world doesn’t give them a helping hand, you know, and my mother is a huge inspiration in my life.”
Sabrina has been an advocate for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls around the world for many years, becoming a UN Goodwill Ambassador alongside her husband in April 2020.
This comes after last week, Sabrina announced her partnership with her husband Idris to launch their own skincare line, S’ABLE Labs.
Sabrina, who met the 51-year-old actor in 2017 before getting married in 2019, was at BeautyCon in Los Angeles to launch her line.
She opened up in a lengthy interview with People where she opened up about how different it was working with her husband – days after the couple were spotted at the Defender Rugby World Cup in Paris.
The model and media personality admitted there was “a big learning curve” when I started working with her husband.
“It’s not a perfect bond, but we’ve definitely developed ways of working together,” Sabrina said.
“We started a podcast to see how others were doing it, and we learned a lot,” she added.
“I think you have to have proper boundaries and understand that, as you know, finding work is not the same as finding a date,” she added.
“There are suitable solutions: working hours, for example, were a big learning curve for me,” she admitted.
The S’ABLE Labs skincare line is an extension of the wellness brand they both launched in 2021.
She added that she “couldn’t imagine doing it with anyone else” other than her husband Idris.
Sabrina was born and raised in Canada but is of Somali descent, revealing the reasons behind the creation of the line.
“Growing up, I always felt that nothing addressed my particular skincare concerns, especially when it came to having melanin-rich skin,” she said.
“So, things like post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. You just have to find products that address the problem holistically rather than trying to fix the problem after the fact,” Sabrina said.
Together: Brunette beauty Sabrina met the 51-year-old actor in 2017 before getting married in 2019
“We are first studying how to inhibit excess melanin production.” So we make antioxidants, we make anti-inflammatories,” she said.
“There are so many amazing ingredients on the (African) continent that are so popular that I saw my mother using them growing up. So I just try to take it all in,” Sabrina adds.
Sabrina adds that she and Idris wanted their skincare products to have “minimal impact on the planet” with “maximum” results.
“Black consumers also really care about the planet. They care about the luxury of their products without having to pay exorbitant prices or just good quality ingredients that we think we have created,” she explained.
