I’ve given up swearing to run in the election
NIMCO Ali says she is “everything that’s currently vilified” . She’s Somali, Muslim and came to Britain as a child refugee. As the anti-FGM campaigner believes voices like hers are rarely heard in politics, she is standing for the Women’s Equality Party in Hornsey and Wood Green. Brexit (Ali is pro-Remain) prompted her: “No one is mentioning what Brexit means for women.”
The 34-year-old’s first calling is as a “fanny defender”. She was seven when she underwent FGM in Somalia. This week, Ukip called for mandatory checks on girls at risk of FGM, a policy Ali abhors. “Ukip makes it about race instead of violence. If you start segregating kids for knicker-checking, they’re isolated. That ensures abusers have the power.”
Aged 11, she had deinfibulation back in the UK, a surgical procedure to reopen the closed vagina. “You didn’t have to force me into an examination — I was in a medical setting. It should have been reported forward then.”
Last month, Ali claimed the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt had asked if girls “like her” could still orgasm. But though she calls it a “stupid” question, she was more angry with the Labour MP Dawn Butler, who demanded Hunt apologise. “Labour took offence on my behalf, but not enough to try to protect girls like me. Butler was using me as a political pawn.”
Ali is also standing to speak up for refugees. She remembers bombs falling in Somalia and fearing death. “I know the horror in
Syrian children’s faces.” She wishes Calais’s children had been offered the same welcome she got. “When we close the door to child migrants, that’s closing the door to kids like me.”
She believes the Government doesn’t understand that the refugees who come here are often the more privileged ones. “A lot of people in Calais were doctors and lawyers — people who can help us here, and want to go back and rebuild their country.”
Hornsey and Wood Green is currently held by Labour MP Catherine West. Why is the WEP — which wants greater female representation — running against a woman? “We aren’t. We are standing against political parties that aren’t doing enough on women’s issues. Putting women in position as a token weakens democracy. We want parties to stop sidelining women’s interests and treating us as a minority.”
She has tried to professionalise since entering politics — “I won’t swear!” — but confesses to a soft spot for more “modern” Tory men, not least Zac Goldsmith. “It’s nice to see a less loony person on the Brexit side. I’d rather see him leading the conversation than Farage, Boris or David Davis.”
So why isn’t she running for the Tories? “I was offered the chance to stand for the Tories in Bristol East. But I’m not a Tory. I’m non-partisan.”
So what would she have done if she hadn’t started campaigning? “I would probably be married to a bright-blue Tory, living with a dog somewhere in north-west London.” She laughs: “Activism has saved me from that — for now.”
@RosamundUrwin