'Real Housewives Of Dubai' Chanel Ayan Discussed Forced Genital Mutilation As a Child

The "Real Housewives Of Dubai" star Chanel Ayan is opening up about her traumatic experience with female genital mutilation to spread awareness.

The Bravo star, who is both of Ethiopian and Somalian descent, revealed on the Bravo show that when they were five years old, she and her sister were both subjected to female circumcision against their will to keep them as virgins until marriage.

In addition to the physical pain she suffered, Ayan revealed that she still suffers from emotional pain as the experience left her with long-lasting scars.

Read on for more details.

The 'RHOD' star is speaking up about her childhood trauma as a means of activism.

Ayan shared on Wednesday that she and her sister were forced to undergo female circumcision at the tender age of five to keep them virgins until marriage.

"I'm a survivor," the Bravolebrity told E! News after candidly sharing her trauma on Wednesday's reality show episode.

"I felt that my culture and my family utterly betrayed me. This is just a barbaric practice and shouldn't be happening to young girls. It happened to me 35 years ago, and I've never gotten over it."

The model described how they were taken to a stranger's house against their will and had their genitals "sewed" up.

"Everybody's a virgin in my culture because of this," the 44-year-old explained. "How will you have sex when you're sewn as a girl until you get married? It's a way to keep men satisfied."

Ayan confessed that this was the first time she would be talking about her experience in public, as she was always made to keep quiet about it in her family.

"I just feel like after opening [up about] it, I was taking my power away from the people that did this to me that I trusted the most because I was five years old and I did not know what was happening to me.

I didn't even know what was going on. I just want to bring awareness to it as much as possible because it's still happening 35 years later. Every 11 minutes, it's happening to some little girl that is as confused as me."

She concluded, "I've chosen, for the first time in my life, to forgive them and accept what happened to me," she said. "I still have a lot of life, and I still have a lot of love to give to myself."

The reality star has always been vocal about her upbringing, including her father's abuse. In an episode of the show, she shared how her dad used to beat her.

"I've forgiven a lot of people in life, but forgiving my father is the hardest thing I've ever done," Ayan began, per Daily Mail. "I haven't spoken to him in twenty-six years. If you know what he did to me, he wanted to marry me when I was 14."

She said, amidst tears, "All my life, he's just hit me. He hit me so bad that I ran away with my other sister."

"I don't want to cry, but honestly…forgiving him isn't something I can do today or tomorrow. It is not. I have my husband who fucking adores me. He makes me feel so safe. My father never gave me that."

In addition to the physical pain she felt from the traumatic experience, the reality star shared that she incurred long-lasting emotional scars.

However, she's deciding to look past that because she recognizes how important it is to speak up about the situation.

"I think the trauma is something that I will live with for the rest of my life," Ayan said. "This is why I want to talk about it because I honestly don't want this to happen to anyone because I know exactly how it feels, and it's not good. Many girls get depressed, hormones are imbalanced, and many young girls die."

Additionally, Ayan will be starting her makeup line, Ayan Beauty, to raise proceeds to help stop the harmful practice. "As long as I use my platform to bring awareness to stop this—if I can save 20 girls, 100 girls, 500 girls, I feel like that's the purpose I have," the RHODubai star added. "It's child abuse. And a lot of girls just die for no reason."