Dr Leyla Hussein

Dr Leyla Hussein is a psychotherapist, specialising in supporting survivors of sexual abuse. She is an international lecturer on female genital mutilation (FGM) and speaker on gender rights. She is recognised as one of the key experts on this issue globally and is a leading and award-winning international campaigner against all forms of violence against women and girls.

Leyla founded The Dahlia Project, the UK’s first specialist therapeutic service for FGM survivors. In 2020, she was elected as Rector of the University of St Andrews for a three-year term, making history as the first Black woman to hold the position. She currently works as the Global Advocacy Director for the The Girl Generation: Support to the Africa-led Movement to End FGM/C.

Leyla’s passion is to create safe spaces for women and girls around the world. Most recently, she co-founded Safe Spaces for Black Women with her colleague Fatima Hagi to provide emotional support for Black women across the globe. In 2018, she founded Magool to harness her expertise as an activist and psychotherapist to develop emotional wellbeing tools whilst promoting the rights and wellbeing of women and girls. Leyla has often created communities and wellbeing services after identifying a need for them in her own life, leading her to contribute consistently to more inclusive and safe spaces in society.