Khadija Gbla
Inspirational Speaker & Facilitator | Empowering Refugee Narratives
About
Khadija Gbla is an award-winning inspirational speaker and cross-cultural consultant from Sierra Leone. As a former refugee, she shares powerful stories of resilience and reinvention, empowering audiences to overcome adversity.
Gbla's TEDx talks have reached millions, offering frameworks for embracing diversity and self-discovery. Her keynotes provide fresh perspectives on the future of work, blending personal experience with practical strategies for unlocking human potential.
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My mother’s strange definition of empowerment
Khadija 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.” In a candid and funny talk, she shares what it was like to make her way in a “clitoris-centric society,” and how she works to make sure other women don’t have to figure this out. (Warning: This talk contains hard-to-hear details.)
| Event | Year | Location |
|---|---|---|
| TEDxCanberra 2014 | 2014 | 🇦🇺Canberra, Australia |
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