Anti-FGM Activist Awarded $1.4 Million Templeton Prize

Edna Adan Ismail, a nurse-midwife and health care advocate who has fought against female circumcision and improved women's health care in East Africa, has won the 2023 Templeton Prize, valued at nearly $1.4 million. Ismail, the first African woman to win the prize, founded a hospital and university that have significantly reduced maternal mortality in Somaliland. She is an outspoken critic of female genital mutilation and has encouraged women to come forward and men to stand up for them. Ismail plans to donate some of her prize money to the U.S.-based Friends of Edna Maternity Hospital.