New Documentary Exposes Tragedy of Female Genital Mutilation

by Dorothee Royal-Hedinger · 2009-08-06 08:38:00 UTC
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"We were circumcised, but we pray our daughters won’t be," - Malian immigrant to the U.S.

Today while browsing Women Make Movies, a great organization that promotes films by and about women, I came across the trailer for Mrs. Goundo's Daughter. The film by Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater centers around one West African mother's fight for asylum in the US to protect her two-year-old daughter from female genital cutting.

I was moved by the trailer's depth and urgency and haunted by the rare images of big-eyed Malian girls awaiting their excision:


In Mali, 85 percent of women and girls undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) as part of a traditional initiation ceremony. In the film, Mrs. Goundo fights to remain in the United States to protect her child from this fate. Using rarely cited grounds for political asylum, she must convince an immigration judge that her daughter is in danger.

From WMM,

Sensitive and moving, this important film reveals how women are profoundly affected by the legal struggles surrounding immigration. As issues of asylum, international law and human rights collide with FGM and its devastating health consequences, filmmakers Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater travel between an FGM ceremony in a Malian village involving dozens of girls to the West African expatriate community of Philadelphia, where Mrs. Goundo challenges beliefs and battles the American legal system for her child's future.

You can learn more about the film and purchase a copy here.

Dorothee Royal-Hedinger
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