Award-winning film on female circumcision

It is estimated that one in three women in Africa have undergone some form of circumcision or cutting of their genitalia, that’s 130 million people with three million new cases reported a year. Incredibly 55,000 women in France have had to undergo the operation which is usually carried out without anaesthetic on girls aged between 4 to 14 years.

For Saturday 6 February’s International Day against Female Genital Mutilation, GFAA will be showing the award-winning film Moolaadé in the Salle Linné at the Phoenix Park (on the way to Nice airport on the Promenade des Anglais) at 6pm followed by a debate and buffet. Entrance is free.

The film won the “Un Certain Regard” category at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and at the Venice film festival. It tells the story of Collé Ardo from Senegal who refused to let her daughter be circumcised. Four young girls escape their families to seek her protection, and the film explores the clash between respect for the right to asylum and the ancient tradition of circumcision.

UNICEF has been fighting to ban this barbaric practice for a number of years, hence the awareness day every year on 6 February. FGM/cutting is a term which covers a variety of practices leading to partial or complete ablation of, or to an alteration of the external female genital organs for non-medical reasons. Often performed by traditional practitioners who specialise in the act or traditional midwives, the operation is done without anaesthesia with scissors, razor blades or knives. FGM is always traumatic and generally complicated by pain, emotional shock, problems during delivery and in some cases a fatal outcome. CL