FGM – Women’s Testimonial Videos about FGM-Female Genital Mutilation
Author: Henrietta Thomson
Date: September 21, 2018
Since 1999, StoryCenter’s Silence Speaks initiative has fostered healing for individuals, solidarity building within communities, and training and advocacy for public health and human rights promotion. Through intensive, hands-on participatory media workshops, we support people in sharing first-person stories from their own lives, in the form of videos, radio pieces, and photo essays. We work with our partners to carry out thoughtful and impactful approaches to story distribution. Our efforts have shown that with the support of our highly skilled facilitators, stories by individuals can bring attention to the structural roots of poverty, gender oppression, and violence, in ways that demand accountability and change at community, institutional, and government levels. https://www.storycenter.org/ss-about
Sahiyo Stories brought together women from across the United States to create personalized digital stories that narrate experiences of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). Women are often reluctant to speak up about FGM/C, for fear of being ostracized from their communities, being labeled as victims, or getting loved ones in trouble. These courageous women, who differ in race/ethnicity, age, and citizenship/residency status, each shared a unique story. Some only recently discovered they had undergone FGM/C and were grappling with its emotional and physical impacts, while others are deeply invested in advocacy efforts to prevent it from happening to other girls. Sahiyo Stories hopes these videos will build a critical mass of voices from within FGM/C-practicing communities, calling for abandonment of this harmful practice.
Website with multiple testimonial stories:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2zMrq22-Y2udK5OfdSvNksirvFoibP4r
Right click on titles below, and then click on Open Hyperlink, to access videos.
Shame – by Leena Khandwala | ||||||
A Daughter’s Questions – by Maryah Haidery | ||||||
Tradition – by Severina Lemachokoti |
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