Film director and young girls from the poignant documentary In the Name of Your Daughter, visited students in 8.i to talk about their experiences with the practice of female circumcision in Tanzania.

The film addresses the issue of young girls fleeing their homes or being removed from their families if they refuse to be ’cut’. FGM – Female Genital Mutilation – is illegal in Tanzania. However, the practise continues to flourish all over the country and particularly in small villages where it is difficult for authorities to assert their influence or control FGM.

Families explain the brutal process as necessary to secure cattle as payment from men who want to marry their young, circumcised – and therefore, less promiscuous, they argue – daughters.

The courageous girls Neema and Rosie who visited ISJ, fled their families to a safehouse, where they live and are encouraged to go to school and to educate other young people about the dangers and illegal practice of FGM.

Neema and Rosie; Rhobi – the head of the safehouse; and film director Giselle Portenier made a great impression on 8.i who had the opportunity to ask questions about the girls’ lives and future. 8.i look forward to following the girls and staying in contact with them on social media.

_{Photo: Sarah Pilkington}