In the Name of your Daughter

A multi-award-winning documentary film directed by Giselle Portenier and presented by the Tanzania Development Trust.

Heartbreaking and heartwarming, In The Name Of Your Daughter is an intimate fly-on-the-wall story about some of the most courageous girls in the world, children like 12-year old Rosie Makore who ran away from her home in Northern Tanzania to save herself from female genital mutilation (FGM) and the child marriage her parents had planned for her.

Terrified by stories of girls bleeding to death during the chillingly named ‘cutting season’ during the school holidays in December, these young African girls, some as young as eight, must face the most difficult choice of their young lives: submit to being cut or risk their lives and run away, not knowing if they’ll ever see their families again.

Rhobi Samwelly, one of Africa’s most charismatic women, protects the girls – Christians, Pagans and Muslims – at a Safe House, and travels around the countryside fighting against this thousands-year-old tradition.

FGM is illegal in Tanzania, but old customs die hard. In partnership with the Safe House, Mugumu police officer Sijali Nyambuche and her team start cracking down on FGM. In night-time raids they rescue girls at risk and arrest parents and cutters.

As the year’s cutting season winds down, in dramatic and heart-breaking reconciliation meetings, parents have to decide if they’ll spare their daughters and take them back, and young girls like Rosie must decide if they’ll be safe if they return home. Set in the stunning landscape of East Africa’s Serengeti district, this is ultimately an inspiring and hopeful story of brave young girls standing up for their human rights and fighting for change in their community.

The film will be shown by Julian and Ann Marcus of the Tanzania Development Trust, who were involved in setting up the film and know most of the people involved, and who can answer questions about the campaign against FGM.

Doors open 7:30pm

There will be crafts made by the girls in the Safe House for sale.