(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
With the documentary In my mother's name from 2014, director Hilde Merete Haug focuses on female circumcision – one of the most serious systematic human rights violations. The film portrays three women who all come from Somalia, where as many as 98 percent of women are still circumcised annually. At the beginning of the documentary, the differences between men and women are clearly visible: First we get to see women covered, before the camera moves over to a bunch of men sitting in the shade, wearing trousers and t-shirts.
In my mother's name is the debut film of Haug, who is a trained sociologist and director. We meet the 15 year old girl Farhia, first in the classroom and together with schoolmates in Norway. Eventually we follow her on a trip to Somalia, where she has not been since she was a small child. Farhia's mother has fought against circumcision, and now her daughter wants to continue this fight – and she therefore wants to understand how and why it is practiced, and then be able to record the fight in an informed manner.
In the film we also meet Norwegian-Somali Sadia at 28 years and her niece, British-Somali Siham at 19. It is cut between Fariah's journey and Sadia's and Siham's everyday life, and their experience of circumcision.
"Become a woman." Many of the scenes in the film are very emotionally strong. In one of the scenes, two women demonstrate to Farhia what equipment they are using and how to perform a circumcision. Despite the fact that the women only demonstrate the operation on a napkin, and we do not see how it really goes, it is really painful to look at. It strikes one that it is quite unbelievable that millions of women must undergo this every year.
But why do you do it? This is a pervasive question in the film, and the answers that come to mind are that you do because that's the way it should be. It is a collective cultural practice. Sadia says circumcision is something she looks forward to as a young girl in Somalia. It's part of the culture, everyone else does. Unless your daughter is circumcised, other families will not let her son marry her, and the entire family may be ostracized.
As a young man, Siham was told that she would not become a woman until after the circumcision. "Even when I saw the knife, I couldn't understand what was going to happen," Siham says. She must wipe her tears when she tells of the procedure, 13 years after it happened. "It's hard to feel like a woman when something's missing," she says.
In Somalia, Farhia talks to four young girls who are all circumcised. "Do you know of any girls who are not circumcised?" she asks them. "No, there is no one," replies one of the young girls, "except the youngest." "If I had gone to your school and said I was not circumcised, how would I have been treated?" asks Farhia. "Bad," one of the girls says. When asked why they have to go through it, they are not sure. But possibly it is in the Qur'an, they think – something Farhia points out that it actually does not.
Hope. It turns out that before the circumcision, one does not know anything about the physical, mental and psychological consequences one can have. You do not know anything about the trauma that may occur, which may start as early as the first week, since you have to spend it in bed with your legs tied together. It is not known that you will struggle with these consequences throughout your life and that there are deaths associated with circumcision as a result of blood loss and infection, or because of complications associated with pregnancy and childbirth. You will only experience this afterwards.
The transitions in the documentary are strong at times – for example, when it is cut between Sadia's birthday party and the four young Somali circumcised girls with whom Farhia speaks in Somalia. The cheerful music the kids listen to at McDonald's while Sadia's daughter celebrates a birthday, continues on to the next scene, creating a stark contrast to the young Somali girls' situation.
There is hope for Norwegian-Somalis like Farhia to go to Somalia to create attitudes. Towards the end of the film, we also hear that norms and attitudes about this practice are changing. It is also nice to see that despite what Somali women undergo, they possess a great strength and optimism, such as the one we can see with Siham and Sadia. It is good that they talk about it, to the camera and to others, to make this practice visible.
The film has previously been shown at the Short Film Festival in Grimstad and at the documentary film festival in Volda. One goal for director Hilde Merete Haug in making films is to reach a larger audience with important themes than she would with academic articles. And well it is. Circumcision is something that as many as possible need to be aware of.
The movie is available at nrk. no.
