06-15-2020, 12:28 AM
Name: Asal and Farideh (2019)
Category: Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film
Language: Farsi and Tsidi
Director: Farideh Duchavo
Runtime: 76 minutes
Synopsis: Asal and Farideh is the story of two sisters, and is the first widely-released documentary is Tsiba's history to discuss the generational effects of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and child marriage on rural Tsiba communities.
Asal and Farideh Duchavo were born in the village of Chato'e in the region of Tsibitsy, Tsiba’s poorest region. The sisters were toddlers when their mother fled the village with them and moved to Tsiba's largest city, Chavotsy. Asal and Farideh's mother, Bevoo Duchavo, was pulled out of school at the age of thirteen and forced to undergo FGM in order to get married. Asal was born within the year, and Farideh not long after.
Through interviews with family members and friends Bevoo made in Chavotsy, Farideh chronicles her mother’s struggles to hold a job as a teenager with no high school diploma and how she continually tried to seek help, to no avail. While FGM and child marriage are banned in Tsiba, they are still widely practiced in rural regions of the country on both infants and girls in their early to mid teens.
Six months after the sisters and their mother arrived in Chavotsy, Bevoo died in childbirth, likely of complications brought about by FGM. After their mother’s death, the sisters were returned to their father’s care. Farideh recounts how she found her childhood idyllic until she was eight, when she first witnessed a girl in her village undergo FGM. From than on, she lived in fear of the practice and what would happen in her future, as she watched the girl, only a few years older then her, quickly marry and have children.
When Asal was fourteen, it was determined that she was old enough to get married. To save money, the sisters’ father decided that both girls would undergo FGM. On the day they both would have been cut, Asal helped her younger sister, then twelve, escape. Farideh describes how she fled Chato’e, traveling on foot until she reached the town of Bute’o, where she was able to find shelter.
The rest of the film compares the lives of the two sisters. Farideh was able to enroll in high school before being accepted into Hashmi University. She graduated with honors and a double major in Film Studies and Political Science. She is now an anti-FGM activist and filmmaker. Her sister Asal, however, was married three months after she was cut, and had two sons before she turned twenty.
The film ends with Farideh returning to the village where she spent her childhood. She visits her sister, who shows her around her house and introduces Farideh to her children. Farideh and Asal discuss their lives, and Farideh asks her sister whether, if given the choice, she would switch what happened to the sisters a decade before. Asal says she would, and the film ends.
Production and Background: FGM and child marriage are serious problems in Tsiba. The origins of FGM are unknown, but many claim a conncetion between the practice and Islamic beliefs. However, no Islamic texts condone or even mention FGM. Areas in which FGM is common in Tsiba are consistently the poorest areas of the country, with the economic and social effects of the practice consistently and systematically disadvantaging women.
Farideh Duchavo was unable to produce Asal and Farideh through any major studios due to the taboo nature of the subject matter and pressure from hard-line conservative groups. Eventually, she was able to make the film through the non-profit she works for, Tsiba Against FGM, and through crowdfunding. After success in several art theaters in the Tsibitsy and Chavotsty regions, the film was released nationwide to critical acclaim.
Category: Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film
Language: Farsi and Tsidi
Director: Farideh Duchavo
Runtime: 76 minutes
Synopsis: Asal and Farideh is the story of two sisters, and is the first widely-released documentary is Tsiba's history to discuss the generational effects of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and child marriage on rural Tsiba communities.
Asal and Farideh Duchavo were born in the village of Chato'e in the region of Tsibitsy, Tsiba’s poorest region. The sisters were toddlers when their mother fled the village with them and moved to Tsiba's largest city, Chavotsy. Asal and Farideh's mother, Bevoo Duchavo, was pulled out of school at the age of thirteen and forced to undergo FGM in order to get married. Asal was born within the year, and Farideh not long after.
Through interviews with family members and friends Bevoo made in Chavotsy, Farideh chronicles her mother’s struggles to hold a job as a teenager with no high school diploma and how she continually tried to seek help, to no avail. While FGM and child marriage are banned in Tsiba, they are still widely practiced in rural regions of the country on both infants and girls in their early to mid teens.
Six months after the sisters and their mother arrived in Chavotsy, Bevoo died in childbirth, likely of complications brought about by FGM. After their mother’s death, the sisters were returned to their father’s care. Farideh recounts how she found her childhood idyllic until she was eight, when she first witnessed a girl in her village undergo FGM. From than on, she lived in fear of the practice and what would happen in her future, as she watched the girl, only a few years older then her, quickly marry and have children.
When Asal was fourteen, it was determined that she was old enough to get married. To save money, the sisters’ father decided that both girls would undergo FGM. On the day they both would have been cut, Asal helped her younger sister, then twelve, escape. Farideh describes how she fled Chato’e, traveling on foot until she reached the town of Bute’o, where she was able to find shelter.
The rest of the film compares the lives of the two sisters. Farideh was able to enroll in high school before being accepted into Hashmi University. She graduated with honors and a double major in Film Studies and Political Science. She is now an anti-FGM activist and filmmaker. Her sister Asal, however, was married three months after she was cut, and had two sons before she turned twenty.
The film ends with Farideh returning to the village where she spent her childhood. She visits her sister, who shows her around her house and introduces Farideh to her children. Farideh and Asal discuss their lives, and Farideh asks her sister whether, if given the choice, she would switch what happened to the sisters a decade before. Asal says she would, and the film ends.
Production and Background: FGM and child marriage are serious problems in Tsiba. The origins of FGM are unknown, but many claim a conncetion between the practice and Islamic beliefs. However, no Islamic texts condone or even mention FGM. Areas in which FGM is common in Tsiba are consistently the poorest areas of the country, with the economic and social effects of the practice consistently and systematically disadvantaging women.
Farideh Duchavo was unable to produce Asal and Farideh through any major studios due to the taboo nature of the subject matter and pressure from hard-line conservative groups. Eventually, she was able to make the film through the non-profit she works for, Tsiba Against FGM, and through crowdfunding. After success in several art theaters in the Tsibitsy and Chavotsty regions, the film was released nationwide to critical acclaim.
<t></t>