Insights into female genital mutilation, narrated by Meryl Streep

A special screening to coincide with International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) which is marked around the world on the 6th February.

Directed By Nancy Durrell McKenna and John Howarth/ Produced by Nancy Durrell McKenna / Written, filmed and edited by John Howarth

”One of the most powerfully effective films I’ve seen,”
Christopher Hampton, UK playwright and film director.

It is estimated that up to 140 million women and girls have undergone some form of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Its justification is that it is an important initiation which reinforces virginity, chastity, purity, marriageability and fidelity. FGM is a harmful and brutal practice – it is associated with long-term physical and psychological morbidity on girls and women who are subjected to it. FGM is not just a cultural norm in parts of the developing world, but is also, sadly occurring among some practicing communities in the UK.

The UK based charity SafeHands for Mothers was commissioned by the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) to make The Cutting Tradition. It is narrated by twice Academy Award Winner, Meryl Streep and has just been given the prestigious Best Documentary Award at the Australian Victoria independent Film Festival. It also won the award for Best Direction at the Philadelphia Documentary and Fiction Festival in 2010.

What others have said about the The Cutting Tradition:

“This film is likely to create greater awareness in solving this problem”. FIGO’s CEO Professor Hamid Rushwan.

“This is an incredible piece of work. So moving, upsetting, confusing, terrifying and in tiny parts, uplifting.” Susie Orbach, psychotherapist, psychoanalyst, social critic and writer.