In the Name of Your Daughter

Terrified of stories of girls bleeding to death, young Tanzanian children face a terrible choice: whether to submit to female genital mutilation and child marriage, or risk their lives and run away from home. Rhobi Samwelly, a brave local hero, stands up to her community and provides a Safe House to protect the courageous girls. Although female genital mutilation (FGM) is harmful and illegal, in Northern Tanzania it is widely believed that girls' clitorises must be cut off to reduce promiscuity. Mutilated girls also demand twice the bride price as uncut girls. The chillingly named 'cutting season' runs through the school holidays in December. Now, some of the most courageous girls in the world, some as young as eight, are leaving everyone they love behind to run to a Safe House, not knowing if they'll ever see their families again. We follow the feisty and courageous 12-year-old Rosie Makore, one of the brave girls who flees from female genital mutilation (FGM) and the child marriage that her parents had planned for her. We meet the charismatic Rhobi Samwelly who protects the girls and fights the thousands-year-old practice. But ancient traditions die hard. In cooperation with the Safe House, Police officer Sijali and her team start cracking down on FGM, arresting parents and cutters while rescuing girls at risk. As the year's cutting season winds down, in heartbreaking reconciliation meetings, parents must decide if they'll spare their daughters and take them back.