Human Rights Watch

Mrs. Goundo’s Daughter is the sensitively told story of a Malian mother’s fight for asylum in the US to protect her two-year-old from female genital cutting. To stay in the US, Goundo must persuade an immigration judge that her US-born daughter, Djenabou, will suffer this procedure if Goundo is deported. In Mali, where 85 percent of women and girls experience clitoral excision, Goundo and her husband are convinced they would be powerless to protect their daughter from her grandparents, who believe all girls should be excised. The film bridges Goundo’s two worlds, expertly interweaving scenes from Mali of girls preparing for an excision ceremony and scenes from Philadelphia where those who have survived the procedure share their stories.