My work as an editor is usually a learning experience for me. I come into contact with subjects I might not have otherwise explored, or possible steered clear of altogether.
Today, aside from a stack of happy videos on the subjects of malaria epidemic, tanzanite child labour, AIDS crisis in Lake Victoria, violence against women worldwide, post earthquake Pakistan, the catch-22 situation for farmers in Afghanistan who have chosen to grow poppies, refugees of Angola repatriating to a certain hell, death and unexploded ordinance in South Lebanon, Cambodia, Chechnya and Afghanistan, lucky me also got to log footage of a DVD about female genital mutilation.
It took me a while to work up the courage to watch the bloody thing. It included some reenactments of the womanhood ceremony, footage of 5-year olds weilding big knives being trained to be FGM practitioners, and the audio from a video taken of a little girl's female circumcision ceremony as she was being held down by her mother.
I never, ever, want to hear a girl scream like that again.
I am so thankful I was born where I was born.
P.S. thanks for the hugs in the sidebar... I need 'em today!
1 comment:
In a Violence Against Women course in college we listened to a 911 call of a woman screaming and I felt the same way. I had to leave the class I was so disturbed.
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