Can watching a TV drama about love, intrigue, and female genital mutilation really change people’s minds about the age-old practice of cutting?
A team of Swedish researchers think so.
In an experiment they ran in rural Sudan, the researchers, funded by the United Nations Children’s Fund, created four “telenovela”-style movies depicting the drama and scheming of a sprawling Sudanese extended family. Each movie has a subplot focusing on whether the girls in the family should undergo the dangerous but culturally accepted practice of FGM.
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The goal was to find out whether the thought-provoking storylines resonated and changed minds, according to the study, which was first reported on by Broadly. In parts of Sudan, as many as 90 percent of girls undergo FGM.
The films took a “non-judgmental approach to cutting,” a research paper published in the journal Nature recounted. They didn’t lay out arguments to eradicate or support the practice, which an estimated 3 million girls undergo each year around the world, or portray evil characters as the ones responsible for cutting.
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“Rather, the movies dramatize how difficult a decision about cutting can be for parents who want the best for their daughters in a society where cutting is common, but attitudes and practices vary,” the researchers said.
The large extended family that was the subject of the soap opera featured multiple couples who have children, a “venerable grandfather,” and other relatives and spouses living on a large compound.
Several of the couples have daughters approaching the traditional age of cutting, and the movies showed husbands and wives openly discussing the procedure together — a rarity in Sudanese culture, according to the paper.
The films all depict the same main storyline, but varied in their approaches to discussing FGM. In one version, for instance, the show focused on people who believe FGM is necessary from a religious standpoint; in another, it focused on those who might think FGM would improve a girl’s marriage prospects.
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By the end of all of the versions, though, the family members all approach the patriarch to see if he will approve their decision to abandon the practice, which he does.
“The grandfather’s reaction confirms the family’s decision to stop cutting, and in this way the movies provide a model for how to include young and old generations in debates about cutting,” the researchers wrote.
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Because the appetite for entertainment proved “enormous and seemingly ubiquitous,” the movies had the potential to have a huge impact on viewers, the authors said.
By depicting conflicting views within a family over the merits of FGM, the films improved attitudes about uncut girls among viewers, they found.
More than 130 million girls worldwide have undergone FGM, according to the UN. And while most of those girls live in some 28 African states, the practice is also found elsewhere, including the Middle East, Asia, and, due to migration, Western nations such as Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
These films were only created for a Sudanese audience, but the researchers wrote that they were encouraged by the possibility of creating movies, TV shows, and popular entertainment in other cultures around the world that could help finally end the practice of FGM.