Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoITALY / REFUGEE FGM SURVIVOR
Download
There is no media available to download.
Share
STORY: ITALY / REFUGEE FGM SURVIVOR
TRT: 04:18
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNHCR ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: FRENCH / NATS
DATELINE: 20 AUGUST 2017, SICILY, ITALY
20 AUGUST 2017, SICILY, ITALY
1. SOUNDBITE (French) Aisha, FGM survivor:
“I’ve suffered so much, truly. I have suffered. From when I was a girl until now.”
2. Wide shot, Aisha silhouetted standing in the window in a refugee reception centre
3. SOUNDBITE (French) Aisha, FGM survivor:
“They tie your hands and feet. Without anaesthetic, they cut a part of your body. There are so many children who died. So many. The law forbids it. Islam forbids it. But they do it in secret. They say our custom demands it.”
4. Med shot, Aisha’s face reflected in window
5. Close up, Aisha
6. SOUNDBITE (French) Aisha, FGM survivor:
“I couldn’t save my first daughter. I didn’t know. They did it behind my back. (crying) She bled, she bled a lot. And more than that, she was ill for months. They asked me to excise my second daughter. I couldn’t stand it anymore. A woman has to protect her children.”
7. Med shot, Aisha hugging her child
8. SOUNDBITE (French) Aisha, FGM survivor:
“I didn’t have enough money. So I fled with the one they wanted to excise and her brother.”
9. Close up, beach at night
10. Rack focus, window with bars
11. SOUNDBITE (French) Aisha, FGM survivor:
“They kidnapped me, they beat me, they raped me. Every day. They put us in a big house where we never saw the light of day. The sun. There are so many women there. So much suffering. Total suffering. They abuse women, children, men. They killed so many women in front of me. Because they refused to be prostituted; many, many. If you refuse they kill you and throw you in the sea. When I saw my children, I cried. But they didn’t know what was happening. But when I saw them I cried.”
12. Med shot, barbed wire and fence
13. SOUNDBITE (French) Aisha, FGM survivor:
“Every time the men came and forced me to have sex with them, I couldn’t do bear it anymore. I felt exhausted. They thought that I was going to die. So, they took us to the beach in the night. They said if we’re going to die, it’ll be in the sea. They put us in a boat so that we would die in the sea. We were in the sea for 2 days before we were found. I cried. I didn’t think I would live. I cried with all my soul and body. I didn’t think that I would live to see another day.”
FILE – DATE AND LOCATION UNKNOWN
14. Wide shot, men walking in hangar
20 AUGUST 2017, SICILY, ITALY
15. Close up, Aisha being interviewed
FILE – DATE AND LOCATION UNKNOWN
16. tracking, sea at night
17. Med shot, reflection of coast guard
18. Wide shot, migrant boat burning
20 AUGUST 2017, SICILY, ITALY
19. Aisha being interview
20. Wide shot, Aisha sitting on bed behind curtain
21. SOUNDBITE (French) Aisha, FGM survivor:
“They are monsters. They are inhumane. I lost my dignity in Libya. When I think about everything that happened I can’t sleep. When I tell my story, it hurts but it liberates me. I want to mourn the past. And to start a new life with my children close to me.”
22. Close up, Aisha
Aisha fled her native Côte d’Ivoire to save her child from female gentile mutilation (FGM), but in Libya her hardship quickly turned into a three-month- long nightmare in which she experienced repeated abuse and witnessed the killings of many people detained with her.
SOUNDBITE (French) Aisha, FGM survivor:
“I’ve suffered so much, truly. I have suffered. From when I was a girl until now.”
Every year thousands of women and girls flee their homes to escape FGM, a harmful traditional practice that is seen in some communities as a rite of passage into womanhood. Over 200 million women and girls across the world have been subjected to the practice, while 20,000 seek asylum from FGM-practicing countries in the EU every year.
SOUNDBITE (French) Aisha, FGM survivor:
“They tie your hands and feet. Without anaesthetic, they cut a part of your body. There are so many children who died. So many. The law forbids it. Islam forbids it. But they do it in secret. They say our custom demands it.”
Aisha, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, was seven years old when she underwent the procedure and her eldest daughter was only four when it happened to her.
SOUNDBITE (French) Aisha, FGM survivor:
“I couldn’t save my first daughter. I didn’t know. They did it behind my back. (crying) She bled, she bled a lot. And more than that, she was ill for months. They asked me to excise my second daughter. I couldn’t stand it anymore. A woman has to protect her children.”
Aisha was forced to choose which of her 5 children she would save.
SOUNDBITE (French) Aisha, FGM survivor:
“I didn’t have enough money, so I fled with the one they wanted to excise and her brother.”
They survived a horrific journey across the Sahara to Libya hoping to find safety, but instead they were caught in a 3-month-long nightmare of detention and abuse.
SOUNDBITE (French) Aisha, FGM survivor:
“They kidnapped me, they beat me, they raped me. Every day. They put us in a big house where we never saw the light of day. The sun. There are so many women there. So much suffering. Total suffering. They abuse women, children, men. They killed so many women in front of me. Because they refused to be prostituted; many, many. If you refuse they kill you and throw you in the sea. When I saw my children, I cried. But they didn’t know what was happening. But when I saw them I cried.”
Her captors sexually and physically abused her and then left her out at sea to die with her children.
SOUNDBITE (French) Aisha, FGM survivor:
“Every time the men came and forced me to have sex with them, I couldn’t do bear it anymore. I felt exhausted. They thought that I was going to die. So, they took us to the beach in the night. They said if we’re going to die, it’ll be in the sea. They put us in a boat so that we would die in the sea. We were in the sea for 2 days before we were found. I cried. I didn’t think I would live. I cried with all my soul and body. I didn’t think that I would live to see another day.”
Aisha and her children are safe now in a refugee reception centre in Italy. They are now receiving psychological support to cope with the trauma they endured.
SOUNDBITE (French) Aisha, FGM survivor:
“They are monsters. They are inhumane. I lost my dignity in Libya. When I think about everything that happened I can’t sleep. When I tell my story, it hurts but it liberates me. I want to mourn the past. And to start a new life with my children close to me.”
Every day, hundreds of women and girls in Libya are subjected to sexual violence. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) is calling for unrestricted humanitarian access inside the country to help all those in need.
