Nationalities Service Center

This documentary explores issues of human rights and asylum in a film about a mother’s journey to protect her daughter. Declared a “heart-wrenching testament to the integrity and solidarity of women in the face of staggering adversity” by Ed Gonzalez in the Village Voice, Mrs. Goundo’s Daughter explores a Malian mother’s struggle for political asylum in the U.S. so that she can keep her two-year-old daughter healthy and whole. To avoid deportation, Mrs. Goundo must convince a judge that she is unable to protect her daughter, Djenabou, from her well-intentioned grandparents in West Africa, who believe all girls should undergo female genital cutting. Djenebou’s situation is not isolated – an estimated three million girls each year are subjected to this procedure.