Photographs of the Nigerian Première of "In The Name Of Your Daughter"

Photographs of The Nigerian Première of Giselle Portenier's "In The Name Of Your Daughter"


Nigerian première of Giselle Portenier's award-winning film, "In The Name Of Your Daughter" held yesterday, Thursday, May 23, 2019 at the Silverbird Cinemas in the Silverbird Galleria on Victoria Island, Lagos. From 10am - 2pm.

The amiable Deputy High Commissioner of Canada to Nigeria, His Excellency, Mr. Ryan A. Ward gave the goodwill message. Over 260 secondary school girls and boys came with their teachers with the approval of the Ministry of Education of Lagos state.

The Welcome Address was by Mrs. Nneka Osili, CEO of Kids and Brands Limited; the special guests included Mrs. Amita Joshi of Sona Group who brought more than the required gifts of products for over 328 people; Mr. Lanre Oladele of The Presidency, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, son of the famous Francis Oladele, one of the founding fathers of Nigerian cinema known for his film adaptations of the classic novels of the great Nigerian novelist, Chinua Achebe and the plays of Prof. Wole Soyinka; Mr. Jahman Anikulapo, Cofounder/Director of the annual IREPRESENT International Documentary Film Festival and Mr. Victor Okhai, the Presidential Candidate of the Providence Peoples Congress (PPC) in the 2019 presidential election, an accomplished film-maker and a veteran broadcast journalist,. and film studies. Director of the International Film and Broadcast Academy in Lagos, Founder and Festival Director of the annual InShort International Film Festival; ; Mr. Ali Andrew MADUGU, the Deputy Director of Child Development at the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs; Chioma Anokwuru Manager, Nollywood Studies Centre and her colleague, Mrs. Tope Falade at School of Media and Communication, Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos; Mr. Clarke EkenediriChukwu Eke, CEO, Blue Sail Real Estate Company; representatives of UNFPA, Action Health Incorporated (AHI); ; Ministry of Education of Lagos State, NGOs and news coverage by Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Silverbird TV, radio stations and newspapers.

There were several demands for "In The Name Of Your Daughter" by NGOs and most likely to have an Abuja première next.

The purpose of the Nigerian première is to increase the campaign for the total eradication of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Nigeria since the former President  of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan signed a federal law banning FGM in May 2015, making it a criminal offence. But violations of law continue in the most populous country in Africa. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is most common in the south west of Nigeria.  Out of 200 million women who have undergone FGM, Nigeria accounts for 20 million women. 25 percent of women in Nigeria have been genitally mutilated. Out of this, 13 percent of such cases were carried out by medical professionals.

About The Film:

“Parents have no right to cut their daughters. They only have the right to educate them and help them to fulfill their dreams.”
- Janet, 13. 

"In The Name Of Your Daughter" is the heartbreaking and heartwarming fly-on-the-wall story of the most courageous girls in the world, children in Northern Tanzania who are risking their lives to defy their destiny and follow their dreams. These girls, some as young as eight, are running away from home, leaving everything and everyone they love behind to save themselves from female genital mutilation and avoid being sold off into a child marriage. And it’s the story of one of Africa’s most charismatic women, Rhobi Samwelly, a brave local hero who confronts her community and protects the girls in her Safe House. https://inthenameofyourdaughterfilm.com.

 About Giselle PORTENIER:

Giselle Portenier is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker, who has consistently focused on human rights, especially the human rights of women and children. Her work has been instrumental in changing minds, changing lives, and changing laws. Much of her career was spent at the BBC in England. 

She has written articles and made television and radio documentaries about Child Slavery in West Africa, Honor Killings in Pakistan, the murder of baby girls and the abortion of the female foetus in India, Sex Trafficking in Thailand, the Baby Trade in Paraguay, the horrific effects of war on children in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the climate of violence and murder of women in Guatemala, the trade in human organs in India and China, and the terrible sexual violence perpetrated on women during Rwanda's Genocide. 

Most recently, she has been writing a series of articles on female genital mutilation (FGM), highlighting the plight of thousands of women and girls in Canada who are survivors of Female Genital Mutilation/FGM.

She was the first CanWest Global visiting professor at the University of British Coumbia, spent a year in Cambodia for the BBC running a mass media health campaign to combat HIV Aids and improving Maternal and Child Health, and is currently on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma.
Through the Forum, Portenier sponsors the annual Portenier Human Rights Bursary to enable a human rights journalist attend a hostile environments course which will help them stay safe while doing their job. She regularly speaks about human rights, gender issues, the media, and more.

In June 2014 she received  an honorary doctorate from Carleton University, in Ottawa. http://www.giselleportenier.com.

- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima.