Since 1982, the national organization GAMS (Groupement pour l’Abolition des Mutilations Sexuelles or Group Working to End Female Genital Mutilations) has worked to end female genital mutilation (FGM). The Zonta Club of Le Havre, France, has been a partner of GAMS Normandie for several years.

In connection with the GAMS’ 40 years of actions to end sexual violence against women and the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, members of GAMS and the Zonta club held a screening of the film In Search: A Journey to Womanhood followed by a debate on 25 November.

The film features Beryl, who was born in a rural village in Kenya, and thought that all women in the world had to be mutilated/cut. Consequently, she had to suffer these initiative rites. She did not imagine all the consequences of such an act. Many years later, she heard about a new kind of surgery, which was able to repair what was removed.

Through this autobiographic film, Beryl explores the emotional dilemma sparked by this possible surgery. She met and asked women who had to live the same experiences.

The movie screening was followed by a debate surrounding the surgical reconstruction and led by, among others, Dr. Fabienne Trocque, gynecologist, and Me Pascale Poulain, sex therapist—both of them Zontians and past presidents.