La Scuola Nella Foresta

The Bush School

While many African countries have banned female genital mutilation, in Liberia this practice is still widespread, so much so that it is practiced as an initiation into the secret female society called "Sande". Considered the guardian of the tradition and culture of the ancestors, the secret society is untouchable. In its "bush schools", whose access rite is the cutting of the clitoris, girls spend a period ranging from a few months to three years. They learn respect for the elderly, their duties as future wives and mothers, dances and songs, remaining totally illiterate. Sande's enormous political influence has prevented Parliament from passing a law that criminalizes female genital mutilation, while receiving regular funding from the Ministry of the Interior instead. By voicing three Liberian women's rights activists, this film joins their painful and passionate denunciation with the aim of arousing international outrage that manages to put an end to this cruel tradition.