ConnectHER’s International Day of the Girl Screening Events
Islamabad, Pakistan
A special shoutout to Day of the Girl hosts Halimah Tariq (Scarred Reality and Fatimah) and the students of City School Capital Campus Islamabad! We love how they took advantage of this year’s virtual format to include video introductions to each film by students and girl-power messages from prominent movers and shakers from Pakistan and India. Here are a few excerpts, which also nicely articulate our mission here at ConnectHER:
Girls are brave. They are resilient. We need to make an effort to remove all the barriers that are preventing them from achieving their full potential.
–Pakistani documentary filmmaker Samar Minallah Khan
It is important to not just fight for ourselves, but also to participate and support other women we know, women that we might not know, women from our village, women from other countries….Unless we all come together, the battle will not be won.
–Indian lawyer and child rights activist Shruti Navani
Johannesburg, South Africa
ConnectHER filmmaker Tapiwa Gambura (Not Your Bride: A Woman's Constitution and BVUDZI: A Hair Affair, both of which won awards at ConnectHER Film Festival 2020) hosted a “Redefining Beauty”-themed screening in Johannesburg, South Africa. Girls from across the globe—including the UK, Morocco, Zambia, and the US—joined the screening and lively discussion about their experiences with the devastating effects of European cultural beauty standards. “It made me realize how erasing a monolithic standard of beauty can be,” says Gambura. The participants talked about one way to combat the harmful impact on girls: by “shifting the importance of a woman’s beauty to qualities such as kindness, love, empathy, intelligence, and critical thinking.” Smart thinking!
Bukavu, DR Congo
In DR Congo, Ishara Musimwa Gentil (TUMAINI, The hope, produced with Nadege Cibogo Felista) also hosted a “Redefining Beauty”-themed event. It was attended by members of Generation Epanouie, ConnectHER’s girls’ education project partner in Congo, and other youth organizations. After the screening, the moderator asked the panelists, “What is your definition of beauty?” A couple of women said that to them, beauty is linked to financial independence and a feeling of abundance. Another woman, a doctor, said that it is linked to her ability to care for others. A chef and a flower weaver said that to them it is linked to creating beautiful things. Women from the audience added that beauty comes from a woman’s ability to manage her household or bring solutions to problems.
Let’s keep this lively conversation going! What does beauty mean to you? Is there a subject that you feel passionate about? Would you like to shine attention on an issue that impacts the lives of women and girls globally? The deadline for entries for the next ConnectHER Film Festival is June 15, 2021.
