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Arts & Communication

ARTICLE
Using a documentary film to support the

campaign to end female genital mutilation in
Kenya

Judy Aslett*

7 Stack Yard Court, Fulbourn, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB21 5AD, United Kingdom

Abstract

My FGM Story, Kenya (2022) is a documentary in English (with subtitles) created to
be aired on Kenyan television; it has also been translated into Maasai to be shown
by activists working to end female genital mutilation (FGM) among the Maasai
community in Kenya. The film is presented and produced by filmmaker Laissa Malih
Kaunga, who is from Kenya’s Maasai community, and was made in collaboration with
Kenyan journalists and #EndFGM activists. The film was made based on research
conducted in The Gambia in 2020, where local activists and journalists collaborated
to make the film My FGM Story (2020), which was aired on TV in The Gambia to
support the country’s #EndFGM campaign. The key finding of that research project
was that an effective film that can persuade individuals to stop engaging in FGM
must be specific to that country and reflect the perceptions and traditions of FGM
*Corresponding author: related to that community. This article examines how My FGM Story, Kenya builds
Judy Aslett
(judyaslett@gmail.com) on the previous project in The Gambia and draws on Cialdini’s research on the
psychology of persuasion. While the methodology of collaboration and participation
Citation: Aslett J. Using a
documentary film to support the between journalists and activists to the films in Kenya and the Gambia was similar,
campaign to end female genital their contents are very different, reflecting cultural differences between the cultures
mutilation in Kenya. of The Gambia and Kenya.
Arts & Communication.
2025;3(3):3725.
doi: 10.36922/ac.3725
Keywords: Female genital mutilation; Documentary filmmaking; Kenya; Psychology of
Submitted: May 21, 2024 persuasion; Collaboration; Maasai; Journalism; The Gambia
Revised: November 8, 2024
Accepted: November 8, 2024
Published online: December 12, 1. Introduction
2024
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 230 million women and girls
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). worldwide have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM), which “comprises all
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other
of the Creative Commons injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.” It is a traditional cultural
1
AttributionNoncommercial License, practice in at least 30 countries and further impacts women in many other countries,
permitting all non-commercial use,
distribution, and reproduction in any including the UK and the USA. The WHO recognizes four types of FGM:
medium, provided the original work Type 1: The partial or total removal of the clitoral glans (the external and visible part
is properly cited. of the clitoris, which is a sensitive part of the female genitals), and/or the prepuce/
Publisher’s Note: AccScience clitoral hood.
Publishing remains neutral with Type 2: The partial or total removal of the clitoral glans and the labia minora (the
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional inner folds of the vulva), with or without removal of the labia majora (the outer
affiliations. folds of the vulva).

Volume 3 Issue 3 (2025) 1 doi: 10.36922/ac.3725