International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation :

Rights of Passage- Four Stories of Survival

Puberty is one of the most vulnerable times in a girl's life. For young women around the world it is a time of transition, but in societies where women are not valued, puberty can be the beginning of a life of abuse and even early death. Through the stories of four young women coming of age in different parts of the world, Rights of Passage looks at what can be the personal cost of this transition.Filmed with sensitivity in Nicaragua, India, Jamaica and Burkina Faso, it allows the adolescent girls to speak for themselves. Aleyda in Nicaragua is addicted to glue sniffing and is slipping into a life of prostitution; Tarranum in India has been pulled out of school and is waiting to be married off; in Jamaica, Natalyn is fourteen years old and seven months pregnant and Adjara in Burkina Faso faces the prospect of female genital mutilation.Rights of Passage is an important contribution to American understanding of the vulnerability of young women in societies where their horizons are limited to physical labor and child bearing.