In the Blog
Toronto event: Day of the Girl
In celebration of the inaugural International Day of the Girl, the United Nations Association in Canada’s Toronto Branch (UNACTO), will be hosting a screening of the powerful and must-see documentary IT’S A GIRL, on Friday, October 12th from 7-10pm. The event will be held at George Ignatieff Theatre at Trinity College at the University of Toronto (15 Devonshire Place).
The United Nations estimates as many as 200 million girls are missing in the world today as a result of “gendercide.” It’s a Girl is a remarkable film that explores this extreme form of gender inequality - to the point of exterminating millions of members of a particular gender group. It asks why this is happening and why so little is being done to save girls and women. Shot on location in India and China, this documentary shares the stories of abandoned and trafficked girls, of women who suffer extreme dowry-related violence, of mothers fighting to save their daughter’s lives, and of families who kill for a son. Ultimately, it prompts us to critically think about what in our society allows and enables gender inequality to thrive. To watch the trailer and for the full synopsis, visit: http://www.itsagirlmovie.com/.
In addition to raising awareness about gendercide, the event will also go on to celebrate the very first International Day of the Girl, which will take place on October 11th, the day before the event.
Beyond the screening of It’s a Girl, this event will also feature:
o A keynote speech by 11-year-old Alyna Jamal Nanji o A presentation on gendercide in North America and what Toronto’s most active are doing to bring gender equality to the fore, by UNACTO research-intern Mekdes Soloman o A display of artwork by Toronto teens o Raffle prizes
Find event details and purchase tickets here: http://internationaldayofthegirl.eventbrite.ca/
Movie trailer (transcription below):
The United Nations estimates as many as 200 million girls are “missing” in the world today.
Millions killed, aborted or abandoned, simply because they are girls.
Today India and China eliminate more girls than the number of girls born in America every year.
The definition of genocide is a systematic and methodical extermination of a certain group and gendercide is the systematic and methodical extermination of a gender group.
Why are Indian households secretly and brutally eliminating daughters from their family system?
Baby girls are killed. They just take the cloth, and they hold it like this, and they put it on the face so the child can’t breathe. Immediately the child will die.
Girls are abandoned.
I came to this place to look for some boxes and saw Meihui next to the river. She was wrapped and put in a box.
Abandoned babies are mostly girls who are not allowed by the Birth Control Policy.
But what this is is an entire system, a social machinery, that says “we don’t want females.”
But the real problem started after I became pregnant. They started asking me for a sex determination. They wanted to know if the children are girls or boys. They started torturing me to get an abortion done. What should I do to save my daughters?
When we saw my daughter, my wife saw the mark on her neck. We realized she was dead and we started crying and wailing. We couldn’t see how they could just kill her.
Parents of daughters flee to save their family.
According to the National Family Planning I can only have two children.
There are people that work for their Birth Control Policy in the village. They found out about me.
I felt we could keep it only if it was a male and kill it if it was a female child. I just strangled it after it was born. I would kill it and bury it. Since we were not having any male children I killed eight girl children.
The three deadliest words in the world … it’s a girl.
Why are 200 million girls “missing”? www.itsagirlmovie.com
