15.12.2014. By Stop FGM Middle East. The short film “Almond” tells the story of Awat a young Kurdish woman in Iran who is struggling with the consequences of female genital mutilation (FGM). When she has to marry, she stops talking entirely which soon becomes the main subject of the village talk. The director Mokhtar Masoumian spent six months to collect information about FGM in Iran, consulting and taking advice from experts and spend over 16 thousand dollars personally to realize the project.

The existence of FGM in Iran is a well-kept secret. Only recently a discussion started on a national level about the tradition which is most prevalent in the provinces of Kurdistan, Western Azarbaijan, Kermanshah, Illam, Lorestan and Hormozghan. Outside of Iran, it is practically not known at all that the gruesome practice of cutting a girl’s clitoris is common there.

With “Almond” the director Mokhtar Masoumian has brought the topic to the national and international agenda. He is not the first director who chose this issue in Iran, but his film is the first that made it to renown national and international Film Festivals. “Almond” was shown in the Growth Film Festival of Tehran, the International Film festival in Rome, the Kurdish Film Festival in Stockholm, the Media Wave Festival in Hungary and the Digital Film Festival in Athens. (Rayehe Mozafarian/ Hannah Wettig)

Director: Mokhtar Masoumian
Iran/ 2013 / 23 Min
Kurdish / English subtitles