With a concept that involves athletics and academic excellence, it aims to help girls challenge traditional impediments that stand on their way to success. Speaking to the girls from different secondary schools who participated in the programme, Public Affairs Officer at the Consulate, Mrs Rhonda Watson encouraged the girls not to listen to the voice inside of them that say they are incapable.
“In whatever you do, do not listen to the voice that says you can’t do it, you are from the wrong neighbourhood or your parents are poor. None of those are excuses unless you choose to listen to that voice. Sometimes, the voice does not come from you but from your family members who tell you girls don’t do that. People put limitations on us but what we learn from this film is that the girls did not allow any limitation to hold them back, they decided to be winners.”
The Queen and the Carpet Girl on the other hand is a Moroccan film that tells the story of Hadijah, a poor rural little girl who could not go to school because she had to work in a carpet factory to earn a dollar a month for her family.
Khadijah was one year old when her mother died, and five years when her step-mother took her and her sisters to work in the carpet factory, where other rural poor little girls in the country worked. Deprived of education, they worked in very unfavourable conditions, standing up from 6am to 8pm with only an hour break. “We always pray for God to give us death not life,” Kadijah said of the hellish condition they had to endure.
Khadijah’s story changed when she was discovered by Fatema Ben Brik, a social worker who fishes out these underaged girls and tries to convince their parents to send them to school. Providence smiled on Kadija when Queen Rania of Jordan, a UNICEF advocate came to the rescue of some of the carpet girls of Morocco, assisting them to start schooling. Khadijah recounts how she was stigmatized by other girls from well off families when she newly started school. “We don’t talk to carpet girls,” they would say to her, leaving her to herself while they played.
“But she was undeterred. In two years, she could read and write and wants to be a medical doctor,” her teacher said. Speaking on the issue of child labour, which is a reality in many developing countries across the globe, Queen Rania said; “It is never too late, these problems can be solved. It takes intervention; it takes good will and the right policy for it to work.”
Earlier at the event, snippets of Ifeoma Fafunwa’s play Hear Word was screened, showing the rampant sexual abuse of little girls by adult men in the society and depicting the trauma the girls have to endure and the conspiracy of silence that normally follows even when they tell an older person. There were inspirational speeches by renowned Nigerian women, spoken word and other activities, even as the case for the missing Chibok girls was also discussed.
On December 19, 2011, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 66/170 to declare 11 October as the International Day of the Girl Child, to promote girls’ human rights, highlight gender inequalities that remain between girls and boys and address the various forms of discrimination and abuse suffered by girls around the world.
Sequel to that, countries, organizations and even individuals have continued to mark the day in different ways using different means, all geared towards drawing attention to the unique challenges faced by the girl child. With this year’s theme as Empowering adolescent girls: Ending the cycle of violence, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, in his address said: “On this International Day of the Girl Child, I call on all governments to take action to end all forms of violence against girls in all parts of the world.
Together, we must create a world where violence against women and girls is never tolerated and girls are always empowered to reach their full potential.” The streaming of the films was part of the activities put together by the US Consulate, Lagos, on Thursday October 9, 2014, to kick-start the celebration.
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