Kenyan Girl Rails Against Her Circumcision

March 12, 2003 -- She was the toast of the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year — a 10-year-old who turned into a de facto ambassador-activist, pitching her voice against an excruciatingly inhumane, but ancient, practice that affects millions of women around the world.

When she was barely 8, Fouzia Hassan was pinned down on her living room floor by two local women in her western Kenyan hometown of Eldoret. They tied her legs, clamped her mouth and sat on her chest to prevent the frail schoolgirl from thrashing around, as a third woman circumcised her with a razor blade.

It was just one in an estimated 6,000 cases of female circumcision — or female genital mutilation, as it's commonly called — that occur every day, primarily in 28 countries in North Africa and the Middle East.

But for little Fouzia, the pain, horror and shock of her circumcision left an indelible mark on her psyche. Days after the incident, as she lay recuperating in bed with her legs tightly bound, she asked for a pencil and paper and composed her troubled thoughts into a short, incisive poem, which she titled "The Day I Will Never Forget."

That's also the title of a documentary on female genital mutilation, or FGM, in Kenya by British filmmaker Kim Longinotto that was screened at the Sundance festival in January and will be aired on HBO later this year.

A 92-minute film documenting the experiences of a number of women and girls — including Fouzia — who have been circumcised, The Day I Will Never Forget has been making the rounds on the international film festival circuit, picking up rave reviews and awards along the way.

But it was at Sundance that the documentary created a storm, aided to a considerable extent by the presence of Fouzia and another central character in the film, Fardhosa Ali Mohamed, a health-care provider who works with the Somali immigrant community in the town of Eldoret.

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At a packed screening in Park City, Utah, Fouzia stood dignified and composed in her "party frock" as the audience — many of them with tears still streaming down their cheeks — gave the two Kenyans a standing ovation.

"It was verieee nice," she emphasized during a phone interview with ABCNEWS.com days after she got back to Eldoret from her eventful U.S. trip. "I was very surprised how the people liked the film. I didn't think people would like it, but when it was screened, people were very happy."

Controlling Sexuality, Multiplying Health Complications

"Happy" is probably not a term most of the audience would have employed to describe their state of mind after watching the film.

"Appalled" would probably more accurately describe the reactions to the documentary highlighting what the human rights community calls "one of the most extreme forms of violence against women." It's a custom, they say, that is designed to control women's sexuality and "moderate" female sexual desire.