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Monday’s Girls
A film by
Ngozi Onwurah
Grades 9 and up
This fascinating documentary follows the rites of passage of two young Nigerian women. The ritual – known as the 'iria' – requires young virgins (irabo) to spend five weeks in "fattening rooms", where their heads are shaved and are bodies painted, powdered and bound, as they are waited on and honored by their families. Combining voice-over and interviews, 'Monday’s Girls' documents tradition, modernity, dissent and contradiction. Ideal for social studies classes, this timely piece ultimately demonstrates the power that young women have to accept or resist their community’s traditions as they choose.
“A daring look at the negotiation of multiple issues of gendered identities, individual versus communal voices, traditions versus modernity.”
Maureen Eke
Central Michigan University
“…Fascinating…will spur discussion amongst girls and is a great introduction to anthropological inquiry and filmmaking.”
Jan Albert
Lower Eastside Girls Club
Study Questions to Accompany Monday’s Girls and Salem Mekuria’s Film Deluge
Links to Women’s Organizations in Nigeria
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© Women Make Movies, 2002
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Women Make Movies is a multicultural, multiracial, non-profit media
arts organization which facilitiates the production, promotion, distribution, and exhibition of independent films and videotapes by and about women. contact us
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