At the Frontiers of Change

This documentary is based on social anthropologist Thera Mjaaland’s (2013) doctoral thesis, "At the frontiers of change? Women and girls’ pursuit of education in north-western Tigray, Ethiopia". Girls have started to outnumber boys in primary and secondary education in Asgede Tsimbla Wereda in the north-western zone of Tigray region in North-Ethiopia where this film was made. Nevertheless, rural girls still face the challenge of underage marriage despite the legal marriage age for boys and girls in Ethiopia now being 18. This is due to the continued importance of female virginity and the burden of sexual morality still shouldered by girls, which is left unchallenged by efforts to address underage marriage. In this film we follow female students who have stood up against underage marriage in their rural home villages to be able to pursue secondary school in the market town of Endabaguna. The challenges these girls encounter can be placed in the context of the MDG 3 where education was the only target to promote gender equality and empower women. The elimination of early marriage is included in one of the additional targets for SDG 5, achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. However, numerical targets is not enough to challenge hard-lived sentiments that continue to relieve boys and men of responsibility in gender relations, and which – despite gender parity in primary and secondary school – continue to place girls at a disadvantage relative to boys in higher education.

Thera Mjaaland is a photographer and social anthropologist who has followed women and girls in Tigray over more than two decades. This documentary communicates some of the findings from her doctoral thesis to a broader public than the academic, including back to the local community in north-western Tigray where the ethnographic research was conducted 2008-2012. The initial production was done with the Ethiopian TV-journalist Genet Ashebir, Gelia Media in the end of 2012, and the final editing was done together with Tewodros Hailemichael, Salina Studio, Mekelle, autumn 2014.