The Film "Difret": Legal Reform and Challenging Tradition in Ethiopia | Big Think

Ethiopia is a country with over 19 million population and the country has a long history and very rich culture. Unfortunately, some of the traditional practices and norms affect women negatively. The practice of telefa, which is abducting girls for marriage, is one of the harmful practices that affect the physical, mental, as well as social and economic lives of women in Ethiopia.

I heard about the story on the radio. I was in a car with a driver, and we were listening to a radio program that featured media coverage about a 14-year-old girl being abducted, raped, and killed by her husband. As soon as I learned about the story, I immediately thought that we should go to this place, which is 300 km outside of Addis Ababa where we work. We should be able to defend the girl.

I thought about this because I believed that we should save her life, as she was facing a life sentence. Additionally, I knew that this was going to be a big, precedent-setting case, which we could use for public education to enhance the dialogue and the conversation around abduction, particularly concerning telefa. Such a story is, for some people, especially those living in the West, completely outside their experience. In that sense, it will educate people on how women live in other parts of the world.

Secondly, it's also a call to action. I believe educational institutions, women's rights organizations, and government and non-government institutions whose mandates focus on gender equality would like to use this film for advocacy, legal reform, and to enhance and accelerate programs, especially fighting child marriage around the world. That's my hope.

Getting Angelina Jolie was quite helpful. The movie, the content, the history, the presentation is fantastic. However, her agreeing to be executive producer really took it to another level, to another height, and I think that was kind of her. I think this film is quite educational in that sense because it does not necessarily judge the community. It does not necessarily point a finger at the community; it shows where the thinking comes from.

It sort of makes you have a conversation with yourself because it’s not an easy sort of sin. These people have lived with this tradition for a number of years, and that’s what they know. That’s what they believe. From time to time, we need to go back to the drawing board, and we need to have some real conversations on why these things are happening. It's not enough to say, "Well, it's the culture," or "Well, it's a tradition." We need to discuss, unpack, and explore why this is happening.