THE GIRL BEHIND THE CAMERA

Oumou picks up her camera and takes to the streets. “Since I was little, I watched films but didn’t know who was behind the camera." Now, she trains her lens on issues she knows well. One of Oumou's projects tells the true story of a peer pressured to lose weight. The young woman takes a concoction of drugs she hopes will slim her. Instead, the drugs kill her. Some nights, Oumou leads group discussions with teens in her community – speaking on issues, like sexual harassment, that girls face. When a young man in the group warns women to dress conservatively so as not to provoke sexual violence, Oumou remains steady, “No matter what a woman is wearing, you have no right to rape her.” Read more here.