MALI-WOMEN-CONFLICT-CULTURE

Fati Walet Mohamed Issa, a member of the Tamajeq ethnic group (part of the Tuareg people cluster), a film director screened in Timbuktu, poses at her home in Bamako on 6 January 2022. On 6 December, the Ahmed Baba cultural centre screened films made by women, a first in Timbuktu. It was an opportunity for the marginalised, Tamajeq women to speak out about the problems of their community and to bring them to the attention of the public. - Fati Walet Mohamed Issa, a young documentary filmmaker from Mali's volatile north, says her goal is to shine a light on the plight of women in the conflict-torn Sahel state. Mali is a conservative Muslim-majority nation of 21 million people, where swathes of the country are in the hands of jihadists, and pressure for women to conform to traditional gender roles is strong. (Photo by FLORENT VERGNES / AFP) (Photo by FLORENT VERGNES/AFP via Getty Images)