About the Show

IN THE NAME OF THE FAMILY follows the course to violence as the girls start embracing the culture of their new countries. From the refusal to wear a hijab, the traditional Muslim headscarf, to wearing figure-flattering clothes and having connections with non-Muslim men, male family members believe they are justified in punishing them. They often show no remorse for these acts. In the film, viewers meet the girls, their families and friends, and enter into a normally closed world where young women wanting to bridge two worlds are victimized by the men who claim to love them the most.

Shelley Saywell is a Canadian documentary filmmaker whose films focus on social-political issues. She has won numerous international awards, including an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Journalism, and has been short-listed for the Academy Awards®. In Canada, her work has garnered three Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival awards, and three Gemini Awards. Saywell has personally been honoured with UNESCO’s Gandhi Silver Medal for promoting the culture of peace.

Saywell’s most recent film is Martyr Street, a feature-length documentary shot over five years, focusing on life in Hebron in the West Bank. It won Best Canadian Documentary at Hot Docs 2006. Her films also include Generation of Hate (Iraq), A Child’s Century of War, Out of the Fire, Crimes of Honour, Legacy of Terror: The Bombing of Air India, Kim’s Story: The Road From Vietnam, Rape: A Crime of War, Fire and Water, No Man’s Land: Women Frontline Journalists and Shahira. Shelley Saywell is author of Women in War (Penguin Books, 1986) and contributing author to Ourselves Among Others (St. Martin’s Press, 1988).

IN THE NAME OF THE FAMILY is a CTV Original Documentary and a Bishari Films production. IN THE NAME OF THE FAMILY is the latest in CTV’s repertoire of award-winning original documentary programming. Recent titles include THE PIG FARM and LIFE WITH MURDER.