Film screening and Q&A will highlight the perfume industry’s dark secret

The University of Stirling and the BBC are teaming up for an exclusive event which will lift the lid on child labour linked to the perfume industry.

A free screening of the BBC documentary Perfume’s Dark Secret will take place on Wednesday, 6 November at 5:30pm at Macrobert Arts Centre on the University of Stirling campus, followed by a panel discussion and question and answer session.

A BBC Eye documentary team visited four locations in Egypt’s main jasmine-growing area in the Gharbia region in the summer of 2023. The team found children as young as five working at night to pick the jasmine supplied to some of the world’s leading perfume brands through factories in Egypt.

The United Nation’s special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery told the BBC what it uncovered "may constitute the worst form of child labour".

The event is a collaboration between the BBC and the University of Stirling Management School’s Interdisciplinary Research in Supply Chain and Logistics (IRiSCaL) group. 

The documentary filmmakers will join University of Stirling experts in child labour, child trafficking and business supply chains at the event to discuss the documentary’s findings and its implications. 

The panel members are: Dr Umair Choksy, Senior Lecturer in Management; Dr Vassilis Galanos, Lecturer in Digital Work; Dr Ashley Rogers, Lecturer in Criminology; Natasha Cox, documentary director; and Ahmed ElShamy, documentary producer.  

Dr Choksy said: “This is a unique opportunity to dig deeper into the issues uncovered in Perfume’s Dark Secret. Together with the filmmakers’ experience and University of Stirling academics’ expertise, we know this will be a valuable and topical discussion.”

What: Perfume’s Dark Secret exclusive screening and Q&A
When: Wednesday, 6 November 2024, 5:30pm–7:30pm
Where: Macrobert Arts Centre Filmhouse, University of Stirling campus, Stirling, FK9 4LA
Book your free ticket and find more information: macrobertartscentre.org/shows/652027ARMPBCPSLRSDSDQLLLJDTHTQHGD