KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Since

“Women are much more exposed than men,” said Modou Goumbala, the monitoring and evaluation manager at La Lumiere, an NGO that supports community development in southeastern Senegal.That exposure can be especially dangerous for pregnant and nursing women. Mercury can cross the placenta, putting fetuses at risk of developmental delays and birth defects. Infants may also absorb the toxin through contaminated breast milk.

Inside her kitchen hut not far from the stream, Camara heats a nugget of mercury-laced sediment with a metal spoon over an open flame. The toxic metal evaporates and leaves behind a kernel of gold. There’s no mask, no gloves — just the raw materials and her bare hands. Her children stand just a few feet away, watching and breathing the fumes.Camara said she doesn’t usually handle the burning herself; that task is typically left to men. But she and other women regularly mix and shape the mercury amalgam with no protection. One of her children suffers from frequent stomachaches, though she hasn’t noticed any other symptoms. Still, the risks loom.People mine for gold in the Kedougou region of Senegal on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)

People mine for gold in the Kedougou region of Senegal on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)“The easiest way to earn money today is gold mining,” Camara said. “Subsistence agriculture will not provide you enough for food or other needs.”

In Senegal, gold processors like Camara typically process between 5 and 10 grams of gold per month, earning the equivalent of $370 to $745 — more than double the national average salary of about $200.

Senegal ratified the Minamata Convention on Mercury in 2016, pledging to reduce mercury use and pollution. But the substance remains widely accessible. Most of the country’s supply comes from Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana, with smaller amounts smuggled from dental clinics in Dakar, according to a 2022 report by the Institute for Security Studies.Neshat plays their teacher, a woman who loves rom-coms and English but who is unmoored, a foot in Iran and one in England, where she lived for many years but never completely felt at home.

“We don’t always belong to what we’re born to,” says Neshat. “She understands the potential of language and the potential of reaching beyond yourself. And yet she’s at a point in her life where she’s also losing a lot of that.”The play is packed with cultural references — like Christiane Amanpour, Hugh Grant and “Whenever, Wherever” by

One character admires Julia Roberts’ teeth, saying “They could rip through wire. In a good way.”“I feel like so often, when you’re telling stories about a different culture, especially in the Middle East, it’s like, ‘Well, we wanna see them behind the veil’ and ‘We want to see our idea of them.’ And I feel like, especially with my character, I feel it defies all of that. I feel she is romantic and flawed and complicated.”