Political and religious leaders in The Gambia are threatening to introduce a law decriminalizing female genital mutilation, eight years after the practice was banned.
Members of the country’s National Assembly have supported a proposal that the 2015 law be abolished while the Supreme Islamic Council enacted it a fatwa We condemn anyone who denounces this practice and call on the government to reconsider the legislation.
Activists and civil society organizations said the move was extremely regressive. “Gambia took a bold step to eradicate FGM in 2015. “So if we were to go back after eight years and start over, it would have a very, very big impact on the country,” said Fallou Sowe, national coordinator of the civil society organization Network Against Gender-Based Violence.
According to this, almost three quarters of women (73%) between the ages of 15 and 49 have experienced FGM the country’s 2019-20 demographic health surveyand almost two-thirds (65%) were cut before the age of five.
FGM is the partial or complete removal of the external female genitalia, which can have serious long-term health consequences including infertility. The practice is considered a violation of the human rights of women and girls and in 2012 the The UN passed a resolution to ban it. FGM is still practiced in about 30 countries in Africa and the Middle East.
For cultural and religious reasons, the procedure is usually carried out by female seamstresses. In some communities it is a requirement for marriage.
Under current law in The Gambia, a person convicted of FGM could face up to three years in prison, a fine of 50,000 dalasi (£622), or both. If FGM results in death, the perpetrator could face life in prison.
The debate began at the end of August afterwards Three women were convicted of FGM in the Central River region – the first prosecution under the 2015 law – and sentenced to pay a fine of 15,000 dalasi or a year in prison.
A few days later, An Islamic cleric paid the fines and encouraged Gambians to continue practicing FGM. The issue was then debated in the National Assembly in September, where there were calls for the law to be repealed.
Fatou Baldeh, an FGM survivor and founder of Women in Liberation and Leadership, a Gambian civil society organization, said she is already seeing the impact. In recent weeks, she and her team have been expelled from three communities because people accused them of “challenging our own cultures, norms and religions,” she said.
“We have broken the culture of silence on FGM,” she said. “We have taken a step backwards… Great damage has already been done due to the Islamic Supreme Council’s declarations that FGM is Islamic.”
Baldeh fears that if the FGM law is repealed, other laws protecting women and girls, such as the ban on marriage under the age of 18, could be targeted.
The impact would be felt across the region, she added. “Other countries could use this tragic experience to urge their countries not to enact laws that protect women from harmful traditional practices,” she said.
In neighboring Sierra Leone, where 83% of women aged 15 to 49 have undergone FGM, the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa and a coalition of 26 feminist movement organizations recently submitted a petition two legal cases against the government forcing ministers to make a law.
Mama Jubi, who circumcised girls in her community in Gambia’s Central River region, stopped the practice in 2021 when she realized it was not a religious obligation. “I know it’s not Islam. “Not all Islamic scholars accept this as a religious practice,” she said. “If someone feels compassion for their fellow human beings, they must stop doing so.
“It is painful… I will continue to tell others about the consequences of this practice. I have given up on it and will not tell anyone to practice it.”