Gambia MPs vote to maintain ban on female genital mutilation
Gambian MPs voted on Monday to retain a law banning female genital mutilation (FGM), delighting and delighting campaigners.
Thirty-four of the 53 lawmakers voted to uphold the ban, which was introduced in 2015, aid workers told the Guardian, while the rest voted to repeal it.
Jaha Dukureh, an FGM survivor and founder of Safe Hands for Girls, said: “Today we stood on the right side of history again. We showed that even if they burn this country down, we will rebuild it to protect our women and girls. Today we won for The Gambia.”
According to the UN, the country has the ninth highest percentage of VGV in the world. Nearly three-quarters of Gambian women between the ages of 15 and 49 have undergone FGMin which the external female genitals are partially or completely removed. Nearly two-thirds of them were circumcised before the age of five.
The bill was introduced in March by Almameh Gibba, who said he was doing so to “uphold religious loyalty and protect cultural norms and values” in the Muslim-majority state. It was initially approved by a majority of lawmakers, prompting human rights activists to intensify their lobbying against the measure.
The law’s repeal was backed by Islamic clerics who wield considerable influence in Gambia, a conservative country of 2.7 million people.
A Imam Abdoulie Fatty helped pay the fines of three women in the northern village of Bakadagi who were found guilty last year of mutilating eight baby girls, the first major conviction under the law. Anyone found guilty of carrying out FGM faces three years’ imprisonment or a fine of 50,000 dalasi (£570) or both.
The vote came after the second reading of the bill, after it had been referred to a parliamentary committee for consultation. A third and final reading had been postponed until next week.
Fabakary Tombong Jatta, the speaker of parliament, said: “(We) cannot engage in such a futile exercise to take the bill to a third reading. The bill has been rejected and the legislative process has been exhausted.”
Judy Gitau, coordinator of Equality Now’s Africa office, welcomed Monday’s vote as a precedent-setting one. She said: “Repealing the FGM law would mark a new low in the backlash against women’s rights.”
Human rights activists welcomed the decision to enforce the law, but also warned that more needs to be done to improve the lives of women and girls in the West African country.
Binta Ceesay, Women’s Rights Manager at ActionAid Gambia, said: “Since FGM was banned almost a decade ago, we have made encouraging steps towards ending the practice, but it has not been enough.
“After voting to uphold the ban, we encourage politicians to redouble their efforts to end this form of violence against women and girls for good.”
Dukureh said she remains alert to any further challenges to the anti-FGM law.
“We don’t know if it will come up again, but the majority of Gambians still believe in FGM and many believe it is a religious requirement,” Dukureh said. “If it comes up again, we will be here to fight.”