Voters in The Gambia May Overturn Historic Ban On FGM
In what might be a historic turn of events, Gambia is moving closer to lifting the ban on female circumcision, which had initially protected millions of women and girls.
On Monday, lawmakers in the West African country's parliament passed a contentious bill by a 42–4 majority. The measure would reverse a historic 2015 prohibition on female genital mutilation (FGM), which had imposed a maximum sentence of three years in prison for the practice.
The bill's sponsor, lawmaker Almameh Gibba, said that the restriction infringed upon the ability of residents to "practice their culture and religion" in the predominantly Muslim nation. “The bill seeks to uphold religious loyalty and safeguard cultural norms and values,” he said.
However, human rights groups and activists are arguing that the proposed law would hurt the country's human rights reputation and roll back years of progress.
Concerned about the practice, Jaha Marie Dukureh of the non-governmental organization Safe Hands for Girls referred to it as "child abuse" in an interview with Al Jazeera. She herself was subjected to the procedure and witnessed her sister bleed to death afterward.
“The people who applaud FGM in this country, a lot of them are men. These are men who don’t have the same lived experiences that we do, and women who have been through this practice continue to tell them every single day what their suffering is, what their pain is,” she said.
Yahya Jammeh, the dictatorial president of The Gambia for 22 years until his overthrow in 2016, enforced the ban, and the country is deeply split over whether or not to remove it.
When three women were penalized in August for performing female genital mutilation on eight baby girls, sparking the first convictions under the statute, the controversy erupted.
The next step, which should take around three months, is to have the measure reviewed by a parliamentary committee before a third reading. The committee can make amendments to the measure.
FGM is described by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) as "the partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons." However, this definition does not apply in all cases.
A research from 2021 by UNICEF states that 76 percent of Gambian females who are 15 to 49 years old had been victims of female genital mutilation.
It reduces libido and increases the risk of major health issues like infections, hemorrhage, infertility, and difficulties during delivery.
“Girls’ bodies are their own. FGM robs them of autonomy over their bodies and causes irreversible harm,” said the UN’s The Gambia office on X ahead of the debate.
This month, UNICEF revealed that the global number of female genital mutilation victims has risen to 230 million, up from 200 million eight years ago.
With over 144 million instances, African countries had the highest concentration of women and girls, followed by Asia with over 80 million, and the Middle East with over six million.
Many worry that this action by The Gambia would lead to a hazardous trend in other countries regarding women's rights.
Divya Srinivasan, a member of the women's rights NGO Equality Now, expressed concern that this could be a precursor to other rights being rolled back, including the ban against child marriage, and not only in The Gambia but throughout the region.
Although over half of the 92 nations that practice female genital mutilation had legislation prohibiting it, Equality Now said that criminalization was an important step in the battle against FGM.