Gambia postpones debate on repeal of anti-FGM law: summary

What we know

• On March 18, legislators in the Gambia discussed whether to repeal a 2015 ban on female genital mutilation, a practice that has become more common in recent years despite initiatives by activists to stop it.
• The bill was referred to a national committee for further deliberation after the March 18 debate and may come up for vote again in the coming weeks and months.
• Earlier in March, legislator Almameh Gibba introduced the repeal measure, claiming that the prohibition infringes on the freedom of a Gambian population that is largely Muslim to exercise their culture and religion.
• The Gambia would become the first nation to lift its ban on FGM if the bill is approved.
• The West African nation in 2015 introduced severe penalties and prison terms for individuals who perform female genital mutilation, also referred to as FGM.
• The procedure, which is usually carried out on young girls, involves the partial or complete removal of the external genitalia by traditional community practitioners or occasionally health professionals using objects like razor blades.
• The practice which is believed to control a woman's sexuality has been labelled by the World Health Organization to have no health benefits and can lead to excessive bleeding, shock, psychological problems and even death.
• The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reports that over 230 million women and children have been cut. With more than 144 million, Africa makes up the largest share of this total. Asia comes in second with almost 80 million, followed by the Middle East with 6 million and another one to two million affected in small practising communities and destination countries for migration in the rest of the world.

What they said

Gambian women’s rights activist and founder of Women in Liberation and Leadership, Fatou Baldeh told GSW earlier in March that “Whatever comes out of this threat to repeal the law will set a precedent, especially for African countries where FGM is practised. Presently, the reason that policymakers are giving is that people at the community level want the FGM ban to be lifted so that they can continue the practice. The other reason is that Female Genital Mutilation is a religious requirement in Islam. If this law is repealed, it will open the vacuum for girls to be continually cut. It will encourage other countries not to pass laws to ban it. It will also open the doors for cross-border cutting. For example, families in Senegal will cross over and have their girls cut.” She added, “We have been requesting a permit to protest for months, which we have not been granted. Often, we don’t even get a response about the protest. There was a dialogue between the national assembly members and citizens, and we used that opportunity to go to the House (parliament), and we mobilised survivors and men who support the ban to go and speak to the national assembly members on how it is so important to maintain the law. To also make them understand that the narrative out there that the communities want this law to be repealed is not actually true.”