- Gambia may revoke FGM ban
- Lawmaker cites cultural rights
- Activists warn of human rights regression
A move towards lifting the prohibition on female circumcision in The Gambia could make the country the first in the world to revoke legal protections for millions of women and girls against the practice.
On Monday, members of the parliament of the West African nation voted 42 to four in favor of advancing the contentious bill. The bill in question seeks to repeal a seminal ban on female genital mutilation (FGM) that was implemented in 2015. The current ban imposes a prison sentence of up to three years.
The bill’s introducer, lawmaker Almameh Gibba, contended that the prohibition infringed upon the rights of individuals to “practice their culture and religion” in the predominantly Muslim nation. “The purpose of the bill is to protect cultural norms and values and preserve religious loyalty,” he explained.
However, rights organizations and activists assert that the proposed legislation threatens to tarnish the nation’s human rights record and undo years of progress.
According to Jaha Marie Dukureh of the non-governmental organization Safe Hands for Girls, which seeks to eradicate FGM, the practice constitutes “child abuse”. She was subjected to the procedure and witnessed her sister’s hemorrhage to death afterward.
“The majority of those who applaud FGM in this nation are male.” “These men lack the same life experiences as women, and women who have endured this practice continue to provide them with daily accounts of their suffering and pain,” she explained.
The nation is divided over the repeal of the ban, which was imposed by former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, who governed the country with an iron fist for twenty-two years before his ousting in 2016.
In August, three women who performed FGM on eight infant girls were fined, sparking controversy as they became the first individuals to be convicted under the law.
The measure will subsequently undergo additional scrutiny by a parliamentary committee before a third reading, an undertaking that is projected to require three months. The measure is susceptible to amendments by the committee.
Health hazards
FGM is “the partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical purposes,” according to UNICEF, the agency of the United Nations concerned with children.
Seventy-six percent of Gambian women between the ages of 15 and 49 have undergone FGM, UNICEF reports for 2021.
It is associated with severe health complications, such as infections, bleeding, infertility, and childbirth difficulties, and it diminishes sexual satisfaction.
“The bodies of girls are their own. “FGM deprives them of control over their bodies and inflicts irreparable harm,” the The Gambia office of the United Nations stated on X before the debate.
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UNICEF reported this month that the number of women and girls who have undergone FGM globally has increased from 200 million eight years ago to 230 million today.
The report indicated that African countries contained the highest proportion of these females, exceeding 144 million cases, followed by Asia with over 80 million cases and the Middle East with over six million cases.
Women’s rights organizations are concerned that The Gambia’s action will establish a perilous precedent.
Divya Srinivasan, of the women’s rights NGO Equality Now, stated, “There is an inherent risk that this is merely the initial phase, and it could result in the reversal of other rights, such as the law prohibiting child marriage… and not just in The Gambia, but in the entire region.”
Equality Now stated that criminalization was an essential measure in combating female circumcision, but noted that laws prohibiting the practice exist in over half of the 92 countries where FGM is practiced.
