The bill’s rejection by lawmakers followed months of intense activism led by Gambian women, who faced warnings and harassment as they campaigned for an explanation for the unwanted side effects of the cut on their and their families’ lives. Was. In March, a majority of MPs voted to pass the bill, raising concerns that The Gambia could be the first community in the world to roll back any such policy.
“I am relieved but sad that we had to go through this suffering,” said Fatou Baldeh, a Gambian activist and survivor who has gained global attention for her advocacy against the practice. “I am very proud of the women of The Gambia for not giving up. We refused to go.
As the women hugged and danced to the song outside parliament, Sirreh Saho, 29, said she was so excited she could only process the inner track, which she “struggled so hard” for in the months leading up to the process. . She and her estranged sister, Fatou Saho, were fighting for justice for Fatou’s daughter, who was born without her permission – and a crime.
“The only thing left is law enforcement,” Sireh Saho said. “Until the law is implemented, it is just black writing on white paper.”
In The Gambia, a community of about 2.5 million, the United Nations estimates that about 75 percent of girls aged 15 to 49 were subject to cutting, which would involve the removal of the clitoris and part of the labia minora and, perhaps last of all, the vagina. To seal the opening. Globally, it is estimated that more than 200 million girls and women have survived female genital cutting, the majority of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa.
Supporters of the practice say it is rooted in tradition and belief in this majority-Muslim community, claiming it was taught by the Prophet Muhammad. (Alternative Muslim leaders have said it is not required by Islam, and it is not practiced in many Muslim-majority countries).
Gambia’s law, which leveled the playing field in 2015, comes with a maximum prison sentence of 3 years or a fine of about $740. However, there have been only three convictions under the law – and it was this conviction that sparked the section debate, with Abdulli Fatty, a prominent imam, paying the fines of convicted women and starting a campaign to overturn the prohibition.
Sitting alongside various religious leaders in parliament on Monday, Fatty faced the complaints. He said he planned to target MPs who do not welcome the bill in the upcoming elections, saying they are “not real Muslims.” And he vowed that slicing – what he calls “female circumcision” – would continue.
“We are the imams,” he said, noting that more than 95 percent of the population in Gambia is Muslim. “They listen to us.”
Medical professionals say that procedures that should not have medical benefits can cause short- and long-term harm, including infection, terrible pain, scarring, infertility and loss of peace.
“We can breathe now,” said Gambian activist Jaha Dukureh, whose younger sister died of a botched procedure and who, on her wedding night at age 15, discovered she had been sealed as a baby. was given. “We stood on the right side of history. And no matter how many threats we faced, we stuck to our word.”
MPs said changing issues included a statement by future President Adama Barrow – whose office had previously been silent on the subject – that he supported maintaining the ban and a visit by members of the health committee to Egypt, where he Hear from lawmakers, civil society figures, and spiritual scholars on why Egypt has criminalized the practice.
“We are all religious,” said Amadou Camara, chairman of a joint health and gender committee that recommended in a filing that cutting remain illegal. “But at some point you have to use your good sense and your brain.”
Camara and alternative MPs who support keeping the ban in place said at a tournament on Friday that they had received several warnings for their positions.
Deputy Majority Leader Abdoulie Ceesay said lawmakers are aware that some Gambians feel that “we deprived them of their right” and that there should be continued training campaigns regarding the practice.
Aminata Ceesay, an investigative officer with the Gambia’s National Human Rights Commission, who has been working in communities on cutting-related issues in recent months, said many women considered the side effects “normal.”
“With education, they realize these things are not normal,” he said in an interview. “Even among educated people, it has never been easy for people to talk about their experiences as survivors… but I think things are changing now.”
