On Monday, Gambian lawmakers voted to advance to the next parliamentary phase a highly controversial bill that seeks to lift a ban on female genital mutilation (FGM), which has been in place since 2015.
The issue has divided the small West African country for months, and hundreds of people have come to protest outside parliament.
Gambian Parliament Advances Bill to Reverse FGM Ban
According to AFP journalists, pro-FGM campaigners surpassed the number of people advocating for the continuation of the ban.
Almameh Gibba, the lawmaker who introduced the bill, said during the debate that the bill seeks to uphold religious loyalty and safeguard cultural norms and values.
He added that the use of a ban on female circumcision is a direct violation of the citizens' rights to practice their culture and religion.
However, activists and rights organizations claimed that the measure reverses years of progress and jeopardizes the nation's record on human rights.
"There's the inherent risk that this is just the first step, and it could lead to the rollback of other rights such as the law on child marriage... and not just in The Gambia but in the region as a whole," Divya Srinivasan from women's rights NGO Equality Now, told AFP.
Lawmakers sent the bill to a parliamentary committee, where it would be examined closely for at least three months before returning for discussion.
A 2021 report by UNICEF, the UN children's agency, stated that 76% of Gambian women between the ages of 15 and 49 have undergone FGM.
The organization defines the procedure as the partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or another injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.
It reduces sexual pleasure and increases the risk of major health issues like bleeding, infections, infertility, and difficult childbirth.
The UN's Gambia office wrote on X, formerly Twitter, ahead of the debate that girls' bodies are their own and FGM robs them of autonomy over their bodies and causes irreversible harm.
Furthermore, the UN rights office had called for the bill to be withdrawn, and Amnesty International claimed it would create a dangerous precedent for women's rights.
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Ex-Gambian Dictator Bans FGM
Former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh outlawed FGM in the Muslim-majority nation of Gambia in 2015. He said that the practice was outdated and not required by Islam.
Later, the first law explicitly banning the practice was passed by parliament, which is currently a crime that carries a maximum three-year prison sentence.
However, Amnesty International reported that only two cases have been prosecuted since 2015, and the first conviction occurred in August 2023.
The problem erupted last year when three women were sentenced to prison or penalties for conducting FGM.
Furthermore, the Islamic Council, the country's main Muslim organization, declared that the practice was "one of the virtues of Islam" and not "just a merely inherited custom."
It urged the government to reconsider the ban.
