FGM ban in the Gambia under threat as calls grow to repeal law

Source: The Guardian

FGM ban in the Gambia under threat as calls grow to repeal law

Women’s rights campaigners denounce ‘hugely regressive’ proposals from political and religious leaders to decriminalise practice

Sarah Johnson
Wed 11 Oct 2023 07.00 BST
Last modified on Wed 11 Oct 2023 07.43 BST

Political and religious leaders in the Gambia are threatening to introduce a bill to decriminalise female genital mutilation, eight years after the practice was outlawed.

Members of the country’s national assembly have backed a proposal for the 2015 law to be scrapped while the Supreme Islamic Council has issued a fatwa condemning anyone who denounces the practice and calling for the government to reconsider the legislation.

Activists and civil society organisations said the move would be hugely regressive. “[The] Gambia took a bold step in 2015 towards eradicating FGM, so for us to go back after eight years and start again would have very, very big implications for the country,” said Fallou Sowe, national coordinator of the civil society organisation Network Against Gender-based Violence.

Almost three-quarters of women (73%) aged between 15 and 49 have undergone FGM, according to the country’s demographic health survey 2019-20, and almost two-thirds (65%) were cut before they were five.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/oct/11/fgm-ban-in-the-gambia-under-threat-as-calls-grow-to-repeal-law

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