- A measure that would have repealed the country’s ban on female genital mutilation was rejected by MPs in the Gambia, a move that has drawn the attention of campaigners worldwide. Less than 3 million people live in the Muslim-majority nation, and months of contentious discussion preceded the decision.
- The process, commonly referred to as female genital mutilation, is the partial or complete removal of a girl’s external genitalia, frequently carried out by medical professionals or traditional community healers. Though it is still a common practice in some regions of Africa, it can result in significant bleeding, death, and problems after childbirth.
- Human rights organizations and activists feared that years of effort against the centuries-old practice—which is frequently carried out on girls under the age of five and is based on ideas of sexual purity and control—would be undone if the prohibition in the Gambia were to be reversed. The push to lift the prohibition was spearheaded by religious conservatives who claimed that the practice was “one of the virtues of Islam.”
- UN estimates state that over half of Gambia’s female population between the ages of 15 and 49 has had the surgery. In 2015, Yahya Jammeh, the former leader, abruptly and without reason outlawed the practice. With only two cases being tried, campaigners claim that enforcement has been lax and that women are still being slashed.
- According to UNICEF, in the last eight years, 30 million women worldwide—the majority in Africa, but also in Asia and the Middle East—have had their female genitalia amputated. More than 80 nations, including South Africa, Iran, India, and Ethiopia, have laws that forbid it or permit prosecution.
Source:
African News