Gambian lawmakers on Monday debated a extremely controversial invoice in search of to raise the ban on feminine genital mutilation (FGM) in drive since 2015, earlier than suspending the vote for at the least three months.
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The problem has divided the tiny West African nation for months, with a whole bunch gathering to protest exterior parliament.
Professional-FGM campaigners outnumbered these calling for the ban to stay in place, in line with AFP journalists.
“The invoice seeks to uphold non secular loyalty and safeguard cultural norms and values,” Almameh Gibba, the lawmaker who launched the invoice, mentioned through the debate.
“The usage of a ban on feminine circumcision is direct violation of the residents’ rights to practise their tradition and faith,” he added.
However activists and rights organisations say the laws reverses years of progress and dangers damaging the nation’s human rights report.
“There’s the inherent threat that that is simply step one and it might result in the rollback of different rights such because the legislation on youngster marriage… and never simply in The Gambia however within the area as a complete,” Divya Srinivasan, from women’s rights NGO Equality Now, informed AFP.
Lawmakers referred the invoice to a parliamentary committee, the place it will likely be scrutinised for at the least three months earlier than returning for debate.
Seventy-six p.c of Gambian girls aged between 15 and 49 have undergone FGM, in line with a 2021 report by the UN youngsters’s company UNICEF.
UNICEF defines the observe as “the partial or complete removing of the feminine exterior genitalia or different harm to the feminine genital organs for non-medical causes”.
It may well result in severe well being issues, together with infections, bleeding, infertility and problems in childbirth, and impairs sexual pleasure.
‘Irreversible hurt’
“Ladies’ our bodies are their very own. FGM robs them of autonomy over their our bodies and causes irreversible hurt,” the UN’s Gambia workplace posted on X, previously Twitter, forward of the controversy.
Ladies’ our bodies are their very own. #FGM robs them of autonomy over their our bodies and causes irreversible hurt.
Each lady deserves a childhood free from mutilation.
We should hearken to their voices demanding an finish to this dangerous observe affecting women 🌍 #EndFGMNOW pic.twitter.com/Znsp6ruj6B
— UN The Gambia (@UNGambia) March 18, 2024
The UN rights workplace had known as for the invoice to be withdrawn, whereas Amnesty Worldwide mentioned it will set a “harmful precedent” for ladies’s rights.
Former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh banned FGM within the Muslim majority nation in 2015, branding it outdated and never a requirement of Islam.
Parliament later adopted the primary legislation particularly banning the observe, which is now punishable by as much as three years in jail.
However since 2015, solely two instances have been prosecuted, with the primary conviction made in August 2023, in line with Amnesty Worldwide.
The problem flared final yr, when three girls obtained fines or jail sentences for performing FGM.
The Islamic Council, the nation’s major Muslim organisation, mentioned the observe was “not only a merely inherited customized” however “one of many virtues of Islam”.
It known as on the federal government to rethink the ban.
(AFP)