A group of religious leaders and an MP in the Gambia have launched efforts to overturn a ban on female genital mutilation at the country\u2019s supreme court.<\/p>\n
The court case, due to resume this month, comes after two babies bled to death<\/a> after undergoing FGM in the Gambia last year. Almameh Gibba, an MP and one of the plaintiffs, tabled a bill to decriminalise FGM that was rejected by the country\u2019s parliament<\/a> in 2024.<\/p>\n Activists and lawyers see this as the latest move in a backlash against women\u2019s rights that is eroding gender protections across the world.<\/p>\n Fatou Baldeh, founder of the Gambian rights organisation Women in Liberation & Leadership<\/a>, said: \u201cFGM is a strong manifestation of violence against women that harms their physical and psychological health.<\/p>\n \u201cIf this issue is still being [debated at a national level], it shows us that women\u2019s rights are really regressing. This is not an isolated issue \u2013 it\u2019s part of a global regression on women\u2019s rights<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n The Gambia has one of the highest rates of FGM<\/a> in the world. Almost three-quarters of women between 15 and 49 have undergone<\/a> the practice and nearly two-thirds of them were cut before the age of five.<\/p>\n Members of the Gambian parliament debating whether to reverse the ban on FGM at the parliament in the capital, Banjul, in 2024. Photograph: Malick Njie\/Reuters<\/p>\n FGM involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, which can have serious long-term health consequences, including infertility. It is generally carried out without anaesthesia by untrained \u201ccutters\u201d using non-sterile instruments such as knives, razor blades or pieces of glass, and girls are usually forcibly restrained.<\/p>\n The practice is considered to be a grave violation of human rights and in 2012 the UN passed a resolution<\/a> to ban it. Although is still practised in about 30 countries in Africa and Asia<\/a>, FGM has no medical basis and is performed solely for cultural or religious reasons.<\/p>\n Abdoulie Fatty, a leading imam who supports FGM. Photograph: Zohra Bensemra\/Reuters<\/p>\n Under the current law in the Gambia, a cutter faces up to three years in prison, a fine of 50,000 dalasi (\u00a3500), or both. Where FGM leads to death, the perpetrator could face life imprisonment.<\/p>\n Although criminalised in 2015, the law went unenforced until the first convictions took place in 2023. Three women were ordered to pay a fine or spend a year in prison for carrying out FGM on eight children. The convictions sparked a backlash<\/a> against the ban, which led the country to the brink of repealing it.<\/p>\n After the bill to overturn the law criminalising FGM was rejected, a coalition led by Gibba launched a case with the supreme court claiming that the law violated Gambians\u2019 constitutional rights to cultural and religious freedoms.<\/p>\n The court has heard from two witnesses so far, Abdoulie Fatty, a prominent Muslim leader, claimed in December that female circumcision, though not mutilation, was part of Islam and was not harmful<\/a>.<\/p>\n When asked what he said to the families of two people who died from the practice, he replied: \u201cWe are Muslims and if someone dies, it\u2019s God\u2019s will.\u201d<\/p>\n He said that the benefit of the practice was to reduce women\u2019s sexual desire, which could be a problem for men.<\/p>\n Also due to give evidence is Fuambai Sia Nyoko Ahmadu, a dual US-Sierra Leonean citizen and founder of a pro-FGM organisation, Gambian Women<\/a> are Free to Choose.<\/p>\n In December, she co-wrote an article, Harms of the current global anti-FGM campaign, for the BMJ Journal of Medical Ethics<\/a>. The piece argued that \u201ca ubiquitous \u2018standard tale\u2019 obscures the diversity of practices, meanings and experiences among those affected\u201d by cutting.<\/p>\n Representing the plaintiffs is Lamin J Darboe, a UK-trained lawyer with dual British-Gambian citizenship; he has announced a bid to run for the presidency<\/a> in the country\u2019s elections in December.<\/p>\n People drive past a poster in Banjul calling for an end to female genital mutilation. The Gambia has one of the world\u2019s highest rates of FGM. Photograph: Zohra Bensemra\/Reuters<\/p>\n It comes after a ruling against Sierra Leone in July by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) court of justice, which described FGM as \u201cone of the worst forms of violence against women\u201d which \u201cmeets the threshold for torture\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n The president of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio, is the current chair of Ecowas. Weeks after the ruling, he signed into law the Child Rights Act 2025, which did not ban FGM.<\/p>\n \u201cIt speaks volumes that he refused to act on the ruling,\u201d said Baldeh. \u201cWithin the region we have all these beautiful protocols and treaties protecting women and girls, which are all against FGM, yet nothing is being done.\u201d<\/p>\n Also in Sierra Leone, there has been significant opposition to a bill on safe motherhood, which led to proposed amendments that restrict access to safe abortion.<\/p>\n It is widely seen as part of a new wave of attacks on women\u2019s rights worldwide. In Afghanistan<\/a>, the Taliban is eroding any rights women had before the militant Islamists seized power; in the US, restrictions on access to abortion and contraception services are increasing<\/a>, and in Iran, women are key targets of the regime<\/a>.<\/p>\n