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Gambian lawmakers have voted to revoke a ban on female genital cutting by removing legal protections for millions of girls, raising fears that other countries could follow suit.<\/p>\n
Of the 47 members of the Gambia National Assembly present on Monday, 42 voted in favor of a bill to overturn the ban, sending the decision to committees before a final vote. Human rights experts, lawyers and women\u2019s and girls\u2019 rights campaigners say that overturning the ban will undo decades of work to end female genital cutting, a centuries-old ritual tied up in ideas of sexual purity, obedience and control.<\/p>\n
If it passes the final stages, the small West African nation of Gambia will become the first nation globally to roll back protections against cutting.<\/p>\n
Government committees will be able to propose amendments before it comes back to Parliament for a final reading in about three months \u2014 but analysts say that it has now passed the key stage: Its proponents will gain momentum and it will probably become law.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Gambia banned cutting in 2015 but did not enforce the ban until last year, when three practitioners were given hefty fines. An influential imam in the Muslim-majority country took up the cause and has been leading calls to repeal the ban, claiming that cutting \u2014 which in Gambia usually involves<\/a> removing the clitoris and labia minora of girls between the ages of 10 and 15 \u2014 is a religious obligation and important culturally.<\/p>\n Anti-cutting campaigners gathered outside Parliament in Banjul, Gambia\u2019s capital, on Monday morning, but police set up barricades and prevented many from getting inside \u2014 while allowing in the religious leaders who advocate cutting and their supporters, according to Fatou Baldeh, one of Gambia\u2019s leading opponents of genital cutting.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was very sad to witness the whole debate, and men trying to justify why this would continue,\u201d Ms. Baldeh said after the vote. She said she feared that if the men leading the charge \u2014 whom she described as extremists \u2014 succeeded, they would next try to roll back other laws, like one banning child marriage.<\/p>\n Inside Parliament, lawmakers \u2014 all of them men \u2014 traded arguments.<\/p>\n \u201cIf people are being arrested for practicing F.G.M., then that means they are being deprived of their right to practice religion,\u201d one member of parliament, Lamin Ceesay, said, according to Parliament Watch<\/a>, a project that promotes parliamentary transparency and accountability.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cLet\u2019s protect our women,\u201d another, Gibbi Mballow, said. \u201cI am a father, and I can\u2019t support such a bill.\u201d He added, \u201cReligion says we should not harm women.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Cutting takes different forms and is most common in Africa, though it is also widespread in parts of Asia<\/a> and the Middle East<\/a>. Internationally recognized as a gross violation of human rights, it frequently leads to serious health issues, like infections, hemorrhages and severe pain, and it is a leading cause of death<\/a> in the countries where it is practiced.<\/p>\n Worldwide, genital cutting is increasing<\/a> despite campaigns to stop it \u2014 mainly because of population growth in the countries where it is common. More than 230 million women and girls have undergone it, according to UNICEF \u2014 an increase of 30 million people since the last time the agency made an estimate, in 2016.<\/p>\n Four lawmakers voted against the bill and one abstained on Monday. Only five of Gambia\u2019s 58 lawmakers are women, meaning men are spearheading a discussion on a practice that is forced on young girls.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have no say,\u201d said Emmanuel Joof, head of Gambia\u2019s National Human Rights Commission.<\/p>\n Repealing the ban will pose \u201cserious, life-threatening consequences for the health and well-being of Gambia\u2019s women and girls,\u201d said Geeta Rao Gupta, the U.S. ambassador at large for global women\u2019s issues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n From 1994 until 2016, Gambia was led by one of the region\u2019s most notorious dictators, Yahya Jammeh, who, a truth commission<\/a> found in 2021, had people tortured and killed by a hit squad, raped women and threw many people in jail for no reason. He called those fighting to end female genital mutilation, often known by its acronym, F.G.M., \u201cenemies of Islam.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n So it came as a shock to many Gambian opponents of cutting when, in 2015, Mr. Jammeh banned the practice \u2014 something many observers attributed to the influence of his Moroccan wife.<\/p>\n The new law was hailed as a watershed moment in Gambia, where three-quarters of women and girls are cut. But the law was not enforced, and this emboldened pro-cutting imams who are \u201chellbent on having a theocratic state\u201d to try to repeal it, according to Mr. Joof.<\/p>\n Clerics in the Muslim world disagree on whether cutting is Islamic, but it is not in the Quran.<\/a> The most vocal of the Gambian imams, Abdoulie Fatty, has argued that<\/a> \u201ccircumcision makes you cleaner\u201d and has said the husbands of women who have not been cut suffer because they cannot meet their wives\u2019 sexual appetites. Many Gambians accused Mr. Fatty of being a hypocrite, pointing out that when Mr. Jammeh banned cutting, Mr. Fatty was the presidential imam but apparently said nothing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n At the bill\u2019s first reading two weeks ago, Mr. Fatty bused in a group of young women to chant pro-cutting slogans outside Parliament. Their faces veiled \u2014 which is unusual in Gambia \u2014 they sang and waved pink posters that read: \u201cFemale circumcision is our religious beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n