This Monday, Gambian deputies examined in the National Assembly the lifting of the ban on excision in the country. This measure was ultimately not voted on and, according to our information, will go to committee for a vote, the date of which has not been announced. Hundreds of people gathered in Banjul to protest the review of the law. Why are Gambian parliamentarians returning to this ban on excision voted in 2015?
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The parliamentarian who tabled this bill uses religious and traditional arguments. According to him and religious organizations, banning the practice violates the right of Gambians to practice their customs and a deeply rooted tradition.
In fact, excision has remained widely practiced in The Gambia, even since its ban: 73% of Gambian girls and women aged 15 to 49 have been excised in the country. Most of which were before the age of 5 according to 2024 figures from Unicef.
Many civil society organizations are urging the authorities not to give in to pressure from strict movements. This is the case of Anna Njie, president of the Gambian Women Lawyers. Present before the assembly on Monday, she declared that with her colleagues she had carried out “ a tough fight to promote the rights of women and girls so that The Gambia is one of the countries that respect international conventions. And we remain committed to ensuring that this law is not changed “.
The 2015 law criminalizing excision provided that any perpetrator of genital mutilation be punished with imprisonment of up to three years and/or a fine of 50,000 dalasis, the Gambian currency. Life imprisonment could be imposed if the excised girl died after the act.
Read alsoGambia: mobilization against a law reinstating excision
“ Years of advocacy gone to waste »
All the women’s organizations contacted on the African continent, whether in Mali, Togo, Gambia and Senegal, say they are outraged.
The network of West African feminist organizations, whose members are currently meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York to assess prospects for accelerating women’s empowerment, are very concerned. The Wildaf network, a pan-African women’s rights network, responded in a press release by providing support to Gambian women.
For Oumou Touré, coordinator of the FemiLead Mali organization, these are “ years of advocacy falling through “. The fear of feminist organizations is that this measure of decriminalization of female genital mutilation will spread to the rest of Africa. Because excision, although prohibited in many countries, remains very widely practiced.
According to UNICEF, more than 230 million women have been sexually mutilated worldwide. 144 million in Africa. For the organization Plan International, raising awareness of the harmful consequences, both physical and psychological, coupled with strengthening the legislative framework (even if the penalties are rare), would make it possible to reduce the number of people excised in the world. Every year, more than 3 million girls or adolescents undergo this mutilation across the globe.