Christian Leaders Across Africa Oppose Bill Seeking To Repeal Gambia’s FGM Ban
The African nation of Gambia was thrust into a national debate this spring after the country's parliament advanced a bill that would repeal its eight-year ban on female genital mutilation — a move that could make it the first country in the world to overturn a ban on the age-long practice.
“This bill seeks to lift the ban on female circumcision in The Gambia, a practice deeply rooted in the ethnic, traditional, cultural and religious beliefs of the majority of the Gambian people,” said lawmaker Almameh Gibba, who introduced the bill, adding that it “seeks to uphold religious loyalty and safeguard cultural norms and values.”
Of the 47 lawmakers in the West African nation, 42 voted to send the bill to a parliamentary committee for review and consideration. The practice itself was banned by President Yahya Jammeh in 2015, making the country the 27th African nation to outlaw FGM. The passing of the Women’s (Amendment) Act 2015 prohibited FGM for the first time and made it punishable by a prison term of three years or a fine of 50,000 dalasis ($736) or both. When the act leads to death, the law called for life imprisonment.
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Last August, three women were fined for carrying out FGM on eight infant girls. It was the first conviction under the anti-FGM law, and these women were ordered to pay a fine of 15,000 dalasis ($220) each or serve a one-year prison sentence. But a well-known Gambian Islamic leader, Imam Abdoulie Fatty, later paid the fines for the three convicted women.
According to a United Nations report released this past March, over 230 million girls and women worldwide have undergone FGM — a practice mostly carried out on girls between infancy and age 15. FGM is the cutting or removing of part or all of the female external genitalia. This process has no medical value and is often done using unsterilized tools like razor blades and small knives, according to the World Health Organization.
Nearly 140 million girls and women in Africa have undergone FGM, according to UNICEF. In Gambia, 73% of women and girls ages 15 to 49 have undergone FGM, and nearly two-thirds – 65% – were circumcised when they were younger than age 5, according to the country’s 2019-20 demographic and health survey.
The majority of the Gambian population is Muslim, many of which argue that the practice is religious. However, African Christian leaders are against moves to repeal the ban on FGM and said the practice is not religious, as the Muslim faithful pushing for a repeal of the ban claimed.
Bidwell Mendy, a pastor at Calvary United Community Church, said he has continued to urge his members to desist from getting involved in the practice and to wave off any claim that such practice is religious.
“All I want my members to know is that circumcision ends with men and not women and that is all. I tell people in church that FGM has nothing to do with religious beliefs or background,” Mendy told Religion Unplugged.
Yahya Imam, professor of Islamic studies at the University of Ilorin, agreed. He explained that Islamic teaching forbids FGM and that Islamic clerics promoting the practice are misleading the people.
“Circumcision is what Islam approves and it is mandatory for men, but optional for women. … Circumcision is honorable for a girl child if it is done or handled by an expert,” he said.
FGM, critics said, is mostly carried out under unsanitary conditions without anesthesia and is commonly performed by mothers, traditional birth attendants, local barbers and respected women in communities. It is believed to be a necessary way to prepare a girl for marriage and make her clean and acceptable in society. FGM advocates also believe that the practice is to curtail the sexual lust of women and girls.
But Imam argued that this practice is only subjecting girls and women to inhumane conditions. Women and girls who undergo the procedure are often left with lifelong medical complications. The procedure affects them physically and psychologically and also affects the reproductive health of women.
FGM has no health benefits, medical experts said. Rather, it causes severe pain, bleeding and swelling that may prevent passing urine or feces. Over the long term, FGM can also lead to chronic pelvic infections, urinary tract infections, and birth complications for mothers and children.
Now, at least 200 million women and girls in 31 countries around the world are living with the results of the dangerous practice of FGM, according to a report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Yet, physical and mental health care to help them heal is lacking.
“Islam opposes anything antithetical to human beings either in terms of development or growth,” Imam said. “Anything that works against human development is opposed by Islam.”
Markus Danbinta, an Anglican bishop of Nigeria’s Dutse diocese, said despite the awareness of the devastating consequences of FGM on girls and women, the practice persists, leaving the victims to bear lifelong complications associated with it.
“It’s a bad practice,” he said. “I stand against it.”
However, Danbinta argued that in African nations there are “many enlightened Muslims who will not permit their children to pass through [the FGM process]. But sometimes because of the fear of being called another name, they allow it.”
Mendy said Christians in Gambia are enlightened and are kicking up against FGM.
“Jesus is the light of the world and if a man comes across Jesus, it will not even be in his agenda to talk about it [FGM]. When a man knows the light, he doesn't do what unbelievers do,” he said.
For Imam, FGM is a direct threat to the lives of girls and women forced to undergo the practice, and Islamic clerics advocating for the ban to be repealed in The Gambia are only putting the people on the wrong track.
“Mutilation is destruction,” he said. “How can a religion that promotes good living and light now promote FGM? I want to believe those promoting it get it wrong and they are creating problems.”
Ekpali Saint is a freelance journalist based in Nigeria and regular contributor to Religion Unplugged.