By Kumba Leigh
The Gambia being largely a cultured society has some deeply entrenched traditional and cultural practices that have been observed and preserved for generations. While so many of these practices are widely held as integral elements of the fabrics of our society, and thus celebrated, some have long been subject of controversy. One prominent controversial practice is Female Genital Mutilation or Cutting (FGM/C).
Being a very wide and complicated discourse, FGM/C has many different forms and sub-practices including infibulation (sealing). This article is about Female Genital Mutilation/ cutting, and sealing and its implications on victims and society at large. However, for a better understanding of the practice and of sealing it must be viewed within the wider context of FGM/C, Sealing.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Female Genital Mutilation/C comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, causing injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.
Additionally, FGM/C involves procedures that intentionally alter or cause injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons (WHO, 2020)
Immediate complications can include: Severe pain, excessive bleeding (hemorrhage), genital tissue swelling, fever, infections e.g., tetanus, urinary problems, wound healing problems, injury to surrounding genital tissue, shock and death.
Long-term consequences include Urinary problems (painful urination, urinary tract infections); vaginal problems (discharge, itching, bacterial vaginosis and other infections); menstrual problems (painful menstruations, difficulty in passing menstrual blood and newborn deaths.
Who carries out FGM
The practice is mostly carried out by traditional circumcisers, who often play other central roles in communities; such as attending childbirths. In many settings, health care providers perform FGM due to the erroneous belief that the procedure is safer when medicalized. World Health Organization strongly urges health professionals not to perform such procedures.
Is FGM a precept of Islam?
Dr. Mohamed Selim Al-Awa, General Secretary of the International Federation of Islamic Scholars (IFOIS), in his researched paper, talked about the Sharia, which he said is derived from the following authentic sources: The Holy Quran, the Sunnah (tradition), Qiyas (use of analogical arguments) and Ijma (Juridical consensus), the four fundamental principles of Islamic jurisprudence.
Speaking about FGM, the Dr posited that in order to determine where Islamic Sharia stands as far as FGM is concerned we have to search in the Holy Quran, the Sunna, then Ijma and finally Qiyas.
He submitted that the Holy Quran is void of any reference to FGM. He said there is no Ijma or consensus on a specific legal ruling, and there is no Qiyas or analogy that can be accepted.
He went on: “As for the Sunna, there is doubt as to the authenticity of some of the Hadith attributed to the Prophet (PBUH) in this concern. The truth is there is no proof of the authenticity of these narratives that can be used as the bases for a legal ruling on such a life-threatening issue.”
He said scholars cannot base their argument on narratives that cannot be traced to a credible source since a valid argument can only be based on authenticity.
However, Imam Abdoulie Fatty, a renowned religious scholar has an opposing view to Dr. Mohamed Selim Al-Awa. In an interview during the parliamentary deliberation on the FGM/C repeal bill, argued that the ban on FGM/C violated citizens’ rights to “practice their culture and religion” in the overwhelmingly Muslim country. “The bill seeks to uphold religious loyalty and safeguard cultural norms and values,” he opinioned.
Further speaking about the ban, the Imam stated: “This is a fight against the Islamic faith and we are not going to allow that. Gambia is a Muslim country and we are not going to tolerate any kind of fight against Islam. This is obviously the tactics of the western world to eradicate Islam; thus, this is going to be practiced because is Sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH).
Babading Daffeh, is a medical doctor, and a gynecologist at the Kanifing General Hospital. Speaking about his experience with women who underwent FGM, said the young girl who was circumcised in Tujereng in 2015 came to the hospital when he was on duty.
“The girl had no sign of life and I asked the women who brought the girl, and they told me that it was circumcision. Girl was death,” Mr Daffeh mourned.
The Gambia’s lawmakers are engaged in a heated debate on whether to repeal the ban of female genital mutilation, which has been on the rise in recent years despite activists’ campaigns to end the practice.
Fabakary Tombong Jatta, Speaker of the Gambia National Assembly on 18th of March, 2024 tasked Assembly Business Committee (ABC) committee to table a motion within 3 days on the repealing of the FGM law. After debating the bill, the lawmakers voted by 42 to four to send it to parliamentary committees for review. The bill is now sent to a parliamentary committee for further scrutiny before a third reading, a process that is expected to take three months. The committees including health, Gender, Local government committee and Human Rights can make amendments to the measure.
In August 2015, Gambia imposed steep fines and jail sentences on those who carry out FGM. Three women were fined in August 2023,for carrying out FGM on eight infants, becoming the first people convicted under the law.
Lawmaker for Foni Kansala Constituency, Almameh Gibba, who presented the repeal bill earlier, on March 4th, argued that the ban violates citizens’ rights to practice their culture and religion. “The bill seeks to uphold religious loyalty and safeguard cultural norms and values,” he said.
Honorable Gibba, NAM for Kansala said that the bill will not be prohibited as he is part of the Assembly Business Committee (ABC.
“People are wrongly quoting the bill; is Female Genital Circumcision not Female Genital Mutilation. We need to make it clear; we will not allow our mothers to be sent to prison, because they are practicing their culture and Sunnah of the Islam religion,” he argued.
Activists on the other hand say the proposed legislation reverses years of progress and risks damaging the country’s human rights record.
Jaha Marie Dukureh, founder of Safe Hands for Girls lamented that the practice is child abuse. She said she underwent the practice and watched her sister bleed to death following the procedure.
Safe Hands’s Jaha Dukureh said the people who applauded FGM in this country, a lot of them are men. “These are men who don’t have the same lived experiences that we do, and women who have been through this practice continue to tell them every single day what their suffering were, what their pain was, why this wickedness on women and girls.”
National Assembly Member for Lower Fulladu West, Gibbi Mballow lamented that FGM is detrimental to women’s health and vowed that it is not in the Quran (Islam Holy Book). He said this is a mere cultural practice that was practiced by people even before the coming of the Islamic faith.
He pleaded with his National Assembly colleagues not to consider repealing this law, stressing that is harmful to the women and girls. He cited evidence that outlined that FGM is harmful and added that this could make Gambia lose its participation and membership on treaties of the international conventions on the protection of women.
Honorable Lamin Ceesay of Kiang West Constituency also argued that the FGM/C Law is a fight against the Islamic faith. He said this practice has been in existence for years and there was no trouble.
Honorable Ceesay stressed that if the repealing turns out unsuccessful, they will fight it all out to the courts.
Section 32A(2)(a) of the Women’s Amendment Act which banned FGM in August 2015, indicates that anyone who engages in female circumcision commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of three years or a fine 50, 000 Dalasi, and the same section sub-section 2(a) says where FGM causes death, the punishment shall be life imprisonment. The same section indicates that section B, sub-section (a) says anyone who requests, incites, and promotes female genital mutilation by providing tools or by any other means commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of three years or a fine of 50,000 dalasi or both.
Section 32(2)(a) says failure to report female genital mutilation is an offence punishable on conviction by a fine of 10,000 Dalasi.
One Mariam Ceesay, also shared her ordeal as a victim of infibulations (sealing). She stressed the severity, and pain inflicted on her as a result of sealing.
“My mother didn’t know that I went through the act of FGM and sealing by my grandmother when I was 7 years old, until I got married. Coming from a Fula tribe that is so particular about this practice, I was circumcised. It was painful and the worst of it is that I was sealed and I had no knowledge about it until the night of my wedding,” she narrated.
“Sealing is the worst of it all due to the severity of the pain, and the mental trauma you go through throughout your lifetime, because you feel inconvenience whenever your mind reflects on it,” Madam Ceesay added.
She reported that in their culture, if a girl child is circumcised, she is medicalized using a boiled water mixed with mango leafs and salt, but is that medically satisfactory?
Explaining how the seal was removed, Mrs Ceesay said a razor blade and a sort of powder was what was used to remove it, and this she lamented came with unbearable pain and bleeding.
“I could not conform to the pain I was going through throughout my first two weeks of marriage with no sexual pleasure. Because of my experience of FGM, I hate smells of mango leafs; I was traumatized, and my mind kept reflecting on the episode of this act,” Mariam lamented.
She went on: “At the time I was sealed, I had some health complications, encountered some abdominal pain, because I was having difficulties in terms of flow of my urine, menstrual disorder along with severe pain”.
Ceesay appealed to the Government and the Gambian society at large to deviate from this ‘scandalous act’, describing it as detrimental to the health of women and girls.
FGM on the Rise
The number of women and girls who have undergone FGM worldwide has increased to 230 million from 200 million eight years ago, the United Nations Children’s Fund reported earlier this month.
It says the largest share of those women and girls were found in African countries, with over 144 million cases, followed by over 80 million in Asia and over 6 million in the Middle East
