Photo credit: Human Rights Watch
Female Genital Mutilation is the partial removal or total removal of the external female genitalia or another injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. The practice has no health benefits for girls and women. Instead, it causes severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later cysts, infections, as well as complications in childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths.
The practice is recognized universally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women. It reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes and constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against girls and women. Traditional practitioners usually carry it out on minors, and it is a violation of the rights of children.
The practice also violates a person’s rights to health, security and physical integrity, the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the right to life in instances when the procedure results in death.
FGM is common in countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
In 2015, the then-president of the Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, banned FGM. It was surprising that the dictator could announce the ban. Jammeh has since been accused of mass killings, dumping bodies in wells, falsely claiming to have a herbal cure for AIDS and rape, and is now in exile in Equatorial Guinea.
However, the Gambia could soon become the first country to lift a ban on FGM. In the coming weeks, the country’s legislature will vote on whether or not to lift the ban.
Only 4 MPs opposed the repeal in an initial vote, while the remaining 54 members of Gambia’s National Assembly supported it.
Advocates of FGM in the country are saying that the ritual is a religious tradition that Westen forces and their allies want to ban. However, opponents feel the Gambia could set the pace and make the fight against FGM even more cumbersome.
