SOMA, Gambia — When Metta, a mother of six from rural Gambia, learned that lawmakers were considering reverse country’s ban on female genital mutilationa centuries-old practice she subjected herself to as a child and now fiercely opposes, she was determined to have her voice heard.
She packed her suitcase and boarded a bus to Gambia’s capital, Banjul, to join dozens of women protesting outside parliament in the largely Muslim nation of less than 3 million people in West Africa.
“I was standing there with a sign,” she told The Associated Press. “Once we got the news that the ban was upheld, we danced and cried.”
The Gambia was shaken for months by a Heated debate over female genital mutilationor female genital mutilation, a cultural rite rooted in concepts of sexual purity and control of women. It was the first time the practice, also known as female circumcision and banned in many countries, was publicly discussed. Reversing it would have been a world first.
Lawmakers ultimately killed the proposal by rejecting all of its provisions and preventing a final vote on the bill on July 16. Human rights groups declared victory, but the debate caused deep anguish among women’s activists.
And while the world’s attention has been focused on the legislative process, the real battle still rages on: waged quietly by people like Metta, far from the chambers of parliament and in rural areas where activists say female genital mutilation is still prevalent and remains a problem. a very sensitive topic.
Women in Gambia’s rural interior – even those like Metta, who cheered outside parliament – are reluctant to talk about cuts, fearing a backlash. Some of those who spoke out against the practice said they received hateful messages. When speaking to the AP, the women did not want to give their full names for fear of retaliation.
Local activists walk a fine line. After agreeing to give the AP full access to an awareness-raising meeting in the village, they backed out, saying the presence of foreign journalists could jeopardize their efforts.
The challenges are amazing. The United Nations estimates that around 75% of women in The Gambia have been subjected to female genital mutilation as children, which includes the partial or total removal of a girl’s external genitalia. The World Health Organization says it is a form of torture.
The procedure, usually performed by older women or traditional community professionals, is often done with tools such as razor blades and can cause Severe bleeding, death and complications in the future.even in childbirth.
More than 200 million women and girls around the world are survivors of female genital mutilation, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa, according to UN estimates. Just in the last eight years, about 30 million women around the world They have been cut, most of them in Africa, but also in Asia and the Middle East, UNICEF said in March.
In 2015, former Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh — now in exile and accused of human rights violations — unexpectedly banned logging, without explanation.
However, the practice continued. The first prosecutions came just last year, when three women were convicted of taking their daughters to be mutilated, sparking a backlash to the ban and sparking debate.
Gambian authorities did not respond to a request for comment on the issue.
Supporters of the ban argued that excision has its roots in Gambian culture and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. Religious conservatives behind the campaign to overturn the ban described excision as “one of the virtues of Islam.”
Those who are against female genital mutilation He said his supporters are trying to restrict women’s rights in the name of tradition.
Habibou Tamba, a 37-year-old local activist who attended the rally outside parliament, said a prominent member of the community, whom he did not identify, sent him a message afterwards, accusing him of serving Western interests.
“We will never be subjected to Western ideology,” said the message, seen by the AP. He added: “This is the beginning of the war.”
But Tamba says that for him the protests were about women’s right to live free of pain, not about Western values.
At the awareness-raising meeting, held at a local government office, activists spoke to a few dozen women from neighboring villages about dangers of child marriage and female genital mutilation. Images of deformed female genitalia were projected on the wall to explain the possible health complications resulting from the cut.
With each image, the women in the room gasped in surprise and disgust. But not everyone was convinced.
“I was subjected to female genital mutilation but nothing happened to me,” said one woman. “I have more than five children and I have never had any complications.”
“It is our culture and it is also part of the teachings of the prophet,” he said, adding that after the ban was introduced, he took his daughter away from his village to have it cut secretly.
Another woman said the ban “violated our rights as Muslim women.” No women present at the meeting spoke in defense of the ban.
Rabietou, a 42-year-old mother of six, was outside breastfeeding her youngest daughter, Fatima, 7 months old.
“I came here because of her,” he said, cradling his baby.
Rabietou’s eldest daughter, Aminata, 26, also came. The two had gathered women from their village to attend the meeting. Rabietou told how a relative of hers cut her when she was a child and forced her to leave school and marry at the age of 15.
A year later, she gave birth, in excruciating pain, to Aminata, who was also cut and left school early to get married.
“No one told me about the health consequences,” Rabietou said.
As she became more aware of the risks through conversations with activists and other women, she became determined to break the cycle. He said that he will not cut Fatima and also advised Aminata not to cut her daughter.
Metta said she was cut when she was 8 years old.
“No one told me anything, just that it’s a tradition,” he said.
She never talked about what happened to anyone. When activists began organizing meetings in her community, she found it hard to believe what they said. But she came to the conclusion that it’s time to start talking.
The women in her village began sharing their experiences and soon discovered that they all faced similar struggles: the pain when they were cut. A lot of pain when they were intimate with their husbands. Even more pain when they were giving birth.
In the end, after discussing it with their husbands, most decided to stop cutting. None of Metta’s four daughters have been cut.
“Before, people said: If you don’t cut your daughter, she won’t listen to you. She will have no discipline,” Metta said. “But going to the mountains and teaching discipline to your children are two very different things.”
“I won’t let my daughters go through the same pain as me,” she said.
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Associated Press writer Ramatoulie Jawo in Banjul, Gambia, contributed to this report.
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