FGM Remains High: Over 70% of Females In The Gambia Mutilated

By Mariama Dem

Despite the fight against Female Genital Mutilation gaining pace, a recent study shows that the harmful practice remains high in the Gambia.

While the actual figure of girls and women who have undergone FGM remains unknown, a recent World Bank review on The Gambia Human Capital reveals that the dangerous traditional act is still high in the country, as 73% of Women aged 15-45 have been mutilated.

FGM comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. The practice has no health benefits for girls and women and cause severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later cysts, infections, as well as complications in childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths.

For years, anti-FGM campaigners, mostly survivors have been crisscrossing the length and breadth of The Gambia, sensitizing parents, teachers, and religious and community leaders about the dangers associated with the longstanding traditional practice and the need to stop it, but the numbers are still not showing any sign of ending.

Adama Jallow, a native of Brikama Nyambai is a local Anti-FGM activist and a survivor who is using her voice to effect change in her society since 2019. She expressed concerns over the surge.

Adama recalled how she was mutilated at a very young age.

“I was three years old when I undergo FGM, without my consent. And as I get older, I started to realize how bad going through FGM is. I even got divorced because I couldn’t get intimate with my husband as a result of the unbearable pain I feel when having sex caused by the mutilation”.

For her, no girl should experience the harmful practice that has a lifelong negative impact.

“I decided to become an activist to fight for the rights of these young girls who cannot decide for themselves, because I don’t do want them to go through FGM. However, trying to convince FGC actors required dedication and patients, because most of them won’t even listen to you.  But so far, I have achieved part of my quest to eliminate the act in my community as all young girls born between 2019 to date in my house are free of the traditional practice and few out of my family. But there is still more to be done and I will not relent until I see my community stop FGM”.

And while some countries are making progress in eliminating the vicious act, in nations like The Gambia, where FGM is banned – practitioners exercise it secretly, hence making it difficult to fight.

Another factor hindering the progress in the elimination drive is the lack of reporting cases and the slow prosecution of perpetrators.

According the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Welfare, The Gambia, Hon. Fatou Kinteh, her ministry is working with partners to familiarize the country’s 2015 Anti-FGM Act to the population.

“FGM is a crime in The Gambia and we are busy working with the NGOs and CSOs to popularize the Act among Gambians to easily implement the law.

Meanwhile, according to the United Nations, four million girls are at risk of being subjected to abhorrent human rights violations against women and girls in 2023 alone globally.

Key facts Courtesy of WHO:

• More than 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) in 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where FGM is practiced.
• FGM is mostly carried out on young girls between infancy and age 15.
• FGM is a violation of the human rights of girls and women.
• Treatment of the health complications of FGM is estimated to cost health systems US$ 1.4 billion per year, a number expected to rise unless urgent action is taken towards its abandonment.