BANJUL: The Gambia’s parliament on Monday started analyzing a extremely controversial invoice on lifting a ban on feminine genital mutilation (FGM) in pressure since 2015.The problem has divided Gambians for months, and some dozen demonstrators gathered inside and outside the parliament in search of the lifting of the ban. The invoice says “female circumcision” is a deep rooted cultural and spiritual observe and that the ban infringes the fitting to observe traditions.However a variety of civil society teams are urging the federal government to face agency.The UN childrens’ company UNICEF stated in a 2021 report that 76 % of Gambian girls aged between 15 and 49 had undergone genital mutilation.The observe can result in critical well being issues, together with infections, bleeding, infertility and problems in childbirth, and impairs sexual pleasure.Lawmaker Almameh Gibba launched the invoice. The second studying was postponed to March 18. It’s unclear whether or not the invoice will probably be adopted or how it could be enacted. Former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh, now in exile, banned FGM in 2015, branding it outdated and never a requirement of Islam. The overwhelming majority of the tiny West African nation is Muslim.Parliament later that yr adopted the primary regulation particularly banning FGM, which is now punishable by as much as three years in jail.Between 2018 and 2021, just one case of genital mutilation was introduced earlier than a court docket and no convictions or sanctions had been handed down, UNICEF stated.- ‘One in all Islam’s virtues’ -The problem flared up in mid 2023, when three girls obtained fines or jail sentences for performing FGM. An Islamic cleric paid the fines and The Gambia Supreme Islamic Council issued a fatwa upholding the legality of “female circumcision”.The Islamic Council, the nation’s major Muslim organisation, stated the observe was “not just a merely inherited custom” however “one of the virtues of Islam”.It known as on the federal government to rethink the ban.UNICEF defines FGM as “the partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons”.The organisation estimates 200 million women and girls worldwide have undergone some type of the observe, which it recognises as a human rights violation. “As responsible people and considering responsibility in society, we will ensure that this proposed amendment will not see the light,” stated deputy parliament speaker Seedy Njie, in line with The Customary newspaper.However he recommended that prosecutions of FGM perpetrators be suspended whereas efficient awareness-raising campaigns had been carried out.The chief of the parliamentary majority, Bilay Tunkara, informed The Customary that his camp would seek the advice of the invoice’s second studying earlier than adopting a place. The Worldwide Bar Affiliation stated in January that the invoice was unlikely to return into pressure resulting from The Gambia’s worldwide obligations. The present regulation relies on the African Union’s Maputo Protocol on the Rights of Ladies, which The Gambia has ratified.
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