The Civic Scribe: Articles & Poems

The sunbaked streets of Banjul felt worlds away from my desk when news broke last March that Gambia’s parliament had voted overwhelmingly to repeal its ban on female genital mutilation (FGM). Forty-two legislators, nearly all men, raised their hands to reverse a decade-old prohibition protecting girls from a practice endured by 73% of Gambian women and girls. Only four voted to uphold the ban. In that moment, The Gambia – Africa’s smallest nation – became the unwitting epicenter of a global regression, pitting patriarchal tradition against fundamental human rights in a battle with consequences far beyond its borders.

The 2015 ban, instituted under the authoritarian ruler Yahya Jammeh, was always more symbolic than enforced. Yet its potential dismantling exposes a dangerous rift. Religious conservatives, led by influential imams like Abdoulie Fatty, frame FGM as a sacred Islamic obligation. Fatty famously paid fines for women convicted under the ban, declaring it an attack on faith. The Gambia Supreme Islamic Council issued a fatwa in March asserting that “female circumcision… is one of the virtues of Islam.” This assertion persists despite clear historical and theological counter-evidence: FGM predates Islam by centuries, is absent from the Quran, and has been condemned by leading Islamic institutions like Egypt’s Al-Azhar. The weaponization of religion here is not unique to Gambia; it’s a potent tactic in a global culture war where women’s bodies remain the battleground.

The State’s Sinister Silence

More alarming than the vocal traditionalists, however, is the deafening ambivalence of the state. Lawmakers like Sulayman Saho dismiss the original ban as a “dictator’s” imposition, claiming popular consultation never occurred. Yet their solution isn’t genuine dialogue – it’s capitulation. This state hesitancy isn’t neutrality; it’s complicity masquerading as cultural sensitivity. It echoes in the police stations where reports of FGM are dismissed as “family matters,” and in the shocking lack of prosecutions despite the law – only one conviction in nearly a decade, involving infants as young as four months old. When a government fails to defend the bodily autonomy of its most vulnerable citizens, it signals that gender-based violence is negotiable.

Medicalization: A False Compromise

Facing international condemnation, some proponents offer chilling “compromises”: medicalization. If traditional cutters are risky, they argue, let doctors and nurses perform FGM in sterile clinics. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently sounded the alarm on this insidious trend, revealing that health workers now perform an estimated one in four FGM procedures globally – impacting 52 million girls and women. This medical stamp of approval is catastrophic. It sanitizes brutality, legitimizes the myth of FGM’s acceptability, and can actually increase harm – health professionals, using sharper instruments and sometimes anesthesia, may inflict deeper, more severe cuts. The WHO unequivocally states: No matter who performs it, FGM is torture. It has zero health benefits and lifelong consequences. Medicalizing FGM doesn’t mitigate cruelty; it institutionalizes it.

Ripple Effects Across a Continent

The stakes couldn’t be higher. Gambia risks becoming the first nation globally to rescind an FGM ban, setting a perilous precedent. Anti-FGM activists across Africa watch with dread. “If this law is repealed, we know they’re coming for more,” warns Gambian activist Fatou Baldeh. Lawmakers have already signaled that child marriage bans could be next. In countries like Kenya and Senegal, where hard-won legal protections exist, advocates report renewed pressure from emboldened traditionalists. Progress was already fragile: only seven of 31 FGM-prevalent countries are on track to meet the UN’s goal of eradication by 2030. A Gambian reversal threatens to unravel decades of painstaking work, empowering regressive movements worldwide.

A Flicker of Hope in the Darkness

Amidst this bleak landscape, resilience persists. Grassroots movements led by survivors and human rights defenders are mobilizing. They reject the false dichotomy between culture and compassion, working within communities to redefine rites of passage without violence. In Kenya, traditional ceremonies are being replaced with empowerment programs teaching sexual health and rights. In Sierra Leone, “bloodless” initiations focus on girls’ education and societal responsibility. These locally-led solutions, not top-down laws alone or cynical political concessions, offer the only sustainable path to abandonment. They prove that preserving cultural identity doesn’t require inflicting irreversible harm.

As the fate of FGM continue hovering over the country, the world must bear witness. This is not merely a Gambian issue; it is a test of our collective commitment to universal human rights. Will we stand by as ancient cruelties are rebranded as religious freedom or cultural preservation? Or will we demand that governments everywhere fulfill their most basic duty: protecting children from violence? The knives are being sharpened, both literally and politically. Silence now is consent. The girls of Gambia, and millions more like them, deserve a future unmarred by a practice that has stolen enough – their health, their autonomy, and their right to simply be whole. We cannot look away.