Gambia Votes to Keep Ban on Female Genital Cutting, in Sharp Reversal

Lawmakers who had been moving toward repealing Gambia’s landmark ban on female genital cutting overwhelmingly changed course on Monday, voting instead to keep the legislation in place after women staged an intense three-month campaign.

Gambia, a sliver of a country on the west coast of Africa, had grabbed international attention earlier this year as it appeared headed to becoming the world’s first nation to roll back protections against cutting.

“It would have faced pariah status,” said Satang Nabaneh, a Gambian legal scholar focused on sexual and reproductive rights and women’s rights.

Of the 53 members of Gambia’s National Assembly present on Monday, 34 voted to keep the ban, and 19 to overturn it. In March, when 47 members were present, 42 of them voted to overturn the ban.

Women’s rights campaigners, many of whom were in the National Assembly in Banjul, Gambia’s capital, to hear the ruling, greeted it with jubilation and relief. Their lobbying of politicians and efforts to educate communities about the harmful effects of cutting — which in Gambia usually means removing the clitoris and labia minora — had paid off.

“We did everything we could collectively to ensure the law stays,” said Jaha Dukureh, an anti-cutting campaigner.