Mothers fight to protect daughters as The Gambia considers unbanning FGM

As politicians work to repeal anti-female circumcision law, women stand firm to shield the next generation of girls.

*Names changed to maintain privacy.

Banjul, The Gambia – Fatou* was barely a year old when she underwent female circumcision, the practice also called female genital mutilation that rights groups condemn as a form of abuse.

Today the 29-year-old from Bundung, a town on the outskirts of The Gambian capital Banjul, says she will shield her baby daughter from the same fate that scarred her, even as parliament takes steps toward lifting a ban on FGM.

Sitting in her kitchen preparing suhoor, the early morning meal before the start of the fasting day in the Muslim month of Ramadan, Fatou shared the story of the pain and lasting trauma she says FGM inflicted.

“When I got married, my husband and I faced days of agony,” she said, her words heavy with the weight of memory. “We could not consummate our marriage because I was sealed.”