Bravo to a majority of the Members of the National Assembly for having the courage to vote against the private members bill seeking to repeal the law banning Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) because we all know that a large segment of the populations in most of their constituencies are in support of the practice.
There is absolutely no doubt that members of the National People’s Party (NPP) that voted against the bill did so as a result of undue pressure, mainly from the executive and several other quarters despite a majority of their constituents being in support of a repeal of the law. In reality, a vast majority of the members, including those who voted to maintain the law, are of the view that FGM is both an Islamic injunction and part of our culture, and if they were not compelled by the intense pressure put on them, they would no doubt have voted for its repeal.
It is also quite obvious that the government only succumbed to pressure from donors and the international community rather than being genuinely in support of the law. There is no doubt that if the Barrow administration had the choice, they would never have gone against the wishes of the powerful Islamic clerics, who continue to wield a lot of influence on both the society and the regime itself. However, they were quite cognizant of both the financial and diplomatic consequences of repealing the law, and they had no choice but to compel their own members in the National Assembly to vote against the bill.
It is however one thing to succumb to international pressure and convince a majority of the members to vote against the bill, but it is a completely different thing to ensure that the law is enforced. Do the authorities really have the political will to ensure enforcement of the law, I doubt it. They may have it at the back of their minds that they can ignore enforcement of the law and continue to cast a blind eye to those who would carry on with the practice, hoping that the donors and the international community would not be concerned. However, now that the issue has been brought to the fore, not only will the donors and other stakeholders continue to monitor the situation, but the government’s very credibility is on the line.
The very fact that some radical clerics as well as some members of the National Assembly who advocated for repeal of the law, are openly inciting for defiance and urging supporters of FGM to disregard it and go ahead with the practice and yet no action had been taken against them by law enforcement agencies, is a clear manifestation of the government’s lack of political will on the matter. The authorities should however understand that by ignoring the incitement of the Islamic clerics, apparently hoping that the issue will eventually go away, they are making a serious mistake. If they do not muster the courage to directly confront the radical clerics and their minions, then it would be hard to see how they would deal differently with critics of the government that the police often call in for questioning simply for expressing their opinions. Therefore, until they take action against those who are not only openly inciting others to disobey the law but also making quite incendiary statements, there is a high risk of the authorities losing control of the situation.
For those who advocated for repeal of the law, did they not know that such a move would tantamount to retrogression? The whole world seems to be taking measures to protect the vulnerable members of the society and maintaining FGM is certainly not in the interest of our womenfolk. It has been medically proven that FGM is a harmful traditional practice and there is no justification in carrying on with it. Even the very fact that those babies and little girls subjected to the practice are never given the chance to choose whether or not they want to undergo the practice, contradicts those calling for it to be made mandatory and a personal choice.
The question that many people tend to ask is where all these radical imams and their followers were when the law banning FGM was being enacted in 2015. For instance, some of them who seem to have assumed leadership of the pro-FGM camp, were quite close to former President Yahya Jammeh, architect of the law, but they were never heard making any noise about it. Here they are today, not only inciting people to disobey the law, but also making threats against opponents of the practice.
Looking at the voting pattern in the National Assembly, some anti-FGM activists have expressed worry that if the United Democratic Party (UDP) ever came to power, there is a possibility of them repealing the law. Therefore, we expect a statement from the UDP to indicate that their members who voted to repeal the law did so as individuals and not on partisan lines, and to also reassure the women of this country that the party would never support any law that would subject their daughters to such harmful practices.
