By Halimatou Ceesay
A two-day consultation on Islam, Family Wellbeing and Traditional Practices held at the Paradise Suites Hotel, Kanifing has ended with stakeholders renewing calls for a complete halt of FGM in the Gambia and the sub-region.
Speaking at the event, renowned Islamic scholar and former vice president of the Gambia’s Supreme Islamic Council, Ousman Jah said: “We should not circumcised girls based on pain, not exaggerate it or over amputate. If Prophet Muhammed (SAW) did not consider it as an obligation, then it is something you can chose to do or not do.
“The Prophet did not force his women to do it, order people to do it and there is no religious text from the Prophet that makes it obligatory. We only have some weak hadiths and even if it is legal, the Prophet did not encourage it. It will be better to abandon this practice.”
Representing the minister of Health, Fatou Camara, said FGM brings pain, sufferings and other health complications to women.
She added: “Women who have undergone do face a number of complications including difficulties in giving birth. We have to send them to surgery or tear them so that the baby can come out. Sometimes the baby dies before they are delivered due to tiredness and lack of air. These organs that are mutilated have their functions and we should leave it as it is”
Aja Babung Sidibeh, an ex-circumciser from the Central River Region, said: “You asked us to get ourselves, our daughters and granddaughters circumcised and preserved ourselves. We have done what you asked us to do, yet you leave us and marry uncircumcised women on the grounds that they are more enjoyable than us. Free us and tell us to hold onto one thing.”
She added: “After seeing how two children I circumcised were taken ill, I decided to drop the knife and I also called my people to abandon the practice. I have contributed to the pain and sufferings of all the women that I circumcised.”
Fatou Keita, a lady councilor, appealed to Gambian men to join forces with women and end FGM.
Our parents and grandparents practiced FGM with a firm belief that they were doing what was right and just in the sight of Allah. And foremost what was in the best interest of their daughters, protecting our societal values and norms. We now know the risks and adverse health implications of this archaic practice. There is absolutely no health benefit and too many physical and emotional negative consequences of FGM. We must as a healthcare policy discourage this very primitive and frankly barbaric act of violence against our girls. It is sexist and it is dangerous and evil in all ways.
The fight for the eradication of this age old practice was a justified one, and thanks to a well coordinated and funded International campaign, it’s being won. Credit deserves to go to all those who were at the forefront of this campaign in The Gambia, especially during those difficult days, when Yaya Jammeh was in support of the practice and threatened their lives.
I, however, find it hard to understand why we (Africans:the most affected) have accepted the derogatory term, “Female Genital Mutilation” (FGM), as a substitute for its real name of Female Circumcision, to campaign for its eradication. I am not convinced that the results that have been achieved today, would have been any different if the fight was against Female Circumcision, rather than FGM.
Thus, the denigration of such a revered and respected practice, even if wrong, erroneous and unnecessary, to the disrespectful and frankly, insulting term of FGM, serves no purpose other than portray our people in the most negative of ways, yet again. And whilst we go on about valuing ourselves as humans worthy of respect, we have no qualms pinning labels that denigrate us onto our coats and on t-shirts or echoing them in the loudest of voices.
We must always accept any offers to help us find solutions to our problems, but we mustn’t compromise our self worth for any support whatsoever, and certainly, not anything that seeks to use misguided aspects of our cultures, to portray us as barbaric and evil.
The West butchered millions in wars around the world, but those soldiers are celebrated as heroes. No one calls their actions “barbaric” and “evil”. How many times did we hear anyone in USA or the West calling US soldiers “barbaric” and “evil” for incinerating the people of Japan with the atomic bomb?
It is indeed very sad to see this amongst Africans and it shows how we also need mental emancipation as much as anything, to uphold our dignity and value ourselves, as humans who made mistakes like everyone else, and refuse to amplify any views that may portray us as different (due to our mistakes).
Bax The Inter-African committees on health made up of Africans named it FGM in the ‘90’s. We asked WHO for help to eradicate in 1991.
The term FGM has existed well before 1990. The Inter-African Committee merely adopted it and began referring to the practice as Female Genital Mutilation in 1990, but there has been references of mutilation to the practice well before 1990, though until then, the practice was widely known in English as Female Circumcision and remained so well into the late 1980’s.
But who coined the term is irrelevant, as far as I am concerned. What concerns me is why we have readily accepted an aspect of our culture to be re-labelled to portray us as barbaric, evil and sadistic people, for “mutilation”, being the deliberate inflicting of grievous bodily damage to a person, often with no intentions other than to harm, is indeed sadistic, barbaric and evil. We need to revert to calling the practice what it is: Female Circumcision.
I have the notes and facts. My mother was chief surgeon and adviser to the committee. There is nothing wrong in accepting this practice for what it is. The important thing is for Gambians to confront our demons and move boldly forward. We can’t always deflect to “them”
God Bless The Gambia
I lend hand and support to eradicate FGM or what ever Dr. Sarr wishes to rebrand it with. The good thing is that we all agree that the practice has no health benefits and is merely a traditional practice that has lived it’s time. We must adapt. And FGM is one of those practices we must forego now in this age and time. I think there is consensus on this issue and I believe it shall be eradicated.