FGM Survivor Says
By Makutu Manneh
Penda S. Bah, a survivor of FGM, said the message she wants to send to Members of the National Assembly and those supporting the repeal of the ban on FGM law especially the men, is: “Who feels it, knows it. I am a FGM survivor.”
According to Ms Bah, it is disheartening to see men who are not subjected to FGM and know nothing about it, saying all sort of things on social media as if they really know how it feels, adding that as a survivor, she knows the negative impacts the practice has on women. She said during labour, the birth canal of women who have gone through FGM, are mostly extended for them to deliver safely.
“We all know in the Gambia that as a woman, many things happen to us, but we hesitate to come out to talk about it. So, the few ones coming out to share their experiences should be heard and appreciated,” Ms Bah said.
She said not every Gambian woman is bold enough to come out to say that FGM is harmful because ‘our’ society does not allow us as women, to voice out our pains, particularly when it comes to such issues.
“If there was no FGM, sealing will not occur,” she said.
Jaha Dukureh, another survivor of FGM, who is also a forced child marriage and women’s right activist and anti-FGM campaigner, said “one of the things I hate talking about the most is my FGM experience”, but noted that in days and times like this, it is necessary for people to have such a conversation.
According to Ms Dukureh, she went through type three of FGM when she was one-week-old, and was sealed though this was later removed on the night of her marriage. She said those saying the anti-FGM activists are lying and westerners have given them money to campaign against the practice, should be careful because this is not true and it has nothing to do with such.
Ms. Dukureh said no “Toubab” (a white man) can pay her to fight her religion because she will never accept it.
“When I was ten years old, my step-sister at one week old went through FGM and she bled to death. That is the reason why I am campaigning against it. We know that FGM is harmful; we know that it is wrong morally and we know the harm that this practice causes,” she said.
For the information of the readers, FGM was banned in The Gambia in 2015 during the regime of former president Yahya Jammeh, and anyone found practicing it could spend a minimum of three years in prison.
Currently, the pro-FGM bill is before the National Assembly to make FGM legal in the country.
Almameh Gibba is the NAM who introduced the bill for the repealing of the FGM law before the Assembly, and on Monday 18 March 2024, parliamentarians voted to commit the bill to a parliamentary committee.
