Muslim scholar and preacher Abdoulie Fatty has demanded a private bill to overturn the anti-FGM statute, and he has urged a huge public campaign in support of the measure.

The Women’s (Amendment) Act 2015 is being attempted to be repealed by the bill that was introduced by Almamy Gibba of Foñi Kansala. Its first reading was yesterday, when it was tabled.
The practice of female genital mutilation was outlawed eight years ago, but certain religious and political leaders are now supporting a bill to decriminalise it. Since then, a fatwa has been issued by the Supreme Islamic Council, which calls on the government to reevaluate the legislation and condemns anyone who denounces the practice.

But civil society and advocates for women’s rights have blasted the plan as “hugely regressive.”
Imam Fatty, accompanied by hundreds of supporters shouting “female circumcision is my religious belief, Gambia is not for sale,” spoke to journalists yesterday, just after the bill was introduced. He emphasised that no Gambian mother or grandmother should be arrested or jailed for practicing female circumcision.

He emphasised the importance of individuals speaking out against the ban contacting their representatives in the National Assembly and urging them to support the measure to alter it. “You should not take this lightly because if you let them pass this bill, they will introduce additional legislation to cripple Islam in this nation,” he further warned. Regarding the health risks associated with FGM, Imam Fatty stated that Islam does not permit the practice but does permit circumcision.


There were no complications for the many women who went through it. In Bakoteh, I was just yesterday speaking with an elderly woman who had been circumcised; I asked her if she had ever heard of someone dying as a result of the procedure, and she denied ever having heard of such a thing, Fatty remarked.
He made it clear that the Gambia is free to sign international protocols so long as they respect people’s religious practices and beliefs.

Any other legislation or protocol should be subordinate to the Gambia’s constitution. We need the West to quit forcing problems on us that could make our nation unstable. No way can we stand by and watch as our moms and grandmas are forcibly removed from society for exercising their constitutionally protected religious and cultural practices. He emphasised that the Gambia people want the law abolished so that peace can return to the country.

Jammeh

“If I were in Kanilai, when Jammeh was declaring that he would have jailed me because I would have told him that the practice is in the Quran contrary to what he thought,” Imam Fatty argued in response to critics who accused him of doing nothing to stop the law from passing during Jammeh’s era. However, nobody spoke up to deny Jammeh his request that someone show him where the Quran mentions female circumcision. I was there when he performed a similar trick in the State House once. Before I could show him the verse in his own Quran, he snatched it from me, even though he had asked someone else to show him where the word “bastard” appears in the Quran. I corrected him, saying that the King Abdullah he was mentioning had not completed university and that we do not derive our religious ideas from King Abdullah but from the Quran and Sunnah. He went on to say that King Abdullah is a dancer. I am well-known to Yahya Jammeh, and he is to me as well.

According to Anna Njie, president of the Female Lawyers Association (FLAG), who spoke to journalists yesterday in the National Assembly, the country will regress if the law is repealed.
“We do not have the power to dictate actions to the National Assembly, but we are legally able to pursue legal action in cases where specific basic rights are infringed upon,” she stated.