Gambian parliament rejects bid to overturn historic ban on female genital mutilation

CNN — Gambia’s parliament has voted to uphold a landmark law that bans female genital mutilation (FGM) in the largely Muslim nation, after religious groups pushed for the legislation to be repealed.

If Monday’s bid had been successful, the tiny West African country would have been the first in the world to relegalize FGM after criminalizing it. MP Amadou Camara, who chairs a joint health and gender committee that recommended that FGM should remain outlawed, told CNN that none of the clauses seeking the repeal of the ban in the Women’s (Amendment) Bill 2024 was passed.

Parliament Speaker Fabakary Jatta ruled that it was “impossible” for the bill, which passed a second reading four months ago, to be read a third time and to pass without those clauses. “I so rule that the bill is rejected, and the legislative process exhausted,” Jatta said at plenary meeting Monday.