Gambia bans female genital mutilation

President says harmful practice has no place in
Islam as Gambia follows string of African
nations banning FGM.




President Jammeh says FGM is an obsolete
practice that is not required by Islam [AFP]
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Ghee Bleasdale
Blind fold me and let me mince hers.
She enjoys the job with a satanic
revenge just out of her spiteful
miseries.
charles martel
they should ban inbreeding
http://pickeringpost.com/story/the-
cost-of-islamic-incest/1316
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Gambia has become the latest in a string of
African nations to ban female genital mutilation
(FGM), an ancient tradition of removing
external parts of a girl's vagina that has been
widely condemned.
The country's information ministry on Tuesday
confirmed the move in a statement that cited
President Yahya Jammeh as saying that FGM
has no place in Islam - the country's
predominant belief system - or in a modern
society.
Berhane Raswork, a leading anti-FGM activist
and the founder of The Inter-African Committee
which now operates in 28 African countries to
bring an end to FGM, called the move a
"positive step".
FGM can lead to serious infections, bleeding,
infertility, maternal complications and even
death in some cases.
Raswork cited growing pressure from
international and national rights groups over
decades as a main driving force behind
Gambia's ban.
"This is a result of the work undertaken by
some non-governmental organisations and
women activists who fought against FGM for
something like 30 years at different levels,
including the UN system," she told Al Jazeera.
'Local initiatives needed'
Sabrina Mahtani, a researcher for Amnesty
International in West Africa, also praised
Gambia's move, but said "time will tell whether
concrete steps are taken".
"There still needs to be more funding towards
local initiatives in order to implement the ban,"
she told Al Jazeera.
Raswork blames the continent-wide problem on
misinterpretations and misuses of religions,
including Christianity and Islam, to enforce a
"patriarchal system in order to control the
female body and most of all its reproductive
role".
She also called for local organisations to work
together to put the ban into effect.
"In order to make the law meaningful the
population has to understand its objective
through education and information. Different
stakeholders including lawmakers, religious
leaders, women leaders, and the youth need to
be mobilised to help implement the law to ban
the practice," she added.
Gambia joins at least 20 African countries that
have banned FGM.
The World Health Organization (WHO)
estimates that more than 125 million women
across the world have undergone the practice,
which involves cutting off the labia and clitoris,
often when girls are young.