A bill that would have made Gambia the first country in the world to reverse a ban on female genital mutilation has been rejected by lawmakers and will not move to a third reading, parliament's speaker said on Monday (July 15). - REUTERS
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00:00Gambia's parliament on Monday rejected a bill that would have ended a ban on female genital
00:06mutilation, parliament's speaker said.
00:10The bill had sparked a public debate around the practice in the Muslim-majority country.
00:15The lawmaker who took the proposal to parliament, Al-Monejiba, said he was upholding religion,
00:21culture and tradition.
00:23But many Islamic scholars dispute his arguments.
00:27The World Health Organization says FGM has no health benefits and can lead to excessive
00:32bleeding, shock, psychological problems and even death.
00:37And anti-FGM campaigners say the 2015 law banning the practice in Gambia has been poorly
00:43enforced, which the government denies.
00:48The bill had passed a second reading in March, with only five out of 53 lawmakers voting
00:53against it.
00:54Parliament had raised concerns among rights advocates that Gambia would become the first
00:58country in the world to reverse a ban on FGM.
01:02But after holding weeks of public hearings, parliament's health and gender affairs committees
01:07presented a joint report on July 8th, recommending that Gambia maintain the ban.
01:12A majority of lawmakers adopted that report.
01:16Political analysts said they may have been swayed by testimonies from doctors and survivors
01:20about FGM's harmful consequences.
01:24Lawmakers voted again on Monday ahead of a third and final reading scheduled for later
01:28this month.
01:29Around 30 lawmakers voted against each clause, prompting the speaker, Fabukari Tombang Jata,
01:35to stop the bill moving forward to the final reading.
01:38Jata said it was a futile exercise to allow the bill to proceed.