{"id":3164,"date":"2026-02-13T12:25:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T20:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspenglobalinnovators.org\/?post_type=stories&#038;p=3164"},"modified":"2026-02-13T12:25:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T20:25:11","slug":"the-female-genital-mutilation-debate-in-the-gambia","status":"publish","type":"stories","link":"https:\/\/www.aspenglobalinnovators.org\/en\/stories\/the-female-genital-mutilation-debate-in-the-gambia\/","title":{"rendered":"The Female Genital Mutilation Debate in The Gambia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspenglobalinnovators.org\/our_fellows\/mariama-jobarteh\/\">Mariama Jobarteh<\/a>, our 2025 Impact West Africa Fellow, examines the highly contested debate over female genital mutilation (FGM) in The Gambia \u2014 a practice deeply rooted in culture and religion. Although The Gambia criminalized FGM in 2015, enforcement has historically been weak, and recent high-profile convictions sparked backlash that led some political and religious leaders to challenge the ban. In 2024, the National Assembly rejected a bill to repeal the 2015 law, but that decision has since been taken up in the Supreme Court as a constitutional challenge. The divide reflects tensions between legal protections and cultural\/religious identities.<\/p>\n<p>The author argues that legal reform alone is not enough: sustainable change must engage communities, religious and cultural leaders, and centre women\u2019s lived experiences so that gender justice can be meaningfully advanced without reinforcing social stigma or resistance.<\/p>\n<p>Read the full piece below<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","publication_category":[45,49],"publication_theme":[56,169,168,64,67,66],"class_list":["post-3164","stories","type-stories","status-publish","hentry","publication_category-blog","publication_category-oped","publication_theme-gender","publication_theme-human-rights","publication_theme-law","publication_theme-maternal-health","publication_theme-sexual-and-reproductive-health","publication_theme-women-and-girls"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspenglobalinnovators.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/3164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspenglobalinnovators.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspenglobalinnovators.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/stories"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspenglobalinnovators.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"publication_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspenglobalinnovators.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication_category?post=3164"},{"taxonomy":"publication_theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspenglobalinnovators.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication_theme?post=3164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}