Gambia could become the first country to reverse a ban on female genital cutting

Get Nadine White's Race Report newsletter for a fresh perspective on the week's news Get our free newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent Get our free newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Lawmakers in Gambia will vote Monday on legislation that seeks to repeal a ban on female genital cutting, which would make the West African nation the first country anywhere to make that reversal. In its emailed statement, Geeta Rao Gupta, the top U.S. envoy for global women's issues, called it “incredibly important” to listen to the voices of survivors like Baldeh. The chairperson of the local Center for Women’s Rights and Leadership, Fatou Jagne Senghore said the bill is “aimed at curtailing women’s rights and reversing the little progress made in recent years.” The president of the local Female Lawyers Association, Anna Njie, said the practice “has been proven to cause harm through medical evidence.” UNICEF said earlier this month that some 30 million women globally have undergone the procedure in the past eight years, most of them in Africa but some in Asia and the Middle East. “No religious text promotes or condones female genital mutilation,” the UNFPA report says, adding there is no benefit to the procedure.