The Gambia: One-month-old baby dies after undergoing female genital mutilation
Gambia baby death heightens alarm over female genital mutilation
AFP, August 12, 2025:
Rights activists in The Gambia are calling for justice after a one-month-old baby’s death was linked to female genital mutilation, a widely practised but illegal procedure up for review before the country’s Supreme Court.
The Gambia has one of the highest rates of FGM in the world, with 73 percent of women and girls aged 15 to 49 having undergone the procedure, according to 2024 figures from UNICEF.
The baby girl was pronounced dead upon arrival at a hospital in the capital Banjul after being “allegedly subjected to circumcision” and developing severe bleeding, The Gambia Police Force said in a statement Sunday.
The death has sparked outrage among women’s rights defenders working to combat the deeply rooted cultural and religious practice that they say is a harmful violation against women and girls.
“FGM is not a cultural tradition to be defended — it is a form of gender-based violence that can kill,” Santana Simiyu, a human rights lawyer with rights group Equality Now, said in a statement sent to AFP Tuesday.
Two women allegedly involved in the case are in custody, police said, as an investigation is carried out in the western town of Wellingara, where the incident occurred.
Researchers at Britain’s University of Birmingham estimated in a study published in 2023 that approximately 44,320 girls and young women die each year due to FGM in the countries where it is practised.
Former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh, now in exile, outlawed FGM in 2015, branding it outdated and not a requirement of Islam.
Parliament later that year adopted the first law specifically banning the practice, which is now punishable by up to three years in prison but is rarely enforced.
In July 2024, lawmakers revisited the matter, upholding the 2015 law despite pressure from religious traditionalists.
But the ban was immediately challenged before the Gambian Supreme Court, where the petition remains pending….
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Note how carefully AFP dances around the fact that FGM is Islamic, as it is always Job One for the establishment media, in all stories involving Muslims, to make Islam look as good as possible. First, we hear that “FGM is not a cultural tradition to be defended — it is a form of gender-based violence that can kill,” which establishes at the outset that some people think it is a cultural tradition worth defending, while telling us that those people are wrong. The idea that it is a religious tradition doesn’t even come in for a mention until farther down in the article, when we are told that “former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh, now in exile, outlawed FGM in 2015, branding it outdated and not a requirement of Islam.” Great, but “in July 2024, lawmakers revisited the matter, upholding the 2015 law despite pressure from religious traditionalists.”
So AFP tells us, without telling us, that some traditionalist Muslims consider female genital mutilation to be part of the Islamic faith. This is the main reason why it is still prevalent in many areas today, but the establishment media does its best to obfuscate any connection between FGM and Islam.
“It is a religious thing. Do you want to change religion?” said one Egyptian in response to a campaign to eradicate female genital mutilation. “You only listen to what the West is saying.”
The establishment media ignores the fact that FGM is mandated in Islamic law: “Circumcision is obligatory (for every male and female) (by cutting off the piece of skin on the glans of the penis of the male, but circumcision of the female is by cutting out the bazr ‘clitoris’ [this is called khufaadh ‘female circumcision’]).” — Umdat al-Salik e4.3, translated by Mark Durie, The Third Choice, p. 64
Why is it obligatory? Because Muhammad is held to have said so: “Abu al- Malih ibn Usama’s father relates that the Prophet said: ‘Circumcision is a law for men and a preservation of honour for women.’” — Ahmad Ibn Hanbal 5:75
“Narrated Umm Atiyyah al-Ansariyyah: A woman used to perform circumcision in Medina. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said to her: ‘Do not cut severely as that is better for a woman and more desirable for a husband.’” — Abu Dawud 41:5251
That hadith is classified as weak, but this one is classified as sahih (reliable): “Aishah narrated: ‘When the circumcised meets the circumcised, then indeed Ghusl is required. Myself and Allah’s Messenger did that, so we performed Ghusl.’” — Jami` at-Tirmidhi 108
If Muhammad had the genitals of his favorite wife, Aisha, mutilated, that is a strong endorsement of the practice from the man who is an “excellent example” (Qur’an 33:21) for Muslims.
Why does it matter whether or not FGM is Islamic? Because the practice will never be eradicated if its root causes are not confronted. As long as those Muslims continue to believe that Allah and Muhammad want it done, for some that will override all other considerations, in the United States and everywhere else.
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