Advocating against FGM through Imams, sermons and women’s networks in The Gambia

Amie Jatta Njie does not read or write, but the 58-year-old woman has become a lynchpin in community efforts in The Gambia to raise awareness about female genital mutilation (FGM), still prevalent in the West African nation despite a law banning the practice nearly a decade ago.    

Njie is one of several activists that have been supported by an initiative from International IDEA and the European Union to bolster democratic rights in The Gambia, through a partnership signed in 2024 with the Gender Platform—a civil society organization. The project aims to increase women’s voices in the legislative and constitution-making process.

Njie, who has also managed to establish her own school two decades ago in The Gambia’s capital Banjul, helps organize a network of activists who aim to influence Gambians on anti-FGM advocacy campaigns that include messaging through Imams in this Muslim-majority country.

The advocacy is more urgent than ever

The FGM is a traditional practice carried out in many sub-Saharan countries. The Gambia banned the practice through the Women’s Amendment Act 2015, but now the main challenge is to enforce the ban and ensure it does not return. Highlighting tensions over the ban and challenges of democratic transition in The Gambia, the Supreme Court is due in the coming months to rule on a lawsuit challenging the ban.

Njie, working with the Gender Platform, is part of this effort to ensure the court rules to keep the prohibition.

‘We target progressive Imams and try to ensure they address FGM in their sermons. Many Gambians think wrongly that somehow FGM is part of their religion, and we try to show them with the help of the Imams that this is not the case’, Njie said in an interview from her school of some 250 students in Banjul.

An estimated 144 million women and girls on the continent have been subjected to FGM, which usually involves removal of the external genitalia. The practice can lead to  lifelong problems, including and can include chronic pain; recurring infections; problems with urination, menstruation and childbirth; Almost three-quarters of women aged 15 to 49 have undergone the practice, according to the Gambian Government.

Njie’s network not just taps into the influence of Imams, but also a network of women—many in remote villages—who can message her when they hear news that someone will or has undergone FGM. Some elderly women carry out FGM because they are also paid to do it—not just because of traditional convictions.  

‘In these cases, we will go to the villager and try to show her ways of earning a living through another way’, Njie said. ‘The programme has helped me with knowledge but also with public speaking and training on how to effectively talk to village elders about FGM’.

‘Gender Platform has helped me understand how to communicate to villagers better given some of their deep cultural attitudes’.

Njie highlights the small, incremental changes happening in The Gambia, thanks to advocacy campaigns that have helped women’s rights. ‘In the past, if a student got pregnant, she was thrown out of school. Now, women are allowed back to study. This is progress for us’.

‘Education is important, but the law is also just as important. We hope the Supreme Court will keep the ban, but advocacy is still needed. We celebrated after the ban and hopefully we can celebrate after the court’s ruling’, Njie said.