By Dawda Baldeh
The organization Gambian Women are Free to Choose (GWAFC) has expressed concern over the alleged verbal harassment directed at its founder and team members.
Dr Fuambai Sia Nyoko Ahmadu, the founder and Executive Director of GWAFC, said in a press release that she and her colleagues were subjected to verbal abuse by activist Jaha Dukureh.
Dr Ahmadu detailed in a press release that the incident occurred during the National Assembly’s vote on the repeal of the Women’s Amendment Act 2015, where they were verbally assaulted by Activist Jaha Dukureh.
In press release shared with The Fatu Network, Ahmadu said: Ms. Dukureh was yelling at us and at the riot police guarding the gates instructing the latter to not let me in, screaming “she is not a Gambian, do not let her in, she doesn’t belong here!”.
Pro FGM/C activists have expressed criticism over the verbal harassment encountered from anti-FGM/C advocate Ms. Dukureh. She recounted being approached by the Gambian Immigration Office on July 17th, 2024, at Lungi International Airport in Sierra Leone.
“The immigration official informed me that they had received multiple reports and complaints suggesting that I should be ‘arrested’ and ‘deported’ from The Gambia,” she said.
According to her she informed the immigration officer that she had departed from The Gambia a day earlier after participating in the voting regarding the repeal of the female circumcision ban.
“I asked him whether I had broken any laws in The Gambia, and his response was that
he was unaware of any criminal offence, that there were some complaints by private individuals that I was not a Gambian citizen,” she added.
She said that she has notified both national and international bodies about the ongoing threats she purportedly receives from anti-FGM/C individuals due to her stance as a leader of a PRO FGM/C organization.
“I will not be deterred by Jaha Dukureh or any other anti-FGM activists funded by the West. I will not be silenced by threats of ‘arrest’ or ‘deportation’ or any other desperate efforts by neocolonial Western or African feminists to silence me and perpetuate the oppression of circumcised African or Muslim women like myself who stand by female circumcision as a fundamental aspect of our gender identity in line with our ancestral cultures or religious beliefs,” she said.
