OPINION

By Dr. Fuambai Sia Ahmadu Founder, Gambian Women are Free to Choose (GWAFC)

Why I support the Women’s Amendment Act 2024 to Repeal the Female Circumcision Ban

“Fatou, I do hope that we can someday work together, or at least continue to have these conversations about our bodies and our choices as African and Muslim women. The female circumcision ban would prevent these important dialogues among us, and would in effect recolonize our bodies and suture our voices. The female circumcision ban removes a woman’s right to choose; western women in liberal democracies would never accept such infantilizing restrictions to their bodily autonomy. We shouldn’t either.”

As promised, I am writing this letter to Fatou Network in response to an opinion piece by one Fatou Janneh, which was directed primarily at me, my work and my advocacy for the rights of circumcised women to equal dignity with all women and men in The Gambia and around the world. (I am attaching my image to go with this piece and ask that you not replace it with the intentionally demeaning image of a razor blade or the like). As I indicated in my note to Fatou, I welcome her letter, her concerns, her criticisms and am humbled by some of her generous compliments of my interview at Kerr Fatou. In fact, I would much rather for us both (and all affected women) to be having this conversation in person, side by side, outside of the public eye.

Let me start by addressing Fatou’s assertion that I have little to no knowledge of the experience of female circumcision in The Gambia. First of all, I underwent what WHO classifies as Type IIb, the excision of the exposed clitoral foreskin and glans (resembling what western doctors now perform as “clitoroplasty”) as well as trimming of the labia minora (resembling the increasingly popular western women’s “labiaplasty”). My traditional operation was performed in Kono, Sierra Leone, in “the bush” like any other female initiate; I had no special privileges. Yes, I was an adult college student; however, my sister was seven years old and was circumcised alongside me. The excruciating pain and immediate trauma I experienced was real. What is also real for me is that my excision was an aesthetic enhancement and did not impair my ability to enjoy sex and have orgasms. I also enjoyed the women’s masquerades, celebrations and coming together of my maternal and paternal relatives in Kono.

I became an anthropologist and came to The Gambia (Sierra Leone was under a civil war) in the late 90s to understand the local meanings of female circumcision and why the procedure is performed and celebrated by women. I also knew all those decades ago that future generations of women and girls like me would probably benefit from my knowledge and experience to help them make sense of female initiation and circumcision. I married a proud Mandinka solider, the late Major Ebrima Cambi, from Kiang and have four step-daughters residing in Brikama, who are all circumcised.

When I came to The Gambia, I conducted participant observation in dozens of initiations and circumcisions among many ethnic groups mostly in Brikama but also in neighboring towns and as far as Basse (I have since observed hundreds of varying female circumcision procedures in different countries and cultural contexts over the past two decades). I also worked for five years as a senior and lead consultant at UNICEF in The Gambia, analyzing, among other things, Gambia’s compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and Convention on the Elimination of All Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). I was especially interested in the practice of female circumcision and advised UNICEF and The Government of The Gambia at the time that this deeply valued practice was related to important cultural and religious ideals
of gender inclusivity, complementary and interdependence and could be justified under most of these human rights provisions.

Since this time, I have conducted research, lectured and presented papers on female
circumcision in the U.S., Europe and other parts of the western world. I have worked closely (and still do) with scholars and practitioners across academic disciplines, as well as the medical and public health field who are critical of the WHO FGM terminology and biased policies that single out and condemn African and Muslim women’s practices while openly supporting the medicalization of parallel practices among western women, males, intersex, and transgender persons.

So, Fatou, I believe for all these personal, academic and professional reasons, I have the right to speak for myself and on behalf of hundreds of thousands of grassroots women and girls in The Gambia who support my stance on our right to choose to uphold (or abandon) female circumcision.

While I understand and truly empathize with some of your own story, Fatou, I did not suffer the way you say you did and most of the circumcised women I have lived and worked with do not share your experience. In the past, I have provided referrals for dozens of African women seeking to file bogus FGM asylum claims (exaggerating or completely fabricating their experiences and fears – the more horrific the story, the better) so that they could stay in western countries, work and better themselves and their family members. I understood their motives as “survival”.

I have scrutinized the medical evidence, along with the aforementioned colleagues, and have not come up with any research to substantiate that female circumcision practices (and I refer to all forms) are necessarily or generally harmful or that these procedures attenuate female sexual desire, feeling, and capacity for pleasure and orgasms. I have been critical of the anti-FGM movement: Many years before some of today’s FGM “survivors” were even born, I was offered an opportunity to join the WHO consultancy team and global campaign to “eradicate FGM” in Africa in return for my denial of or silence about my true experiences. I politely turned these down.

I disagree with you about “labiaplasty” and other forms of predominantly white women’s FGM and the idea that white, educated and affluent women have agency and can make choices, while African and Muslim women (even those of us who are highly educated professionals) are mere “prisoners of ritual”. I grew up in both western and African cultural contexts and believe that these kinds of racist and sexist assertions, especially uttered by Africans themselves, are very unfortunate. My contention is that while you are asking for our bodies to be recolonized by white western women who are the financiers or funding brokers for FGM campaigns, these same “feminists” are encouraging the cultural appropriation of our traditional procedures that are now rebranded as female genital cosmetic surgeries – right before our eyes. Western
doctors are making millions of dollars offering the same procedures as you petition for our mothers and grandmothers to be jailed for performing our ancestral matriarchal and Islamic religious traditions. Note that these same “feminists”, western governments and
representatives of international organizations and NGOs who say that our traditional and
religious practices are “harmful” are refusing us the benefit of medicalization and other “harm reduction” interventions that they legalize for white or western women and their daughters.

I also disagree with you about some of the oft repeated sequalae of “FGM” related health hazards, such as fistulae which you mentioned in your letter. Scientific studies have demonstrated that there is absolutely no link between fistula and any form of female circumcision. I disagree that female circumcision is different from male circumcision and that the latter should be an exception, despite the fact that it has health risks and hundreds of boys die of botched circumcisions in Africa, in America and around the world each year. I disagree that female circumcision is upheld because of universal patriarchy and the sexual subjugation of women for the purpose of marriage and reproduction – this is a western feminist lie to convince you that your female ancestors did not exist let alone contribute to the creation of their own worldview.

It is not my experience that the exposed “clit” is necessary for sexual enjoyment and orgasm. I discovered that I was not unique; most women who have had the same type of excision continue to love and enjoy oral, manual and penetrative sex and have satisfying orgasm with or without a sexual partner.

I am absolutely sick and tired of the gaslighting and other psychological tools used by anti-FGM campaigners to deny the majority of circumcised women the reality of our bodily experiences and deprive us of our equality, dignity and fundamental human rights to practice and enjoy our culture and religion. I am utterly revulsed by the continued use of horror inducing images, such as the one accompanying your piece, of random, dirty razor blades or knives held by disembodied black female hands – in place of the absence of real medical or scientific evidence of the supposed “deadliness” of female circumcision.

I work hard in our communities to also dispel myths about uncircumcised women. I absolutely believe that no woman should be forced to undergo female circumcision and that a mother or caregiver should have every right protect her daughters (or sons) from circumcision until they reach the legal age to decide for themselves. I work with and support long time activists, such as Zainab Nur, a Somali born woman living in Cardiff, who did the work in her community to achieve complete abandonment of infibulation without any FGM laws in existence and without ever using the word “mutilation”. Like me and millions of affected women, Zainab rejects the term FGM and regards it as an insult to our African and Muslim mothers and grandmothers who birthed us.

More to the point, I want to see African and Muslim women’s bodily or genital practices treated the same way as parallel practices within other communities around the world. This to me is true racial and gender equality. This is what we should be working to ensure – that all women everywhere are able to exercise choice and are afforded the same personal and parental autonomy to make decisions for themselves or deem what is in the best interest of their children.

Fatou, I do hope that we can someday work together, or at least continue to have these
conversations about our bodies and our choices as African and Muslim women. The female circumcision ban would prevent these important dialogues among us, and would in effect recolonize our bodies and suture our voices. The female circumcision ban removes a woman’s right to choose; Western women in liberal democracies would never accept such infantilizing restrictions to their bodily autonomy. We shouldn’t either.

Back to The Gambia and the proposed Women’s Amendment Bill 2024: If, as a society, we insist that underage girls must have a right to choose then the same must also be true for boys. If the health of a girl is deemed to supersede her parent’s cultural or religious rights, the same ought to be the case for boys – no culture or religion according to this logic should be allowed to justify the accidental killing or maiming of boys due to botched circumcisions. If, Fatou, you truly are concerned about the rights and “bodily integrity” of children, then you and other FGM survivors should reach out to male genital mutilation survivors (I can connect you) and introduce a bill that would affect both sexes equally. Then, my sister, you would have my full support. In the meantime, I stand with the majority of grassroots women in The Gambia and firmly reject the importation and imposition of a Western feminist patriarchal female-only ban
against our gender inclusive-cultural and Islamic circumcision practices.

OPINION

By Fatou Janneh

Listening to Dr. Fuambai Sia Ahmadu, an anthropologist and researcher, and also the founder of “Gambian Women Are Free to Choose,” speak on Kerr Fatou Brunch Time has prompted deep reflection on my part. I find myself questioning what I truly desire from my degree, the kind of knowledge I seek, how I want to serve my community, and how I want to be remembered. Dr. Ahmadu spoke passionately about protecting something she has little or no personal experience with, reducing everything to propaganda and gaslighting. This issue is not about activists or feminist agendas; rather, her stance consolidates a patriarchal system that promotes harm.

The debate around female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM) is not about gender inclusivity or racism. It is fundamentally about the severe consequences of the practice. Her argument on FGM is weak and baseless, attempting to diminish the severity of the practice and the suffering it causes. FGM is internationally recognized as a violation of human rights, particularly the rights of women and girls. It leads to severe physical and psychological harm, including chronic pain, infections, complications in childbirth, trauma, anxiety, and depression. Organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN) have documented these significant health risks extensively.

I traveled to Chad in 2015 where I had the opportunity to see some women who were abandoned by their spouses’ families because of vesicovaginal fistula (VVF), a condition resulting from prolonged, obstructed labor that causes a hole to form between the bladder and the vagina, leading to continuous urinary incontinence. I was told that it was due to FGM. In fact, I listened to their Health Minister at the time who appealed to religious leaders, especially to the Muslim community, to add their voices in the promotion of the well-being of women and children. My Malian friend told me what she went through during her first birth, and when we traveled together from Bamako to Njuno, I saw her elder sister, whose childbirth experience almost deformed her walking. The worst I ever heard was listening to a Sudanese colleague narrate her family ordeal just because of this harmful practice. Mind you Dr., these journeys weren’t “FGM adventures.” Some were coincidental, while others, one conversation led to another. Likewise, in The Gambia, I went through the process myself and I know how my body looks. Unlike my sisters, I was a little over 10 years old when I was initiated in Busumbala because there was constant postponement of all the selected holidays. So, that year, it was during Christmas, and it was my worst nightmare. When we finished high school, my childhood friend got married soon after. Her family claimed they forgot that she was sealed because, according to her mother, she was circumcised when she was a toddler. Her husband couldn’t penetrate her, and both of them couldn’t say anything because they were embarrassed, and her husband’s culture does not practice such customs. It was over a month before she could get some help.

Dr. Ahmadu claimed this practice is an attack on our culture, but that’s not true. Our culture is empowering, but we cannot adhere to harmful practices. She also argues it is a religious practice, but refraining from this practice does not make one more Muslim than others, as it is not obligatory in Islam. Cultural practices are evolving, and we must prioritize the health and well-being of our communities above all else. So, who is brainwashed here, Dr. Ahmadu? Are you defending something that wasn’t there or trying to get back at those who may have discriminated against you? This isn’t about the West versus Africa or white against black—it’s about the health and rights of women and girls.

The notion of consent in the context of FGM is deeply problematic, given the societal pressures and misinformation that surround the practice. Advocating for gender equality in bodily practices and the decriminalization of FGM overlooks the power dynamics and coercive environments in which many women and girls live. True gender equality and empowerment come from ensuring that all women and girls can live free from practices that endanger their health and violate their rights. Instead of perpetuating a practice that has been widely condemned for its harmful consequences, we should focus on uplifting and empowering women through education, healthcare, and economic opportunities. Preserving cultural identity and respecting traditions can and should be done in ways that do not cause harm.

Moreover, it is crucial to address the comparison made between FGM and labiaplasty. Dr. Ahmadu accuses the WHO of bias for not considering labiaplasty as mutilation and claims this stance is rooted in racism and discrimination against African women. However, there are fundamental differences between the two practices. FGM is typically performed on minors without their consent, often as a rite of passage or for cultural reasons, leading to lifelong health issues. In contrast, labiaplasty is generally performed on consenting adults for cosmetic or medical reasons, often within a regulated medical environment with anesthesia and proper aftercare. Regarding health risks, FGM involves the removal or damage of healthy genital tissue, leading to severe pain, infections, complications in childbirth, and psychological trauma. Interestingly, FGM often involves coercion, with young girls unable to make an informed decision. In my case, I was deceived, although I suspected what it was going to be. I would have never undergone it if given the chance, and I experienced significant pain, especially during menstruation after the procedure. If I was left intact, perhaps I wouldn’t have experienced such severe menstrual pain every month which always scared the hell out of me. How many women in The Gambia would have openly discussed their sex life with you considering the culture of silence? Are you using one case study to generalize? We both know that would be unethical, and I’m unsure if you really want to tread that path. Considering you as a hero of custodian of African culture and heritage with such a practice would not put your good name on the right side of history. In contrast, labiaplasty is performed on individuals who choose the procedure, typically after reaching adulthood and being fully informed of the risks and benefits.

Na una kind dey influence di First Lady of Salone. She don dey talk say na dignity of Salone women she dey protect just for get their sympathy because e husband na di president. Dat no be propaganda?

So, there’s propaganda everywhere…. There’ll be lobbyist groups, of course, but nobody should trade the dignity and self-worth of your people because of temporary benefits if there’s any, whether it’s financial, cheap popularity, or fake influence at the international scene. Let us learn to be everyday heroes, whether we are seen and heard or not.

On a specific note, I like her comportment during the interview, her diction, and how she tends to persuasively argue her points, but they are baseless. Don’t be carried away by the euphoria, Dr. Use your knowledge, skill, and experience on the right cause and on the right side of history, Dr. Ahmadu!

Accusations of racism and discrimination should not overshadow the primary concern: the protection of women and girls from practices that cause harm. The focus must remain on the health, rights, and well-being of those affected. I urge Dr. Ahmadu and her associates to reconsider their stance on FGM and join the global movement towards protecting the health and rights of Gambian women and girls. Let us work together to honor our cultural heritage without compromising the well-being and future of our communities.

Fatou Janneh
[email protected]
Madison, WI
+1 608 298 8513