‘Over my dead body’, say Gambian mothers amid efforts to lift FGM ban

Women picketed outside the Gambian parliament in Serrekunda while legislators voted to reverse a ban on female genital mutilation [File: Hadim Thomas-Safe Hands for Girls via AP]

*Names changed to maintain privacy.

Banjul, The Gambia – Fatou* was barely a year old when she underwent female circumcision, the practice also called female genital mutilation that rights groups condemn as a form of abuse.