Gambian Women Tell of Lifelong Pain After FGM

For generations, silence has surrounded female genital mutilation (FGM) in The Gambia. But for women who underwent the practice as children, the experience can remain present long after the physical wound has closed. Two Gambian women, Njemmeh Jallow and Aminata Cham, said the cutting they experienced as girls continues to affect their lives, including marriage, childbirth and their understanding of motherhood. Their accounts come as The Gambia continues to debate how to confront FGM, a practice prohibited under national law but still practised in some communities. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says FGM has no health benefits and can cause severe pain, bleeding, infection and problems urinating. Longer-term complications can include chronic pain, menstrual difficulties, sexual problems, psychological distress and complications during childbirth. On a sunny afternoon in Busura village, Brikama Central, 23-year-old Jallow recalled an experience from childhood that she said has followed her into adulthood and marriage. Like many girls in communities where FGM is practised, she was taken for the procedure when she was too young to understand what was happening or why. Keep up with the latest headlines on WhatsApp | LinkedIn "We were taken to a bushy area and given fruits and sweets," she recalled. "At first, we thought it was just a gathering. But then the older women started calling the girls one after the other and taking them into the bush." From where the children waited, Jallow said they could hear other girls crying. Fear spread among them. When her turn came, she was taken into the bush and circumcised. In the days afterwards, she struggled to urinate. The pain was a reminder of what had happened, although she said she did not understand at the time that the effects could continue into adulthood. The WHO lists painful urination and urinary retention among the immediate complications associated with FGM. It also says scarring and tissue damage can cause chronic pain and other complications later in life. For Jallow, childbirth brought another painful reminder. She said giving birth was extremely painful and that, for years, she believed the suffering was simply part of being a wife and mother. "In many communities, women are taught that suffering is part of womanhood," she said. "So many endure it in silence." Her understanding began to change after she attended an awareness programme about the health risks and human rights implications of FGM. At first, she was sceptical. "I thought the information was exaggerated," she said. "I did not believe it." But when she began comparing what she had heard with her own experience, she said she started to see a connection between the pain she had endured and the cutting she underwent as a child. "All those who promote FGM do not know what women go through," she said. Aminata Cham, a native of Bakary-Syambuya in Kombo South district, said her experience began at an even younger age. "At my youngest age I was cut and at the age of seventeen when I was in my senior secondary education I was given a husband who promised to allow me complete my education but that promise never come to pass," Cham says. She said childbirth brought further complications. When she became a mother, she struggled to give birth to her children. She said health workers at the delivery centre told her that the difficulties were related to the cutting she had undergone. Cham has four daughters. None has undergone FGM. "I told my husband that none of our children would be cut," she said. Her husband agreed after she explained the risks associated with the practice. Her decision to protect her daughters began before her grandmother died. Cham recalled taking her daughters to school herself and returning to collect them immediately after classes because she was uncomfortable leaving them alone with her mother. Her fear was rooted in family history. Her grandmother had followed the tradition, and Cham knew that h

Source: Original reporting via AllAfrica Gambia