When religious freedom becomes a weapon against girls

In a Banjul courtroom, a legal argument is unfolding that should alarm every African who believes in the protection of children. The Gambia’s Supreme Court is hearing a case that seeks to overturn the country’s 2015 ban on female genital mutilation, not because the practice isn’t harmful, not because it doesn’t violate the bodily autonomy of girls, but because the petitioners argue, prohibiting it infringes upon religious and cultural rights.

Let that sink in. In 2026, there are those arguing that the right to cut a girl’s genitals without her consent is a matter of religious freedom that supersedes her fundamental human right to bodily integrity.

What happens in that courtroom will reverberate across our continent and beyond. A ruling in favour of repeal would set a precedent that undermines every hard-won legal protection for females and children across Africa. It will tell legislators in Liberia and Sierra Leone, where efforts to criminalise FGM are currently underway, that their work is futile. It will embolden those who seek to roll back progress in countries that have already banned the practice. It will signal that in Africa, tradition can trump human rights.

Equality Now, in a recent press release, has done crucial work highlighting how this case fits into a disturbing global pattern. The international human rights organisation, which has been at the forefront of efforts to end FGM and protect girls’ rights worldwide, rightly calls this moment what it is: a dangerous intensification of backlash against women’s rights. Their warning should be heeded. From Warsaw to Washington, conservative movements are repositioning women’s and children’s rights as attacks on faith, culture and tradition. They speak of freedom while advocating for practices that deny freedom to the most vulnerable among us.

In The Gambia, this rhetoric has already expanded beyond FGM to include open support for child marriage, despite a 2016 law that raised the minimum marriage age to 18. The reframing is deliberate. Pro-FGM religious leaders are shifting the conversation away from what this practice does to girls’ bodies and lives, recasting it instead as a matter of religious liberty. We have seen this playbook before, and we know where it leads.

But let us be clear about what FGM actually is. Girls as young as five are held down while their genitals are cut, often without anaesthetic. Some bleed to death. Others develop infections that leave them infertile or in chronic pain. Women who were cut as children describe the terror of that day decades later; the betrayal by those who were supposed to protect them. When they give birth, many face obstructed labour and dangerous complications because of scar tissue. The psychological trauma never fully heals.

The Gambia has one of the highest rates of FGM in the world. An estimated 200 million girls and women globally have undergone the practice. These are not abstract statistics. They are daughters, sisters, mothers and friends whose bodies were irreversibly altered before they could consent, often when they were children.

FGM is practised by some Muslims, some Christians and some followers of traditional religions. It is also rejected by the majority of adherents of these same faiths. No major religious text mandates it.

The 2015 law was meant to protect girls. Its repeal would abandon them. Yet the very fact that these laws exist represents decades of advocacy by African women, health professionals, religious leaders and communities who recognised that harming girls is neither a religious requirement nor a cultural imperative. Progress has been made. The question now is whether we will defend it.

This is not a moment for despair. It is a moment for action.

Regional bodies like the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States must make clear that member-states have an obligation to uphold the rights enshrined in the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the Maputo Protocol. These instruments, created by Africans for Africans, explicitly call for the elimination of harmful traditional practices. The Gambia signed these agreements. It is time to honour them.

Religious leaders across denominations must speak louder. The vast majority of Muslim and Christian scholars do not consider FGM a religious obligation. Their voices are needed now to counter the dangerous claim that faith requires the mutilation of girls.

Legislators in countries considering FGM bans must not be deterred. Liberia and Sierra Leone must press forward with their efforts, demonstrating that the arc of progress, though challenged, continues to bend toward justice.

And citizens everywhere must recognise this for what it is: a test of whether we believe girls have rights that cannot be overridden by appeals to tradition or faith. If we fail this test in The Gambia, we fail it everywhere.

The international community is watching, but this is our fight. African women and men, African activists and advocates, African lawyers and legislators have led the movement to end FGM. Organisations like Equality Now have stood alongside local activists, amplifying their voices and supporting legal reforms across the continent. Now our courts, our laws and our commitment to human rights are under siege. We cannot be silent.

When The Gambia’s Supreme Court delivers its ruling, the decision will echo far beyond Banjul. What we do in response, how loudly we defend the principle that no culture, no tradition and no interpretation of religion justifies harming children, will determine whether this becomes a setback or a turning point.

Girls bleed. They suffer. They carry the scars for life. These are the facts that no appeal to culture or religion can erase.

The choice before us is clear. We can allow religious freedom to be weaponised against the most vulnerable, or we can stand firm in the belief that freedom means nothing if it does not include freedom from violence, freedom from harm and freedom to grow up whole.

Our daughters deserve better. They deserve laws that protect them, courts that uphold those laws and societies that refuse to let harm be dressed up as heritage. The world is watching The Gambia. Let us show them that in Africa, we choose our girls.

Bridget Mensah is a PR, Marketing & Communications professional and General Secretary of the Network of Women in Broadcasting (NOWIB). A dedicated feminist and advocate for women in media, she champions workplace excellence while empowering voices and building bridges across the industry. Bridget is passionate about amplifying women’s stories and driving positive change in Ghana’s media. She can be reached via email at [email protected]

 

 

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