By Mama A. Touray
Her Virginity, a book written by Fatou Camara Jnr was Saturday launched at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Centre, Bijilo, and was attended by a large number of book lovers and dignitaries.
The book was launched by Fatim Badjie and reviewed by Counsel Haddy Dandeh Njie.
Quoting Counsel Dandeh as she reviewed the book, she said: “If you read the book you will see that Fatou talks about the society we live in, she talks about the society where women and girls are prices, they are looked at in a way that society judges them, looks at them as figures that are to be judged at every stage of their lives, from the day they were born to the day they go to school, to the day they graduate, and to the day they get husbands”.
She said the book, Her Virginity, showcases that women are shown in a way that they are not allowed to be women on a freeway, because they are judged in every step that they take, from the day they were born, their mates were pink as a girl from there on they were tagged to do the house chores, expected to be a virgin even when they are married.
“We all know it’s a pride to be a virgin, we all want to be virgins when we married but if we look at it most women are either raped or sexually violated in some ways statistic showed us that in every three women, one is raped every minute. It is not that women don’t want to be a virgin when they get married but it’s taken away from them by force or abuse and done by the people that they trust the most which is their uncles, sometimes even their fathers when they speak they are not believed,” she explained as she reviewed the book.
She continued that the reason she loves Fatou’s book, Her Virginity is that the author did not just write a book and that it’s not fiction, but instead, it is reality as she did research, went to the communities to study women, and girls and wrote the book.
In her launching remarks, Fatim Badjie, CEO of ACE Communication, said books like this can go a long way as it highlights the challenges of the social, and cultural norms, religion, and tradition in society, and that a blind eye cannot turn to the pressing issues of sexual gender-based violence that continues to exist in The Gambia.
She lamented that the issues of rape, trafficking, and abuse of vulnerable girls, are atrocities which did not only violate the fundamental rights of young individuals but it brings about fear, pain, and injustice and breaks a lot of people before they stand up to be an adult.
Alagie Manneh, representing the Minister of Youths and Sports, expressed gratitude to the author for bringing to light a discussion that all people shy away from.
“Issue of virginity, sexual and gender-based violence, these are topics usually we are not comfortable talking about or where we discuss it. We massage the language to an extent that the language does not make sense or we get more confused in the end it brings more harm than good to the young girl,” he added.
