By Mustapha Jarju
Ms. Jaha Dukureh, a survivor of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Founder of Safe Hands for Girls Foundation, in an interview with this medium, yesterday said the former State House Imam Abdoulie Fatty is inciting violence against people like her who are fighting against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the country.
“Imam should understand that what he is doing right now is not the sunnah of our prophet (Muhammed SAW). We can have different opinions on this but he should not incite violence against people who are working on this issue of FGM,” she stated.
She added that aside from Imam Fatty, anyone who does not believe in FGM has a role to advocate against FGM and tell people that it is a harmful practice that the World Health Organization and other International Organizations all stand against.
“So anyone who is using Islam to continue pushing this agenda should sit down and I will be willing to have a conversation because is not us against them, we are not enemies and we are all Gambians,” she said.
Ms. Jaha further added, that for the women who were recently prosecuted for practicing FGM, the law said they should be fined D50,000 but gave them D15,000 and that is not what the law says.
Noting that the government should follow exactly what the laws say so that when other people who are practicing FGM see that will not continue and this is about the right of the female child.
“We are not against Islam and we are not fighting against the sunnah and it is important for the people to understand that,” she urged the people to know.
She explained that when she was talking about FGM, some time ago, people came out saying she was fighting Islam, “but that’s not true I love the Deen of Islam.”
Looking at Muslim countries like Dubai, Qatar, or Saudi Arabia, she said they are not practicing FGM Saudi is the Capital of the Islamic world and their daughters don’t go through FGM as it is illegal in this country.
“Why do you think we understand the religion more than them I was in Egypt and I work with ‘Al Azar’ which holds the highest jurisdiction when it comes to Islamic jurisprudence, and they don’t like dealing with FGM so this has nothing to do with Islam,” she stressed.
