Former Vice President and presidential aspirant Dr. Isatou Touray have declared that The Gambia can eliminate female genital mutilation (FGM) within a generation, provided that education and community engagement remain central to the campaign.
Speaking to Atlantic TV, Dr. Touray one of the country’s most prominent advocates against FGM said decades of activism have shown that attitudes shift when communities receive accurate information in their own languages and from trusted voices.
“For years, one of the greatest obstacles was the belief that FGM was a religious obligation,” she explained. “But my research found no basis for that in either the Quran or the Bible. FGM is not a religious injunction it is a misinterpretation of our religion.”
Dr. Touray emphasized that the practice persists largely due to entrenched social customs, gender expectations, and misinformation passed down through generations. She herself underwent FGM as a child and said that personal experience, combined with academic study, convinced her of the need to speak out.
She stressed that parents who subjected their daughters to FGM should not be portrayed as deliberately abusive. “They were not doing it to harm us,” she said. “They thought it was a divine responsibility. Now that we have the knowledge, it is our duty to create awareness.”
Her campaign has often faced resistance from religious figures and communities who view public discussion of FGM as an attack on faith or an exposure of private cultural traditions. “Who are you to talk about this secret thing? You are exposing our culture,” she recalled being told.
Despite such challenges, Dr. Touray remains optimistic. She believes that with sustained education, grassroots community engagement, and clear religious clarification, The Gambia can consign FGM to history within a single generation
