BANJUL, Gambia (AFP) — Gambian lawmakers voted on Monday to uphold a 2015 ban on female genital mutilation, rejecting a controversial bill seeking to overturn the law after months of heated debate and international pressure.

Legislators killed the bill by voting against all the proposed amendments to the 2015 text that would have decriminalised the practice.

Rights groups and the United Nations had urged MPs to reject the bill, saying it threatened years of progress and would have seen The Gambia become the first country to overturn a ban on female genital mutilation (FGM).

Table banging could be heard in the packed parliamentary chamber as MPs rejected each of the four clauses.

“The Women’s (Amendment) Bill 2024, having gone through the consideration stage with all the clauses voted down, is hereby deemed rejected,” said Fabakary Tombong Jatta, the speaker of the National Assembly.

“I rule that the bill is rejected and the legislative process exhausted,” he added.

The bill had been making its way through parliament since March, deeply dividing public opinion in the Muslim-majority West African country.

The text, introduced by MP Almameh Gibba, says that “female circumcision” is a deep-rooted cultural and religious practice, but anti-FGM campaigners and international rights groups say it is a harmful violation against women and girls.

FGM involves the partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs, and can lead to serious health problems including infections, bleeding, infertility and complications in childbirth.

The Gambia is among the 10 countries with the highest rates of FGM, with 73 percent of women and girls aged 15 to 49 having undergone the procedure, according to 2024 figures from UNICEF.

A UN report from March said that more than 230 million girls and women worldwide are survivors of the practice.