{"id":42843,"date":"2023-09-15T08:13:36","date_gmt":"2023-09-15T08:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/udp-to-hold-emergency-meeting-on-fgm-friday"},"modified":"2023-09-15T08:55:05","modified_gmt":"2023-09-15T08:55:05","slug":"udp-to-hold-emergency-meeting-on-fgm-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-to-hold-emergency-meeting-on-fgm-friday","title":{"rendered":"UDP to hold emergency meeting on FGM Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. <\/strong><\/span>The United Democratic Party will Friday hold an emergency meeting to state its position on the charged debate surrounding the issue of FGM, according to its spokesperson, Almamy Taal.<\/b><\/p>\n

A 2015 Act of Parliament banned the aged-old practice but following the recent conviction of three women for FGM, the issue emerged as a hot topic with religious leaders and even National Assembly Members calling for the repealing of the law.<\/p>\n

The UDP has supported the legislation proscribing the practice since its passing in 2015.<\/p>\n

However, according to Mr Taal, events and debates of the past few days and weeks surrounding the issue have forced them to hold another consultation on the matter with a view to making their position clear and distinct.<\/p>\n

But he also said that there was no proactive effort on the part of the party to have a repeal of the law banning FGM.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn other words, we will probably come out with a very clear statement after our emergency meeting on Friday\u201d, he told.<\/p>\n

He said what actually prompted the meeting was a parliamentary process during which a member of the party declared his constituent\u2019s support for the practice of FGM.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a very unusual situation where a member of parliament under the whip of our party, raised this issue on a procedure that is known to the Assembly as the \u2018order of the day\u2019. As a parliamentarian, he is representing his constituency, and obviously, on the floor of the Assembly, he can speak for them, but as far as the party is concerned, we are going to look at all the factors and all the circumstances around this issue and come out with a clear position,\u201d Taal said.<\/p>\n

For the UDP, he added, it is not a question of not belonging to any camp. \u201cI\u2019m just saying that events have happened in the past few days that require consultation within the party, and we will come out to the media and say where we stand on this issue now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Personal opinion<\/b><\/p>\n

On a personal note, Mr Taal posited that FGM should be criminalised, describing it as a \u201cbarbaric practice\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, I think there should be even more stringent conditions for anybody that is found to be guilty of this very, very barbaric practice. I am completely against FGM and any act of violence or discrimination that is perpetrated against women.\u201d<\/p>\n

He called it a \u2018violation of children\u2019 who don\u2019t have the choice to make such decisions on their own.<\/p>\n

When asked why people seemingly don\u2019t want to give up FGM even where many religious leaders have said that the practice is not Islamic, Mr Taal, a former high court judge replied: \u201cI really don\u2019t think there is any basis in any Islamic teaching for this practice. This goes back to an era called the \u2018Jahiliyya\u2019 period, which preceded Islam, and Islam came to rectify a lot of the misconceptions. Because in Arabia of the Jahiliyya period, or the age of ignorance, even female children were buried as soon as they were born because of the belief that the female children are going to be a burden on the family and things like that. So, the coming of Islam is the salvation, if you like, especially amongst the Arabs of that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He remarked that as a secular republic, any violence, especially if targeted towards children, \u201cmust be condemned in the strongest possible term\u201d.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Gambia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. The United Democratic Party will Friday hold an emergency meeting to state its position on the charged debate surrounding the issue of FGM, according to its spokesperson, Almamy Taal. A 2015 Act of Parliament banned the aged-old practice but following the recent conviction of three women for FGM, the issue emerged as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":42842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,10],"tags":[2355,2361,260],"class_list":["post-42843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-parties","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-gambia","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"\nUDP to hold emergency meeting on FGM Friday - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The United Democratic Party will Friday hold an emergency meeting to state its position on the charged debate surroun ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-to-hold-emergency-meeting-on-fgm-friday\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UDP to hold emergency meeting on FGM Friday\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The United Democratic Party will Friday hold an emergency meeting to state its position on the charged debate surroun ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-to-hold-emergency-meeting-on-fgm-friday\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-15T08:13:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-09-15T08:55:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/09\/sm_1694753999.518284.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"405\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-to-hold-emergency-meeting-on-fgm-friday#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-to-hold-emergency-meeting-on-fgm-friday\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"UDP to hold emergency meeting on FGM Friday\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-09-15T08:13:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-09-15T08:55:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-to-hold-emergency-meeting-on-fgm-friday\"},\"wordCount\":594,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-to-hold-emergency-meeting-on-fgm-friday#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/09\/sm_1694753999.518284.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Gambia\",\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"parties\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-to-hold-emergency-meeting-on-fgm-friday#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-to-hold-emergency-meeting-on-fgm-friday\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/udp-to-hold-emergency-meeting-on-fgm-friday\",\"name\":\"UDP to hold emergency meeting on FGM Friday - 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