Jaha Dukureh, the founder of Safe Hands for Girls, pickets outside parliament in Serrekunda, Gambia, Monday, March 18, 2024. The West African nation of Gambia could become the first country in the world to reverse a ban on female genital cutting, a practice that experts say is dangerous and has no benefits. Lawmakers are voting Monday on legislation that seeks to repeal the 2015 ban. (Hadim Thomas-Safe Hands for Girls via AP)
FILE - Safia Ibrahim demonstrates for the camera the tools and techniques she uses to perform female genital mutilation (FGM), which she learned at the age of 15 and has been practising for 35 years, in the courtyard of her home in Hargeisa, Somaliland, a semi-autonomous breakaway region of Somalia, on Feb. 7, 2022. Lawmakers in Gambia are preparing to vote Monday, March 18, 2024 on legislation that would repeal a 2015 law banning female genital mutilation, which would make it the first country to reverse a ban. The procedure requires the partial or full removal of external genitalia. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)