Binta’s Story: Surviving FGM and Reclaiming Her Life

PC: Binta Gibba, Chairperson KEYCDA

 

On a quiet Sunny afternoon in Kuloro, Kombo East, West Coast Region of the Gambia, Binta Gibba reflects on a childhood memory that continues to shape her life. What began as a seemingly innocent outing with other girls ended in an experience that would follow her into adulthood, her marriage, and eventually her activism.

Like many girls in communities where Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is practised, Gibba was taken for the procedure at a very young age—too young to understand what was happening or why.

Speaking during an interview on March 8th 2026, she recalls, “We were taken to a bushy area and given fruits and sweets”. “At first, we thought it was just a gathering. But then the older women started calling the girls one after the other and taking them into the bush.”

From where they sat waiting, the children could hear others crying. Fear spread quickly among them.

When her turn came, Gibba was taken into the bush and circumcised. The experience left her physically injured and emotionally shaken. In the days that followed, she struggled to urinate, a painful reminder of what had happened. At the time, she did not understand the long-term consequences.

Across The Gambia and many other parts of Africa, FGM has long been framed as a rite of passage into womanhood. Families often believe the practice preserves a girl’s purity, prepares her for marriage, and protects family honour.

But according to the World Health Organisation, FGM involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injuries to female genital organs for non-medical reasons. The practice can cause severe pain, infections, complications during childbirth and long-term psychological trauma.

In The Gambia, the practice was outlawed in 2015 under the Women’s (Amendment) Act, making it a criminal offence to perform or facilitate FGM. Yet despite the ban, the practice continues in some communities, often carried out in secret.

For many survivors like Gibba, the consequences do not fully emerge until adulthood.

Years after the procedure, when she married, she experienced a reality that few people had openly discussed. Her wedding night, she says, was one of the most painful moments of her life. The physical trauma from the cutting meant that her husband was unable to consummate the marriage.

“It was the worst pain I had ever experienced,” she says.

After several failed attempts, her family realised that the type of cutting she had undergone had caused her genital area to become sealed — a form of FGM known medically as infibulation. In such cases, scar tissue narrows or closes the vaginal opening, sometimes requiring surgical cutting to reopen it.

Her mother and other women later took her to a “ngansingbaa” cutter, where the sealed tissue was cut open using a razor blade. The procedure was carried out without anaesthesia.

By that time, Gibba was already an adult. She remembers feeling both physically vulnerable and emotionally humiliated as the women prepared to reopen the wound.

“They asked me to lie down and used a razor blade,” she says quietly.

She was also warned that if she did not sleep with her husband afterwards, the wound might close again, and she could be forced to undergo the same procedure once more.

For many women who undergo severe forms of FGM, such painful experiences continue throughout their lives. Survivors often face complications during sexual intercourse, menstruation and childbirth.

When Gibba gave birth to her first child, the trauma resurfaced once again.

Childbirth was extremely painful, she says, reinforcing the realisation that the practice had long-term consequences she had never been told about. For years, she believed the pain she endured was simply part of being a wife and mother.

“In many communities, women are taught that suffering is part of womanhood,” she explains. “So many endure it in silence.”

Her understanding began to change when she attended an awareness program discussing the health risks and human rights implications of FGM. At first, she admits, she was sceptical.

“I thought the information was exaggerated,” she says. “I did not believe it.”

But as she reflected on her own experiences, she began to see the connection between the pain she had endured and the practice she had undergone as a child.

Today, Gibba is no longer silent. She is the first female chairperson of Kombo East Youth and Children Development Alliance (KEYCDA), a community-based organisation established in 2005 to promote social and economic development for youth and children.

Through the organisation’s programs in entrepreneurship, education and health awareness, Gibba and her colleagues work with communities across Kombo East to address issues including drug abuse, unemployment and harmful traditional practices. FGM awareness has become one of the central issues she now advocates against.

She participates in sensitisation programmes aimed at educating families about the physical and psychological harm caused by the practice. Many supporters of FGM, she believes, simply do not understand the pain it inflicts.

“All those who promote FGM do not know what women go through,” she says.

Despite growing awareness, the issue remains deeply complex. In many communities, social pressure still drives families to continue the practice. Girls who are not cut may face ridicule or discrimination, while parents fear their daughters could be seen as unsuitable for marriage.

Survivors like Gibba are increasingly challenging societal expectations. By openly discussing experiences that were once considered taboo, they are transforming conversations about tradition, health, and women’s rights.

For Gibba, sharing her story is not just about confronting the past — it is about safeguarding future generations. “I speak out so that other girls will not go through what I experienced,” she says.

Her journey from survivor to advocate reflects a growing movement across The Gambia, where women who once suffered in silence are now leading the fight to end the practice.

For them, breaking the silence may be the most powerful step toward ensuring that the next generation of girls grows up free from the pain they endured.

This article is part of the Breaking the Silence: Voices of FGM Survivors Project, supported by the Foundation for Women’s Health Research and Development (FORWARD UK).

Author: Nelson Manneh