STORY: For Mariama Jarjou, taking her two daughters to be circumcised when they were four and five years old was an act of love.

She believes it's an important ritual that gives her daughters status in their Gambian village, and makes them eligible for marriage.

And that's why Janjou is strongly in favor of an attempt in Gambia's parliament to become the first country to repeal a ban on female genital mutilation.

"Yes, I want them to allow us to do it because they come here to advocate against it, but when I tried to speak up, they told us to stop. I told them that if we stop, the women will suffer because it is our culture, and our children will not learn about our traditions."

Across Gambia, from villages, to mosques, to the corridors of power, a debate is raging around FGM.

The practice is banned in over 70 countries, but remains widespread in some African nations and diaspora communities.

And it persists in Gambia despite being outlawed by former dictator Yahya Jammeh in 2015.

Anti-FGM campaigners say authorities do not seriously enforce the ban.

The first FGM convictions took place last year, eight years after it was outlawed, when three women were found guilty of cutting eight infant girls.

According to the World Health Organization, FGM - which usually involves the partial or total removal of the external genitalia - brings no health benefits, only harm.

The consequences are lifelong and can include chronic pain, recurring infections, problems with urination, menstruation and childbirth, pain during sexual intercourse, and trauma.

The latest government data says almost three-quarters of women aged 15-49 in Gambia have undergone the practice, 65% of them when they were younger than five.

Under a mango tree in the village on Sintet, anti-FGM activist Fatou Baldeh is mediating a discussion on the issue.

"We are preparing for the worst...."

She says FGM teaches girls that pain is OK, adding that they are told to keep quiet about their trauma - laying the foundations for a culture of silence.

"I don't know what they are going to do. That's my...my problem is, how do we make sure that whatever happens to the law, our communities are getting the right information."

FGM supporters in Muslim-majority Gambia frame their campaign as a backlash against Western values imposed by international donors or former colonial powers.

It's a theme that resonates with many Africans.

They also argue that the practise is rooted in Islam, though many imams and Islamic scholars dispute this.

The campaign to repeal the ban is being led by two powerful men, one is lawmaker Almameh Gibba, the other: influential Muslim cleric Abdoulie Fatty.

He publicly defended the three women convicted of FGM last year, and paid their fines.

"Make sure you chop a little bit from the clitoris. Don't go deep, okay? If you do as I tell you, that will be fine for both men and women."

Aissatou Ba, a program officer at civil society group Women in Liberation and Leadership, says Fatty has no understanding of FGM.

"He is not a woman. He did not have a clitoris. He did not have a vagina. So he will not know how it feels."

Muslim cleric Baba Leigh also staunchly opposes Fatty and FGM.

"Islam is not a torture. To torture people, especially young innocent girls, a newly born baby - what are you doing? Come on."

Nevertheless, the bill to repeal a ban on FGM is making its way through parliament.

In March it passed its second reading with 47 out of 53 lawmakers voting in favor.

Gibby Mballow was one of the few that voted against it.

"What is wrong shall never be right. This is wrong and I will stand to say that it's wrong. Even if it [causes] me to lose this seat. I was ready to resign and said, look, I will not be a part of a legislative that will return my country to that old age."

Rights advocates fear the bill's potential to ignite a wider effort to dismantle protections for women and girls, such as around child marriage and gender-based violence.

There are also concerns of a ripple effect into other African countries.

A final vote is expected later this month.

Gambia's Information Minister Ismaila Ceesay said the government did not support FGM, but that it would allow democracy to run its course.