Why Spain and Gambia?

The intensification of transnational migration has led to a new, constantly changing, global-scale reality. When people travel, they take their beliefs and traditions with them. In this way, FGM has crossed over borders as part of migrants' cultural baggage.

In Spain, 57.63% of the female population with ties to FGM-practising countries come from Nigeria, Senegal and Gambia (Kaplan and López, 2017), among which Gambia shows the greatest prevalence of the practice: as much as 75.7% of women between the ages of 15 and 49 (MICS, 2018).

For this reason we chose these countries as a base for a study that is longitudinal in terms of time and circular in terms of space. We connected two cultural realities, creating a suitable space in which to gain a profound understanding of the roots and meanings of the practice. This allows us to develop effective strategies, taking advantage of the synergies that arise from migrant communities, which act as opinion generators and reference models in their countries of origin.