Gambian lawmakers voted on Monday to advance to the next parliamentary stage a highly controversial bill that seeks to lift a ban on female genital mutilation (FGM), which has been in place since 2015.

The issue has divided the tiny West African nation for months, with hundreds gathering to protest outside parliament.

Pro-FGM campaigners outnumbered those calling for the ban to remain in place, according to AFP journalists.

“The bill seeks to uphold religious loyalty and safeguard cultural norms and values,” Almameh Gibba, the lawmaker who introduced the bill, said during the debate.

“The use of a ban on female circumcision is direct violation of the citizens’ rights to practice their culture and religion,” he added.

But activists and rights organizations say the suggested legislation reverses years of progress and risks damaging the country’s human rights record.

“There’s the inherent risk that this is just the first step and it could lead to the rollback of other rights such as the law on child marriage… and not just in The Gambia but in the region as a whole,” Divya Srinivasan, from women’s rights NGO Equality Now, told AFP.

Lawmakers voted 42 in favor and four against to send the bill to a parliamentary committee for at least three months for further scrutiny before it returns for a third reading.

“To hear mainly men speak on behalf of women and speak about what should happen to the bodies of women is just the most disheartening thing,” said anti-FGM activist Jaha Dukureh, who herself underwent the practice and watched her sister bleed to death following the procedure.

“As a woman who has lived with this practice, that was just one of the most heart-wrenching things to watch,” she told AFP after the debate.