Gambian couple charged with mutilating their daughters in Norway

The mother and father of five daughters born and reared in Norway have been charged in what's considered the first enforcement and test of the country's new law against genital mutilation. The couple is originally from Gambia but both partners are now Norwegian citizens. They have a total of six daughters, and five of the six have been subjected to genital mutilation, according to Hanne Kristin Rohde of the Oslo Police District. Rohde told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) that the parents were charged because they allegedly contributed to the genital mutilation of their daughters. The father is being held in police custody, while the mother is ill and pregnant with their seventh child and considered too weak to be held by police. Only the couple's youngest daughter, a three-year-old who lives with them in Oslo, has so far escaped genital mutilation, according to doctors who examined the girls. Her five-year-old sister had not, and both girls have been placed in the care of Norway's child protective services (Barnevernet). The six daughters range in age from three to 14 years. The four eldest live in Gambia with one of their father's other wives, according to police. Efforts were being made to bring the girls, who all have Norwegian passports, back to Norway, where they once went to school.