SERREKUNDA, Gambia — On the day her daughter was born, Fatou Saho swore from her hospital bed that she would never subject the girl to female genital cutting, a practice that Fatou and three-quarters of the women in this West African country have endured.

       So when her daughter complained four years later that her “private part” was hurting, Fatou recalled her heart started racing. Stifling her panic, Fatou asked the girl to sit on her lap, saying, “Come here, let me see.” Fatou discovered that — unknown to her and against the law — her daughter had been cut.