Efforts to halt female genital mutilation continue, but the practice is far from eradicated. Reem Leila investigates As part of ongoing efforts to end female genital mutilation (FGM) or female genital cutting (FGC), a conference was held on Thursday at the Suzanne Mubarak Centre for Women's Health and Development in Alexandria. The conference is part of a campaign spearheaded by Mrs Suzanne Mubarak to make the ban on FGM/FGC a national priority, and is supported by Minister of Health and Population (MOHP) Hatem El-Gabali's Decree 271 prohibiting the practice. The conference was addressed by El-Gabali; Dr Mahmoud Fathallah, gynaecologist and former UN programme manager for reproductive health; Faysal Abdel-Gadir, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) resident representative; lawyer Mohamed Selim El-Awa; Ahmed Zayed, dean of the Faculty of Arts at Cairo University; and several representatives from Al-Azhar and the Orthodox Coptic Church. FGM/FGC is more common in rural areas and is practised by both Muslims and Christians. Most circumcisions take place at home and although they are increasingly being performed by doctors, about one-third of the procedures are carried out by dayas (traditional birth attendants). Experts suggest that abolishing this practice will be challenging since FGM/FGC affects 120-140 million women and girls across the world. More than 80 per cent of women support the continuation of circumcision, and relatively few recognise the negative consequences of FGM/FGC. These include reduced sexual satisfaction found in 29 per cent of circumcised women, possible death in 24 per cent of cases, and higher risk of problems during childbirth in five per cent. Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) conducted on nearly 39,000 married women aged 15-49 found that the practice is nearly universal among women of reproductive age in Egypt. According to Mohsen Gadallah, professor of Public Health at Ain Shams University, preliminary analysis of the 2005 findings show that 96.6 per cent of women surveyed had undergone FGM or FGC, a similar figure to that of DHS findings in 1995. Data from the 2005 DHS, however, indicated that the percentage of the daughters of these women between the ages of 11-19 who underwent procedure had gone down from 83 per cent in 1995 to 78 per cent in 2005. Women who intend to have their daughters undergo FGM/FGC also improved marginally, with 38 per cent in 1995 and 31 per cent in 2005. The Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa recently announced that Islam forbade the "harmful tradition of circumcising girls", and that the practice is not required for religious reasons. Gomaa further suggested that the topic of FGM/FGC and its harmful health effects should be added to school curricula. Cairo University's Zayed believes that the historical roots of the practice date back thousands of years, and the justifications for it are many. Some 58 per cent of surveyed women support the practice on the basis that it is a "good tradition"; almost three-quarters of the women felt that husbands would prefer their wives to be circumcised; more than one-third cited cleanliness as a reason; while a smaller number saw it as a way to prevent promiscuity before marriage and unfaithfulness after wedlock. The overall majority of surveyed women feel FGM/FGC should continue, although there was a slight decline in support of the practice: 75 per cent in 2005, down from 82 per cent in 1995. "Although small, this is a step forward towards putting an end to this damaging habit," added Zayed. There is growing recognition of the many potential adverse health consequences of the practice, causing many to resort to doctors rather than dayas to perform the procedure. "One of the main factors behind the persistence of the practice is its social significance for females," noted Dr Fathallah. "In communities where it is practiced, a woman achieves recognition mainly through marriage and childbearing, and many families refuse to accept a woman as a marriage partner if she has not undergone the procedure." In the wake of the death of 12-year-old Bedour Ahmed Shaker last month, El-Gabali issued a "permanent ban" on FGM, prohibiting any medical professional in public or private practice from performing the procedure. "Any genital cutting will be considered a violation of the law and all conventions," he stated. "Accordingly, the perpetrator will be punished." According to Nasr El-Sayed, MOHP undersecretary for Preventive Affairs, the ministry will refer anyone performing the procedure to the prosecutor-general, making them liable to one year in prison, a LE200 fine, and shutting down the location where the circumcision took place. El-Gabali's ministry has drawn a two-year plan to reduce by 20 per cent the practice of FGM/ FGC, at a cost of LE9 million. Almost 13,000 rural tutors were sent to 5,000 villages to educate people, especially women, about the negative health and psychological effects of FGM/FGC. The ministry is also now operating a hotline for people to report FGM/FGC cases.
