CAIRO: The first week of March will see the trial at the Minya criminal court, of the doctor who was involved in the circumcision procedure that resulted in the tragic death of 12-year-old Bodour Shaker in Minya last June. Bodour's death, which attracted wide media coverage, prompted the Ministry of Health to prohibit female circumcision, declaring that they are "100 percent against the law and that doctors who perform them will face criminal charges. The tragic incident has further driven Egypt's First Lady Suzanne Mubarak to launch a national campaign aimed at drawing more attention to female genital mutilation (FGM) and accelerating efforts to end the practice. Some argue that the public outrage the case has garnered will affect the court's decision on the doctor's fate, but others disagree. "I do not think that the doctor will get an unfair trial just because the case is a public opinion case, Hafez Abou Saeda, secretary general of Egyptian Organization for Human Rights told Daily News Egypt, adding that the doctor is guilty nonetheless and should be punished. "The Ministry of Health has since 1996 banned any doctor from performing circumcision operations, Abou Saeda added. Abou Saeda also said that other doctors should learn from this doctor's mistake and "never commit such a savage act again. In a previous interview, Egypt's Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa told Daily News Egypt that "FGM was allowed in the old ages. At the time, science did not clarify its benefits or its harmful effects. Times have changed. The implications of FGM have proven to be harmful. "I am referring to [negative physical and psychological effects], not the recent cases of girls dying after the surgery - this is malpractice and it can happen to boys too. That is why FGM became haram, although it was halal in the past. Both fatwas are correct. When El Imam El Shafie decreed that female circumcision is halal, he was correct. When I say that FGM is now haram, I am also correct. Why? The facts have changed. Women now have to deal with a lot of stress because they go to work; they lead tougher lives so they should not be circumcised, Gomaa said. "Sheikh Shaltout said we have to discuss FGM and the debate started in 1951. Science and religious scholars have since proven that FGM is disastrous, and banning it became even more logical in the 1970s and 1990s. That is the information I base my fatwa on and I am urging all sheikhs and muftis to take the current facts into consideration when issuing fatwas, he added. However, according to UNICEF reports, Egypt has moved to the forefront among nations attempting to eradicate female circumcision. A 2003 survey by UNICEF said that 97 percent of married women in Egypt had undergone genital mutilation. But the Egypt Demographic and Health Survey has projected that the prevalence of the practice will decline from around 80 percent among girls aged 15-17 to around 60 percent for the same age group in around a decade.
