MINYA: Watching the long, supple fingers of Rasheeda Sharawbim gesture as she speaks, it is hard to believe they could be so brutal. "For over 25 years I circumcised all the girls in this village, including my four daughters and their children , Rasheeda says. How many did I cut? I couldn t tell you: There were too many to count . Rashida is a daya - or midwife - in Nazlet Ebeid, a village in the governorate of Minya south of Cairo that relies on a sandstone quarry for its meager income. As a young girl, Rasheeda worked for the village doctor, and from her she learned how to look after babies. Rasheeda was just 12 when one day, as she sat at home, a message reached her: A woman was in labor and the doctor could not be found. Could she help? Proud and confident of her new skills, Rasheeda, went to the woman and delivered her first child. A few months later she performed her first circumcision. Back then, she used a double-edged blade, just like the one men use to shave their beards each morning. Rashida recalls the technique she used. "While two women held the girl, I would stretch the skin with my fingers and then. - she moves the nail of her right forefinger down the side of her left finger in a quick slicing motion - "I would cut. Rashida's blade removed the clitoris and part or all of the labia minora. According to the classification of types of FGM defined by the World Health Organization, this procedure is known as Type II circumcision; according to government health figures published in 2003 (Interim Demographic Health Survey), 97 percent of Egyptian women have been circumcised in this way. To staunch the bleeding, Rasheeda would pour lemon juice on the wound or pack it with onions followed by ash from the stove. In the 1980s, she attended government medical courses, became a state-licensed midwife and learnt to use a scalpel, antiseptic power and cotton wads. Rasheeda stopped circumcising girls a few years ago when a doctor told her - wrongly - that the operation was now forbidden by law and she faced three months in prison and a LE 3000 fine. Until now, no such law exists in Egypt, only a ministerial decree that bans FGM procedures from government hospitals and health care clinics, but which is not strictly enforced. Some families still come and ask Rasheeda to circumcise their daughters - unaware perhaps that she is now a volunteer (or positive deviant ) working with the anti-FGM campaign led by a local NGO, the Better Life Association for Comprehensive Development, with the support of Unicef. Since last year, Rasheeda has been attending regular community awareness-raising sessions on FGM, designed to convince other villagers to give up the practice. Rasheeda says such sessions are starting to have an effect, because she receives fewer requests for her services as a circumciser nowadays. Attitudes in the village are changing , she says. "More and more people are now against circumcision. This article is published by Daily News Egypt with Unicef's permission.
