CAIRO: The National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) filed a complaint to the Prosecutor General demanding an investigation into the case of a young girl left struggling for her life in a Fayoum hospital after being circumcised. The girl, who's name was withheld, was rushed to a hospital, bleeding excessively, the local press reported. Hussien Abou Taleb, health ministry deputy in Fayoum, told the press that the necessary legal procedures will be taken against the doctor. In the summer of 2008, the People s Assembly passed a law criminalizing female genital mutilation (FGM) and stipulating a fine of LE 1,000 to LE 5,000 and a prison sentence ranging from three month to two years for anyone caught performing FGM. Despite decades of debate over how to deal with FGM, legal steps were to prevent it were only taken when 11-year-old Bodour Shaker died in 2007 in a private clinic in Minya, because of an anesthesia overdose during an FGM operation. The doctor responsible was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter. A 2005 report by UNICEF contended that 97 percent of single Egyptian women between 15 and 49 have undergone some form of FGM.
