Monday, May 11, 2015
92% of Married Women in Egypt Have Undergone Female Genital Mutilation
Egypt’s Minister of Health Adel Adawy
announced on Sunday that 92 percent of married Egyptian women have
experienced female genital mutilation.
The latest results were announced at a
conference held to reveal the results of the 2014 Egypt Demographic and
Health Survey (EDHS).
According to the Minister, 92 percent of
women aged between 15 and 49 who are or have been married suffer from
genital mutilation.
The majority of females undergo genital
mutilation between the ages of nine and 12, with only 31 percent of the
operations run by doctors, said the Minister of Health.
The Minister of Health added that FGM in rural areas is as high as 95 percent, compared to up to 39.2 percent in urban cities.
The 2014 EDHS further found that more
than 50 percent of married women in Egypt favor female genital
mutilation and is in accordance with religious teachings, while 30
percent believe it should be banned. FGM is normally carried out by
traditional midwives and ‘health barbers’.
Despite a large number of women surveyed
believing that FGM is condoned by Islam, Egypt’s top Islamic authority
has condemned the act as ‘un-Islamic’ and ‘barbaric’.
Moreover, Egypt banned female genital
mutilation in 2008. Article 242 of Egypt’s Penal Code criminalizes the
circumcision of girls The punishment for performing FGM is a prison
sentence ranging from three months to two years or a fine of 5,000
Egyptian pounds.
In January 2015, an Egyptian court imprisoned the first doctor ever brought to trial in Egypt on FGM charges that resulted in the death of 13-year-old Sohair al-Bata’a.
The doctor was sentenced to two years in
prison with hard labour for manslaughter and three months for
performing the banned practice. The doctor also received a fine of EGP
500 ($US 68).
The father of Sohair was also sentenced to three months in prison for FGM.
According to the World Health
Organization, Egypt, Somalia, Guinea, Djibouti and Sierra Leone have the
highest rates of FGM. A 2013 UNICEF report found that Egypt has the
world’s highest total number of FGM sufferers, with 27.2 million women
having undergone FGM.
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