Female genital mutilation (FGM) has been illegal in Egypt since 2008 but the epidemic is still a must in poorer communities and the norm continues to haunt millions of schoolgirls in this part of the world. According to a UN report, of the more than 125 million girls and women alive today who have undergone the procedure, one in four live in Egypt. According to a government report released in May, 92% of married Egyptian women aged between 15 and 49 had been mutilated – 72% of them by doctors. Most females undergo the procedure aged between 9 and 12 during the summer school break so that they can recover at home. The most common FGM procedure in Egypt is Type 1, the partial or full removal of the clitoris.
The logic:
While the UN maintains FGM is a gross human rights violation, has no medical benefits, or religious grounds, and can cause lifelong physical and emotional trauma for the women, the practice remains woven into the very fabric of Egyptian society, where many see cutting as a way to “purify” a girl and make her marriage material.
Mona Mohamed, who was 10 when she was forced to get circumcised, was told by her mother that “girls at your age get ‘excited’, and this operation takes care of that”.
“People used to have a party after a girl was circumcised, they’d celebrate and exchange gifts. So for them to turn from there and say, ‘look this is a crime or this is a sin or this is not allowed by religion’ means confronting a lot of beliefs and social norms,” Jaime Nadal-Roig, the UN Population Fund representative in Cairo, told CNN.
The uphill struggle:
“The battle against female circumcision is a fight for the middle class,” said Vivian Fouad, the National Population Council official leading the government’s charge to eradicate FGM, adding, “Too many doctors are still willing to take the money from families and look the other way when it comes to the law. It’s a good income for doctors. And some doctors have social and cultural backgrounds where FGM is supported. If doctors, judges, prosecutors, and teachers are supporting FGM, how are we going to convince poorer women not to have it?”
“It gives the girl more dignity to remove it. If your nails are dirty, don’t you cut them?” one doctor in northern Egypt, Ahmed Almashady, told the Guardian.
Female circumcision has been a tradition in Egypt since the Pharonic period, and adherence to the custom remains widespread although the government has banned the practice. According to the Demographic And Health Survey 2014, slightly more than half of women believe that female circumcision is required by religion, around 6 in 10 women believed the practice should continue, and about half of women thought that men also preferred the practice continue.
The progress:
Despite the gruesome facts, there is a ray of hope. The percentage of girls aged between 15 and 17 who have undergone FGM has dropped from 74.4% in 2008 to 61% in 2014.
In January, Egyptian doctor Raslan Fadl was convicted of manslaughter and performing female genital mutilation that led to the death of 13-year-old Sohair el-Batea. He was sentenced to more than two years in prison – the first conviction of its kind since the 2008 ban went into effect. The health ministry and the UNFPA are retraining 1,000 doctors a year about the dangers of FGM.
Last week Egypt announced a plan to reduce FGM by 10-15% in the next five years. “It’s an ambitious plan, but now I think that the political atmosphere is supporting us and we can reach our goal. For years we were on (the) defense, but now we’re on the offensive,” said Fouad.
The UNFPA has hired a theater group that performs skits in the streets across the country to foster debate about the necessity of FGM. “Many of these people are shy. When we used to do seminars on FGM it was very difficult to get people to speak up and ask questions. These plays act as an icebreaker that opens up the subject like magic. And women get to see in a comedic way that FGM is ridiculous,” said UNFPA program officer Germain Haddad.
The change has also been reported in the religious sphere. Mohamed Suleiman, a leading imam, claims because the liberal-minded imams have become more vocal in their criticism of the practice, the number of imams who support FGM in his network has fallen from an overwhelming majority to a significant minority in the space of just a decade.
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Female circumcision is aloud but they do it wrong.full removal clitoris?what is that.that’s not how it’s suppose to be.
No it’s not!
It is not allowed. Not in any form. Female genitalia are to be adored, not mutilated,
and you are one more fine example of the gross ignorance of those with penises. SHAME ON YOU!
Why would any man want to make love to a woman who can’t feel or fully enjoy it ?? Unless he’s a hopeless lover of course then it would probably suit him that she can’t feel it. He may as well stick it in a keyhole for it would mean to her if she’s circumcised !!!!
Because in these countries, which are predominantly Muslim, don’t care about women… especially not them having any form of pleasure.
And (western society) supports and governments pay for male circumcision so before crying foul abroad why don’t you focus on and spew this hate propaganda towards a western social problem that is also religiously founded and now culturally accepted, preferred in many cases and defended. Change western society then critique others as right now western societies are moral and cultural hypocrites to propagate and demand banning for one gender while supporting the other gender is “ok” to suffer genital mutilation… as a newborn no less.
OK so castrate all the young men because men are the ones that can’t control their excitability once they start to hit sexual maturity because they aren’t taught to respect women and control themselves especially in certain cultures where female are considered no more than prize cattle and when men are circumsized it does NOT decrease sexual sensation but rather increases it for both male and female. Not it to mention also that proven statistically that male circumsion helps to prevent and reduce cancer in both men and women.
You have absolutely no idea. He was just stating sexism exists. although the conditions of FGM is worse both health wise and justification. Both are flawed practices.
You should do your research. The only health benefits male circumcision carries are those that if an uncircumcised male isn’t bathing and cleansing regularly, conditions common in third world countries. The cancer claims are absolutely atrocious and offensive. No factual backing at all. Even from a basic bio knowledge of the differences you can see that. Also it definitely does lessen the nerve sensitivity in men however because it’s done at birth, the difference ca usually n’t be quantified. the better feeling you are referring to is simply an aesthetic effect as most modern day women find it more attractive.
I bet you were raped. I bet you lived in a shitty neighborhood and you’re fucking stupid. I bet you fucked a guy and wanted to get out of it clean and put him in jail. Women are fucking crazy
Femcunt. Here women enjoy that release and REAL MEN enjoy GIVING AND GETTING IT. and its not SHAMEFUL AND ITS NOT DIRTY AND WE ARE NOT ASHAMED. I feel sorry for the women abused and made to be your toys without enjoyment.. poor girls, disgusting parents
I’ve been circumcised ain’t caused me no trouble in fact the girls I’ve been with who ain’t been with a guy who has had it done say it looks bigger and it’s cleaner, the PROBLEM with it being a women or girl is that all feeling is lost men don’t loose any feeling at all, I’m not Jewish back in the late 80s in Canada it was normal for a boy to have this done, I’m also Muslim and would NEVER put my daughter through that my son maybe as it is cleaner, you really have gotten the two very mixed up
Becsuse some men have to get it done for medical reasons. Most women in Africa etc get their clitoris ripped off. You guys get your foreskin clipped. There is a huge difference between what happens to you guys and what happens to women. If you think that it’s the same you need to become better educated. Because what you just said doesn’t prove a fact or arguement. It’s just plain ignorant (used in this correct grammatical term. Don’t know what that is? Then your opinion means moot).
The word is allowed, which means permitted, not aloud which refers to speaking so it is heard. In any case, women are born as God made them…with a clitoris. Who has the right to behave in such a way as to say God doesn’t know what he is doing and made a mistake making woman. What blasphemy the imams commit each time a woman is mutilated. They do not represent God, they are evil.
Let it be done to men who get too excited…just lob off the whole penis so they don’t get excited. It’s the right and fair thing to do is it not? Women, you have power Ned men like these are afraid of you so they support your mutilation. And mothers, if you do this to your daughters, you are beyond stupid and gave up your power long ago. Shame on you for your barbaric behavior which is a sin against God.
So your saying that you believe in this?
This is making me so angry. I feel so sad for those poor girls.. what world is this?
That’s fucked up.
this makes me so angry.. poor girls 🙁 what world is this?!
“If your nails are dirty, don’t you cut them” – only a complete idiot can say that, if your nails are dirty you don’t cut them you clean them! And if you cut them…they grow back, never heard that the clitoris is growing back.
Its really sad knowing that some little girl is curled up in agony somewhere, probably feeling hurt, confused, ashamed, betrayed, helpless.. and so on. Don’t even bother defending this sort of barbaric mistreatment of a young woman’s being.
I have two teenage daughters and as most you know, children have a hard enough time with the journey to adulthood. An important part which is sexual development and understanding, which effects nearly every integral part of our daily leaves. Values, interactions, feelings, behaviors, and so on. Without a healthy understanding of yourself and your body, I think its fairly safe to say that this asinine practice is proof of femininity ignorance, I would argue that you are not only not properly equipped for adulthood. But more than likely will have deep psychological issues related to sexuality and the relationship/interaction between fellow human beings.
These are the types of issues that lead to all kinds of serious social and psychological problems from lewd behavioral tendencies to violent behavioral patterns, for example rapists and killers. The need to “discover ourselves” so to speak is such an important part of maturing to adulthood, and to drastically alter, or I more accurately, vandalize a young persons body/self-image whilst offering an explanation such as, for example the above quotation, “This takes care of excited girls..” As if to say that a young female’s excitement, or arousal, isn’t normal? That YOUR feelings and emotions should be quantified and controlled by someone that ISN’T you? Like some sort of cat in heat that needs to be spayed!??