Voice of America
14 Feb 2020, 01:05 GMT+10
CAIRO - After the death of a young girl in upper Egypt during a botched circumcision, women and doctors in Cairo launched a number of protests in recent days to decry the practice, which has been officially outlawed since 2008. Government officials say, however, that they can only step in when someone formally launches a complaint.
A crowd of mostly women took to the streets of Cairo to protest the enduring but now illegal practice of female circumcision. Egypt has the largest percentage of circumcised women of any country in the world.
The protests began after 12-year-old Nada Hassan Abdel Maqsoud died from a botched circumcision in the Upper Egypt town of Assyout. Both the girl's father and uncle were arrested and held for questioning for four days, along with the retired doctor who performed the procedure.
Since 2003, at least six Egyptian young women have died as a result of being circumcised.
Writer and sociologist Nawal Sadawi decried the practice at a recent women's forum.
She said that circumcising women is ghastly, both medically, socially and psychologically. It is deceitful, she said, to cut off a part of a girl's body on the pretext of morality. Even in Saudi Arabia, which is the center of Islam, she stressed, they do not do such things.
Dr. George Nashed, who heads the good practices committee of the Egyptian Doctors' Syndicate, told Egyptian media that female circumcision continues, despite having been outlawed in 2008.
He said that Egyptian law now bans the procedure, but it remains a customary practice, even if it is not based in religion. He said the practice is less common in Cairo, but widespread in the provinces and villages.
One middle-aged woman in Sharqiya province, north of Cairo, however, said Islam calls for the procedure, but gave no evidence to support the claim.
She said that grandmothers and mothers and all of women have been circumcised and that's the custom. Her husband adds that all four of his daughters have been circumcised, because - in his words - "it's the right thing to do."
Hatem el Gamasy, who wrote a book on female genital mutilation, says that religious hardliners in parliament even tried to tried to annul the law banning female circumcision when the Muslim Brotherhood was in power from 2012 to 2013.
More than 87% of Egyptian women from ages 15 to 49 are circumcised. The figure is almost as high in Sudan. By contrast, only 18.5% of Yemeni women and just 7.4% of Iraqi women are circumcised.
A group of women doctors, including Dr. Souhair, spent a day in a Cairo metro station to educate passersby about the ills of female circumcision.
She said that a woman who has been circumcised will suffer a chronic deficiency in her intimate relations.
Get a daily dose of Iraq Sun news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Iraq Sun.
More InformationMADRID, Spain: Liverpool footballer Diogo Jota and his younger brother, André Silva, have died in a car accident in Spain. Spanish...
LONDON, U.K.: An unrelenting heatwave sweeping across Europe has pushed early summer temperatures to historic highs, triggering deadly...
President Donald Trump's plans to build a space-based Golden Dome missile defense shield have drawn immediate criticism from China,...
NEW YORK CITY, New York: Paramount has agreed to pay US$16 million to settle a lawsuit brought by U.S. President Donald Trump over...
LONDON, U.K.: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer won a vote in Parliament this week to move ahead with changes to the country's welfare...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: President Donald Trump will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday. President...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: President Donald Trump will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday. President...
GENEVA, Switzerland: A new United Nations report alleges that dozens of global corporations are profiting from and helping sustain...
LONDON, UK - Lawmakers in the United Kingdom have voted overwhelmingly to proscribe the direct-action group Palestine Action as a terrorist...
Raipur (Chhattisgarh) [India], July 5 (ANI): BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi on Saturday slammed Congress MP Rahul Gandhi over his remarks...
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, 5th July, 2025 (WAM) - The United Arab Emirates, represented by Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of...
BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhua) -- No dull rows of chairs and tables, no endless slides of charts and numbers -- instead, a gleaming statue...