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.
Comments (351)
Don’t turn your right to dissent over to terrorists, extremists, traitors, communists and democrats.
Ask your representatives:
What are their views on Sharia Law?
What do they think about the following statements:
The West Will Tolerate Itself To Death.
Why Do We Tolerate Violence Against Women?
What are their plans to halt violence against women around world including:
1) Female genital mutilation
2) Punishing rape victims
3) Honor killing
4) Strapping bombs to children
5) Sexually enslaving women
6) Murdering homosexuals
7) Child marriage
8) Domestic Violence
9) Disciplining or Punishing Wives
So what you’re saying is that we should go around and police the world, take over all the countries, and force them to conform to our standards? Isn’t the same ideology the fanatical Muslims are espousing? How many people do you propose we send to their deaths to accomplish this? If it’s done, it’ll have to be done by force. How many children do you want to grow up to be fatherless? Maybe you should work on the same issues in your own country first. Sexually enslaving women happens, as does murdering gays, domestic violence, punishing wives, child abuse, punishing rape victims, etc. The US is far from a utopia. Fix your own issues before complaining about those of others.
Really?? Your standing up for people who mutilate woman against there will? The article says that even Egyptians think the practice is barbaric and is outlawed there. The article is telling you what’s going on its not being biased one way or another.
No. I disagree with his statements. FGM is wrong. Period. However it’s not up to us to force our way in and try to change things. Or we’ll end up with Iraq all over again. And IS. And all of the fun we’re having over there now. They need to fix their own issues. The most telling thing is s/he lumps democrats in with terrorists and traitors.
if we can use our influence to help other cultures we should absolutely do so. Don’t need troops on the ground to have an impact on other cultures.
I think he means the change needs to come from that culture, if another country outside that culture force them to stop they won’t learn and move forward on there own, so it wont last. It needs to come from their cultures will to move forward not an ultimatum from foreigners.
We mutilate men against their will. I bet you stand up for that.
When it proves to be a health risk,sure. I’d rather not have my baby die of a possible infection brought on by a uncircumcised foreskin. Link me a page that refutes any type of infection that cant happen,brad.
100% of jewish boys undergo genital mutilation. that makes jews 8% more evil than muslims.
100% of Muslim boys undergo the same mutilation
Yeah, they’e both evil religions.
That’s a really dumb comment, and wrong on multiple levels. Also, this appears to be an Egyptian publication, so it really makes no sense to bring Jews into this discussion other than just trying to crowbar your views into a discussion that doesn’t warrant them. Stop making everything black and white, Muslim vs Jew, your rhetoric is ill informed and useless.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/29/why-ultra-orthodox-jewish-babies-keep-getting-herpes.html Just saying.
Just saying what? That a very small minority of super Orthodox Jews practice this gross tradition? You’re not saying anything really, nothing pertinent to this discussion anyhow.
The cutting causes more damage than the sucking.
I’d rather have my foreskin back if it meant some gross man sucking it briefly than not have my foreskin if it meant the sick man never did that.