Egypt’s cabinet of ministers approved a draft bill to increase prison time for the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), health minister Ahmed Emad announced on Sunday. According to the new bill, jail time for those who carry out the outlawed procedure will be increased to a minimum of five years and a maximum of seven years. Previous legislation had stipulated that the punishment for performing FGM would be a prison sentence ranging from three months to two years and a fine of EGP 5,000. The new bill also seeks to punish those who submit girls for an FGM procedure, often a girl’s mother, by sentencing them to prison for no less than one year and no more than three years. The draft bill must be ratified by parliament before being incorporated into Egypt’s legislation. Last year, a doctor stood trial for involuntary manslaughter after a young girl he was conducting an FGM operation on bled out and died during the procedure. Although he was sentenced to two years in prison in what was considered a “groundbreaking” instance of practitioners of FGM being penalized, it later came to light that the doctor…
