Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has approved a new law imposing longer prison sentences and harsher punishments for the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), privately-owned Al-Shorouk reported. Last month, Egypt’s cabinet of ministers and parliament had approved the law, which will see jail time for those who carry out the outlawed procedure 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 law will also 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. 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 only served a portion of his…
Egypt’s Sisi Approves Harsher Punishment, Longer Jail Time for FGM
September 29, 2016
