Egypt has the highest number of female genital mutilation sufferers in the world.
Ninety-two per cent of married Egyptian women have experienced female genital mutilation, the country’s Minister of Health Adel Adawy has revealed.
The majority of ‘cut’ women undergo FGM between the ages of nine and 12 and less than a third of the operations were performed by doctors, according to the results of the 2014 Egypt Demographic and Health Survey.
Egyptian Streets reports that the rate of FGM amongst women aged between 15 and 49 is rural areas is as high as 95 per cent, compared to 39.2 per cent in urban cities.
The survey found around one in three married women believe FGM should be banned, which it was in Egypt in 2008.
What is female genital mutilation (FGM)?
FGM is the removal of some or all of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons. It has no benefit for girls and women. It is typically carried out with a blade or razor (with or without anaesthesia) on girls between infancy and adolescence. The practice, largely carried out in 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East, can cause severe bleeding, problems urinating, infertility and even death.
But more than half of the surveyed women favoured the practice, claiming it was in accordance with religious teachings.
Despite this widely held belief that FGM is condoned by Islam, Egypt’s top Islamic authority has condemned the “barbaric” and “un-Islamic” practice, Egyptian Streets reports.
Egypt’s Penal Code makes the circumcision of girls a criminal act, which carries a prison term ranging from three months to two years or a fine of 5,000 Egyptian pounds.
In January, a doctor was tried on FGM charges after 13-year-old Sohair al-Bata’a died after being ‘cut’. He was sentenced to more than two years in prison and fined after being charged with both manslaughter and for performing the banned operation. The teen’s father was also jailed for three months.
A 2013 UNICEF report found 27.2 million women in Egypt had undergone FGM – the world’s highest total number of FGM sufferers.
Egypt, Somalia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Djibouti have the highest rates of FGM, according to the World Health Organization.
If you want to read more about this disturbing practice:
Teenage girls are dying like this every day. Now finally, we have a conviction.
This horrifying ordeal is the norm for millions of young girls. It shouldn’t be.
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Top Comments
What's disturbing is that FGM is also happening in Australia. No FGM Australia estimates that over 80,000 women and girls in Australia have had or are at high risk of having FGM performed on them. Around 3 girls a day are born at extremely high risk of this brutal act in Australia. It's child abuse, sexual abuse, an abuse of human rights and illegal in every state in Australia.