FGM down by just 1% in Egypt since 2014, new study shows

A new study has found that 86 per cent of underprivileged women aged 18-35 in Egypt have been subject to female genital mutilation.

This is only one per cent less than in 2014, when Egypt had its last National Health Survey, reports Deutsche Welle.

Fellow of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, Habiba Abdelaal, told DW she was “in shock” by “how little Egypt had changed,” particularly as it has vowed to end FGM by 2030.

Co-author of the study and Director of the Tadwein Centre, Amel Fahmy, said that there has been a decline in the number of women, but also men, who support FGM.

In 2008 Egypt outlawed the practice and then last year said it had toughened the law, promising up to 20-year jail sentences for anyone performing the surgery and a sentence for anyone requesting the FGM.

It also said that it would ban doctors and other medical staff taking part in FGM from their professions for five years.

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But women’s rights advocates have long been saying that the legislation is not enforced, and perpetrators are not held to account. This latest report proves that indeed, little has been done to stop this barbaric practice.

Critics say that the fact that authorities turn a blind eye encourages the practice to continue.

In June 2020 a father of three girls organised for his daughters to be cut but lied to them about what was happening, telling them they would be getting their coronavirus vaccination.

The same year a 12-year-old girl, Nada Abdul Maksoud, bled to death after her parents forced her to get FGM. After an international outcry authorities detained her parents, an aunt and the doctor who performed the surgery.

Women are often circumcised without anaesthetic as doctors charge extra even though the operation is very painful. Surgeons also charge high prices as FGM is illegal.

Female circumcision can cause infertility, infection, childbirth complications and problems urinating.