Egypt Steps up Battle Against Old Barbarity
Circumcision, as supporters call it, or female genital mutilation, as opponents refer to it, was suddenly a ferocious focus of debate in Egypt this summer. A national campaign to stop the practice has become one of the most powerful social movements in Egypt in decades, uniting an unlikely alliance of government forces, official religious leaders and street-level activists.
Though the Health Ministry ordered an end to the practice in 1996, it allowed exceptions in cases of emergency, a loophole critics describe as so wide that in effect it rendered the ban meaningless. But now the Government is trying to force a comprehensive ban. In fact, Egypt’s state appointed Grand Mufti, the government’s official arbiter of Islamic law, decreed that Islam forbade female genital mutilation, in his strongest statement yet against the practice.
As recently as 2005, a government survey showed 96% of the thousands of married, divorced or widowed women interviewed said they had undergone the procedure – a figure that astounds even many Egyptians. In the words of the survey, “The practice of female circumcision is virtually universal among women of reproductive age in Egypt”.
The practice has devastating effects on the female genital function and to put it lightly, only some of the side effects include haemorrhage, shock and sexual dysfunction. This procedure has resulted in death. Some women believe that this ‘procedure’ is needed to protect the chastity of women and thus, to uphold a certain standard of morality in Egypt. Others observe that the practice is necessary because it is culturally required. For others, there is a harsh degree of peer pressure to submit to this practice.
However, it is no longer considered taboo to discuss it in public. There is a small but growing acceptance of talking about human sexuality on television and radio. For the first time, opponents of genital cutting said, television news programs and newspapers have aggressively reported details of botched operations. This summer two young girls died and it was front-page news in Al Masry al Yom, an independent and popular daily. Activists highlighted the deaths with public demonstrations, which generated even more coverage.
Although there has been a general drop in the number of procedures being done, the challenge rests in persuading people that their grandparents, parents and they themselves have harmed their daughters. Moreover, advocates must convince a sceptical public that men will marry a woman who has not undergone the procedure and that circumcision is not necessary to preserve family honour. It is a challenge to get men to give up some of their control over women.
Marie Assad (an anthropologist who has been campaigning against genital cutting since that 1950s) has enlisted the aid of Islamic scholars, health-care workers, and important women such as Suzanne Mubarak (the wife of the President, Hosni Mubarak), and Mosheira Khattab (head of a government agency that helps set national health and social policies).
Here in Australia, I have campaigned against female genital mutilation in NSW Parliament. In 2006, I have asked the Hon John Della Bosca, on behalf of the then Attorney General, the Hon Bob Debus, questions without notice in Parliament:
1. Is the Minister aware of the practice of female genital mutilation as documented by the Minority Rights Group Report No.47 entitled “Female Circumcision, Excision and Infibulation”, which compares this practice as akin to torture?
2. Is the Minister aware that reports indicate that in NSW at least 40 women are treated at Sydney’s Auburn Hospital alone every year as victims of this practice?
3. Given the number of cases in this one Sydney hospital, can the Minister indicate why prosecutions, under section 45 of the Crimes Act, have not been initiated against those involved in perpetrating this practice against women?
4. Will the Minister consider introducing legislation to compel doctors, nurses and others in positions of responsibility that discover cases of female genital mutilation to report these cases to police?
It is clear that in Egypt there is a strong uphill battle confronting the advocates of change. The battle against female genital mutilation both in Egypt and Australia continues. We are awaiting a reply from the Minister.