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> From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tue Aug 15 04:32:00 1995
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> Date: Tue, 15 Aug 1995 07:21:28 -0400
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> From: PNEWS <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: EGYPT: GENITAL MUTILATION
>
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> /* Written by wfs in igc:wfs.stories */
> /* ---------- "EGYPT: GENITAL MUTILATION, GOVERNME" ---------- */
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> TITLE: EGYPT: GENITAL MUTILATION, GOVERNMENT STYLE
> By Preeti Singh
>
> Cairo, May 19 (WFS) -- The camera hovered over the agonized face of
> a girl. It was last September, during the United Nations
> International Conference on Population and Development, and Cable
> News Network was broadcasting the evening news. The girl on screen
> was 10 years old. A Cairo barber was "circumcising" her.
>
> The image didn't look good for a country whose minister of
> population, Maher Mahran, had just vowed at the conference to
> outlaw the traditional practice of female genital mutilation.
>
> Although there are no official statistics, the Egyptian Non-
> Governmental Society estimates nearly 92 percent of Egyptian women
> are subject to the procedure.
>
> Female genital mutilation can range from clipping the tip of
> the clitoris to infibulation, in which the outer parts of the
> genitals are removed. Usually the event is celebrated with gifts of
> money and new clothes. But many girls become ill with infections
> following the operation and some die from blood loss or
> complications.
>
> Responding to the newly critical light cast on the painful and
> dangerous practice, the minister of health, Ali Abdel-Fatah,
> declared his ministry's commitment to a first-ever, nationwide
> conference on the issue. The ministry also formed the Higher
> Committee for Combating Female Circumcision, chaired by Abdel-Fatah
> himself.
>
> It includes Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, the Grand Mufti of
> Egypt, and representatives of various ministries.
>
> What has the committee done? In February, it decided to allow
> female genital mutilation to be performed one day a week in
> government hospitals, thereby improving standards of hygiene.
>
> A loud outcry from feminists and human rights activists has
> ensued. Some have taken the matter to court, where suits against
> the government and the Islamic clergy are pending.
>
> Abdel-Fatah claims that outlawing the practice would drive it
> dangerously underground. In his view, no law can root out the
> practice effectively unless it is accompanied by a determined,
> widespread public awareness campaign.
>
> The government has no plans for a separate education program.
> Abdel-Fatah claims that counselling parents when they take their
> daughter to the hospital will be enough.
>
> On the other side, a report issued recently by the Egyptian
> Organization of Human Rights stated that the decree is "likely to
> perpetuate the practice, rather than end it."
>
> Aziza Hussein, a pioneer in the campaign against female genital
> mutilation, says, "At a time when we are talking intensively about
> this unhealthy practice and attempting to prohibit it completely,
> the health minister's decision has taken us back at least 50
> years."
>
> According to Farida Al-Nagash, founding member of the
> Progressive Union of Women, and a former parliamentarian, the
> decree seems part of "the entire government's trend to court
> religious fundamentalists."
>
> Abdel-Fatah, while claiming the decree has nothing to do with
> religion, has also said that he has no desire to antagonize the
> people. He has urged enlightened preachers to explain that there is
> no definite proof that Islam demands female circumcision.
>
> For many Egyptians, the surgical alteration of female genitalia
> is seen as a rite of passage, signalling a girl's maturity. No
> shame is associated with the practice, and parents do not view
> themselves as harming their girl children.
>
> Karima Mustapha, a servant who works in Cairo, says if she had
> a daughter, she would not hesitate to have her undergo the
> procedure. "It is a tradition," she says. "This is life for a
> woman."
>
> Although many women recover from the operation, and some claim
> they lead healthy sex lives afterward, a significant number suffer
> physically and mentally.
>
> Their ailments include various recurring infections, potential
> infertility, and a myriad of psychological side effects such as
> fear of marriage, sex and child birth.
>
> For some, the operation is fatal. Last year, 14-year-old Amira
> from the small village of Kafr Al-Tawila, east of the Nile delta,
> was taken by her parents to a licensed pediatrician who sliced off
> her clitoris and labia minora. She died a few days later.
>
> Discussions of genital mutilation have generally been avoided
> by the media and the government, partly because the ancient
> practice has had the tacit blessings of many conservative Muslim
> religious leaders.
>
> Talking about it stirs up a wide range of thorny theological
> and cultural issues, from sources as diverse as Egypt's outspoken
> feminist community and conservative mullahs.
>
> Although Sheikh Tantawi has dissociated Islam from the
> practice, other religious leaders have insisted that the practice
> was recommended by the Prophet Mohamed.
>
> In April, nine members of the Egyptian Organization for Human
> Rights sued Sheikh Gad Al Haq, the head of Al-Azhar, one of the
> Muslim world's most prestigious Islamic institutions, for
> advocating female genital mutilation. The sheikh has not responded
> publicly on the case.
>
> About 15 feminists and NGO representatives have also sued the
> health minister for reversing what they say has been a long-
> standing ban on the operation.
>
> They claim the decree is not only morally wrong, but also
> illegal. It follows a 1959 law that banned the practice in
> government hospitals and clinics. Lawyer Amira Baheyeddin, who is
> handling the case, vows to have the new law "rescinded."
>
> The court has already twice refused the plaintiff's request to
> suspend the implementation of the decree, and has referred the
> issue to the State Judiciary Commission for a legal opinion. They
> have not yet delivered a ruling.
>
> Baheyeddin fears that weeks, even months, could pass before a
> decision is reached, but claims that she will pursue the matter to
> the end.
>
> Ordinary Egyptian citizens often take a more moderate
> perspective on the issue. Nur El-Messiri, a professor at the
> American University in Cairo, says she thinks female circumcision
> is "a barbaric practice." She has not been circumcised herself, and
> claims the practice is prevalent mostly among rural and lower-class
> urban populations.
>
> But she also says, "It is such an explosive issue, that a lot
> depends upon who is citing statistics. They can be inflated by
> those in the women's development industry or by those who are
> defensive about Egyptian culture."
>
> Meanwhile, Abdel-Fatah insists that the government's decision
> is the only way to prevent exposing girls to additional health
> dangers.
>
> The decree proclaims that all non-licensed persons performing
> the operation will be arrested and their places of business shut
> down.
>
> Parents arriving in government hospitals with their daughters
> will be met by a gynecologist, pediatrician, psychologist and
> social worker to talk to them about the long-term unfavorable
> effects of the operation. The operation will be performed only when
> parents remain adamant.
>
> Then too, it might be a very limited version in which only a
> tiny bit of the skin of a girl's clitoris would be removed and
> passed off as the whole operation.
>
> According to Abdel-Fatah, this experiment has worked
> successfully in some villages in Gharbiya province. Some parents
> even change their minds about circumcising their daughters after
> hearing what the doctors had to say.
>
> Abdel-Fatah's opponents, however, are not convinced. Population
> minister Maher Mahran says that while it is right to close down
> shops where the operations are carried out, it is wrong to allow it
> in hospitals. "It is if we are encouraging it officially," he says.
>
> Concerned NGOs are in the midst of a loud public awareness
> campaign arguing that the health minister's decree violates the
> provisions of the many international treaties Egypt has signed,
> including the Declaration for the Elimination of Torture, and the
> Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
> Against Women.
>
> Meanwhile, none of the major state hospitals in Cairo has fixed
> a day for circumcisions. Abdel-Fatah's decree could well prove to
> be widely unpopular with the gynecologists and obstetricians of the
> metropolis.
>
> Violence against women, including the practice of genital
> mutilation, will be a major issue on the agenda of the U.N. Fourth
> World Conference on Women next September in Beijing. (Ends/1200
> words)
>
>
>
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>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mon Aug 21 17:30:35 1995
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Mon, 21 Aug 1995 19:36:48 -0500 (EST)
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Date: Mon, 21 Aug 1995 19:25:52 -0500 (EST)
From: "Al Rushanan TAL (904)487-1855" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Beijing Conference
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Posting-date: Mon, 21 Aug 1995 19:36:00 -0500 (EST)
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Hop-count: 2
Interesting sound bites on the news tonight - Republican Senators
saying it would be wrong for Hillery Clinton to go to the Beijing
Conference on Women because of China's human rights violations.
These were the same guys who refused to pull China's MFN (Most
Favored Nation) economic status when human rights issues were
brought up. Hmmmm.
Any opinions on this, anybody? Any bearing on ecofeminism?
Al
