http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/humanrightsun/2008/12/2008121491241799575.html
Friday, December 19, 2008
12:27 Mecca time, 09:27 GMT
Activists fight female circumcision
By Jasmin Bauomy in Cairo
The Egyptian government says that circumcising young girls is
illegal and inhumane [Bauomy]
Amal Mahmoud, 44, cringed as she recalled the ceremony which took place
after her circumcision in a small town south of Cairo 32 years ago.
"The whole family was gathered in celebration. Everybody was eating and
the children were dancing to Egyptian music on full volume," Mahmoud told Al
Jazeera.
"Suddenly, the wound [from the operation] tore open, and blood stains
spread all over my white dress."
She tried to dance in step with her cousins but the pain was unbearable.
"I was 12 and in deep pain ... I collapsed."
Her circumcision had gone horribly wrong; instead of a clean, straight
cut, the barber miscalculated and sliced off her clitoris with a shaky hand,
causing the wound to break open constantly.
Condemned cultural ritual
Mahmoud is one of many Egyptian women who have undergone circumcision or
female genital mutilation (FGM).
A common cultural ritual that some believe pre-dates Islam, it has been
condemned by the Egyptian authorities but remains widely practised.
Muslim as well as Christian women are circumcised in Egypt but the
rituals vary in each community. The most popular ritual is meant to ensure
fertility after the girl gets married.
"When a girl gets circumcised they take the clitoris, powder it with
sugar and attach it to the upper arm with a thread," says Mahmoud.
"They say the girl has to be 'sweet' when she gets married. In our
culture that means the girl will be able to have a lot of children."
Most families wait until the summer to have their daughters circumcised
so that the girls have ample time to heal before school starts in the fall.
After having the clitoris tied to the arm for a week, the family performs
another ritual by throwing the dried remnants into the Nile.
Not religious
Amel Fahmy, the technical officer at the World Health Organisation (WHO)
department of reproductive health and research and an expert on FGM at the UN
Population Fund (UNFPA), said: "The procedure isn't confined to religious
boundaries but has deeper cultural roots."
Fahmy says many Egyptians believe that in addition to the perceived
hygienic benefits, a circumcised genital area is more aesthetically pleasing
and contributes to the overall beauty of the woman.
It also is a rite of passage for young girls into womanhood.
"These rituals are hard to track back and they are definitely not
Islamic, but there are also no records of similar ancient Egyptian rituals. I
think, somehow through time, they just manifested in the Egyptian culture.
Nowhere else that I know of, where FGM is practiced, do they perform these
rituals," Fahmy said.
Awareness campaigns
According to the UN, Egypt, Guinea and Mali are ranked as having the
highest FGM prevalence rates in Africa.
A 1996 demographic and health survey showed that 97 per cent of Egyptian
women between the ages of 15 and 49 have been circumcised.
According to 2005 data published by the WHO, some 94 per cent of married
Egyptian women were found to have been circumcised between the ages of 9 and 18.
In the past decade, the Egyptian government, in collaboration with the UN
Development Programme (UNDP), and the National Council for Childhood and
Motherhood (NCCM), has mounted successive - and aggressive - campaigns to raise
awareness of the inhumane and illicit practice.
A ministerial decree condemned the practise in September 2007 and there
are efforts under way to sentence to jail those who perform the dangerous
operations.
Street barbers
The three types of FGM
According to the WHO, there are three main types of FGM:
- Removal of the clitoral hood only (most common in Egypt)
- Removal of the clitoris and the labia minora (inner vaginal lips)
- Removal of all of the woman's external genitalia and the
narrowing of the vaginal entrance
Until recently, FGM was mainly performed by local street barbers, using
unhygienic razor blades that could result in infections.
In September 1994, CNN aired footage of a FGM operation as world leaders
gathered for a UN conference on population and development in Cairo.
The Egyptian government was pushed into action and in 1996, the ministry
of health and population banned FGM in state hospitals.
However, resistance has emerged in the most unlikely of quarters; one of
the biggest obstacles facing human rights advocates is the widespread
acceptance of the procedure by the medical community.
In 1996, a group of Egyptian doctors challenged the ban saying that
female genital circumcision was entrenched in Islamic life and teaching.
When several girls bled to death after being circumcised by street
barbers, many families resorted to doctors who could charge as little as 150
Egyptian pounds ($27) in poorer areas and up to 1,500 ($270) in middle and
upper class residential areas of Cairo.
Fahmy says, "The medicalisation of the procedure has almost legitimised
it even more. This has to stop."
In November 2006, a conference of scholars from the Muslim world ruled by
overwhelming majority that FGM was contrary to the teachings of Islam and
should be stopped immediately.
It was not until June 2007 when an 11-year-old girl died while a doctor
performed the procedure that the government universally banned the practice.
Sanctioned by religion?
However, Fahmy concedes that eradicating FGM entirely has been hindered
by the common arguments tying the bloody practice to Islam.
Others claim that FGM is a remnant of ancient Egyptian rituals, though
there has been no historical evidence supporting such a theory.
Ali Gomaa, the grand mufti of Al Azhar University, the highest body of
jurisprudence in Sunni Islam, issued a fatwa - or religious edict - in late
2007, clearly denouncing FGM.
He emphasised that FGM is a sin and forbidden in Islam.
However, that has failed to stop many from continuing the practice.
A beautiful cut?
Mahmoud and Ibrahim travel to rural areas to educate girls about
FGM [Bauomy]
Mahmoud now uses her experiences to educate young women in Egypt's rural
areas about the illegality and adverse effects of FGM.
Despite the ordeal she says she has been through, Mahmoud remains
boisterous and energetic, telling jokes and teasing her friends.
"This is the only way I can deal with what has happened to me. I have to
laugh about life. Otherwise I would cry all the time," she said.
"And to be quite honest some of the things I went through seem funny in
retrospect."
She and Fatma Ibrahim, who was circumcised when she was 10, are part of a
team that regularly visits schools and colleges educating young women about FGM.
However, they realised early on that it is important to educate
adolescent men about the procedure and its consequences as well.
"The only way we can get the support from boys and men is by playing on
their selfishness," said Mahmoud.
"When we go to youth centres around Egypt, we make clear to the boys that
a circumcised woman will at the end of the day be worse in bed. We tell them
men will have less pleasure if she is circumcised and that it is much more fun
for him if she isn't."
"If we tell them that it is only bad for the woman. They wouldn't care,"
she told Al Jazeera.
Intolerable crimes
In 2008, the NCCM launched large billboard campaigns on main highways and
thoroughfares, bought television commercials to target a broad audience, and
set up a national hotline as part of its media drive hoping to change
perceptions.
Their message is that FGM will no longer be tolerated by the authorities.
Ibrahim says people frequently call the hotline with questions about the
safety and appropriateness of FGM. She says many are confused and some parents
are seeking help for their daughters.
The UNDP has been assisting the NCCM in holding lectures in elementary
and high schools and has launched the Free Village Model whereby 120 villages
throughout Upper and Lower Egypt promise to actively tackle FGM after
participating in workshops and attending lectures.
According to a study by the Egyptian Demographic and Health survey (EDHS)
in 2005, the prevalence of FGM among girls aged 11 to 17 dropped to 66 per
cent, indicating a trend change over the time of a generation.
However, Ibrahim and Mahmoud say this is not good enough.
"Our dream is that there would be no more FGM at all."
For Al Jazeera's coverage on the 60th Anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, click here.
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