The National Population Council (NPC) received a notice from the Attorney General on Tuesday about the case of 13-year-old Suhair al-Bata’a, who died after being circumcised last June in the Dakahlia governorate, Youm7 reported.
Raslan Fadl, 57, the doctor who performed the surgery, and Mohamed Ibrahim al-Bata’a, the girl’s father, were accused of unintentional murder and were transferred to criminal court.
The case has again raised the issue of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) in Egypt.
The prevalence of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) is 91 percent among women in rural areas of Egypt, while 85 percent of women living in urban areas have undergone FGM/C, according to a report of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
UNICEF stated that the average age of the women surveyed ranged between 15 to 49-years-old. It said the absence of decisive criminal penalties justifies the high rates of female genital mutilation in Egypt, even though many girls have died because of the surgery.
The NPC issued a statement on Feb. 13 highlighting the fact that the new constitution of 2014 incorporates for the first time two articles condemning violence against women and children.
Article 80 of the new constitution states that the state is to provide children care and protection from all forms of violence, abuse, ill treatment and sexual and commercial exploitation. Article 11 states that the state is committed to protecting women against all forms of violence and to ensure the empowerment of women to reconcile family duties and work requirements.
The NPC statement said that the prevalence of FGM/C in Egypt is more than 90 percent among every married woman between the ages of 15 to 49-years-old, although the phenomenon is declining, with the number for girls between 10 to 18-years-old down to 50.3 percent.
The Egyptian government criminalized FGM/C in 2008, after a widely publicized case of a young girl who died after being circumcised in 2007. But some Salafi groups objected to the law and argued for the right to female circumcision for religious and cultural reasons. They demanded abolishing the law in 2012 after the rise of political Islam in Egypt, CNN reported.
Article 242 of the Penal Code reads that anyone who performs female genital mutilation/cutting “shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than three months and not exceeding two years or a fine of not less than 5,000 EGP.”
The Islamic educational institute Dar Al-Iftaa emphasized recently its previous fatwa (opinion) that was issued in 2006 denouncing female genital mutilation/cutting, explaining that it was proven scientifically to harm health, and must be prevented religiously.
The National Council for Women (NCW) praised the stance of Dar Al-Iftaa toward FGM/C during a conference held at the NPC on June 25 to celebrate the International Day Against Female Genital Mutilation.
Mervat al-Talawy, the head of the NCW, said in a statement that Dar Al-Iftaa’s fatwa came as a response to movements that claim that FGM/C is acceptable in Islam.
The NPC has launched a FGM/C abandonment program to eliminate the practice FGM/C in five years in coordination with the Egyptian government, according to a NPC statement.
Additional reporting by Dana al-Hadedy.