Originally published 2021-02-13.
In early February 2021, police in Egypt arrested a father and a retired nurse after a 15-year-old girl was rushed to hospital with heavy bleeding following female genital mutilation (FGM). The case moved unusually fast: a doctor reported it to the public prosecutor, and the arrests followed the next day, on Tuesday 2 February.
Campaigners welcomed the speed of the response, and within weeks Egypt’s parliament was debating much tougher penalties. The case is a useful window into a practice that remains widespread in Egypt despite being banned since 2008, and into what is being done to end it.
What happened in the February 2021 case
According to Sabry Osman, who heads a child protection helpline run by the state National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, the procedure was carried out at the girl’s home. When she began bleeding severely, her father took her to a nearby hospital. A doctor at a hospital about 35 km northeast of Cairo then alerted prosecutors.
Osman told reporters that his team followed the girl’s case until she was discharged and returned home, and that she was being offered psychological support. Her name has not been published, which is right: she is a child and a victim, and the focus belongs on the adults accused.
Brendan Wynne of the Five Foundation, a global campaign against FGM, contrasted the case with a death in 2013, when police were slow to act. He called the quick arrests “a hopeful sign that the authorities are now taking this much more seriously.”
What FGM is and why it causes harm
The World Health Organization defines FGM as any procedure that partly or fully removes the external female genitalia, or otherwise injures them, for non-medical reasons. It has no health benefits. It is mostly carried out on girls between infancy and age 15.
The immediate dangers include severe pain, heavy bleeding, infection and, in some cases, death. Longer-term harms can include urinary and menstrual problems, pain during sex, complications in childbirth, risks to newborns, and lasting psychological trauma. WHO recognises FGM as a violation of the human rights of girls and women.
Anyone affected by FGM, or worried about a girl at risk, can seek confidential help. For medical concerns, talk to a doctor; many countries also have specialist clinics and helplines.
How common FGM is in Egypt
Egypt has one of the highest numbers of affected women in the world. UNICEF figures show that about 87 percent of Egyptian women and girls aged 15 to 49 have undergone FGM, and a 2016 UN-backed survey put the figure at nearly 90 percent. These surveys cover women and girls aged 15 to 49, not girls alone, so the figures describe several generations at once.
The practice is found among both Muslim and Christian families and is often presented as a matter of tradition, cleanliness or marriage prospects, although religious authorities in Egypt, including Al-Azhar, have spoken against it. There is some good news in the data: FGM is less common among younger generations than among their mothers and grandmothers.
A particular concern in Egypt is medicalisation. Many procedures are performed by doctors or nurses, sometimes in clinics, in the mistaken belief that this makes them safe. WHO strongly urges health workers never to perform FGM, because it causes harm whoever does it.
How the law has changed
Egypt’s parliament criminalised FGM in 2008, but enforcement was weak. In 2016 the law was amended to make performing or requesting FGM a felony, with a maximum sentence of seven years.
The 2013 case Wynne referred to was that of Soheir al-Batea, a 13-year-old who died after the procedure. The doctor involved became the first in Egypt to be tried for FGM. He was initially acquitted in November 2014, then convicted of manslaughter after prosecutors appealed, while the girl’s father received a suspended sentence.
Shortly before the 2021 arrests, Egypt’s cabinet had approved a draft law to raise penalties sharply. In April 2021 parliament approved the amendments. They set prison terms of five to 20 years, depending on who performed the procedure and whether it caused permanent damage or death. Medical workers involved can be barred from practice for up to five years, and the person who requested the procedure, usually a close relative, can also be jailed.
Maya Morsi, head of Egypt’s National Council for Women, urged lawmakers to pass the bill quickly. “I do not understand the insistence of some families to carry out this crime against their children,” she said, adding that it often leads to death.
Why tougher laws are not enough on their own
Activists in Egypt broadly supported the new penalties, but many warned that prison terms will not end FGM if prosecutions remain rare. Rights groups point out that procedures still take place in clinics and homes, that perpetrators are seldom held to account in rural areas, and that some people, including some doctors and judges, do not see FGM as a crime.
Reda Eldanbouki, executive director of the Women’s Center for Guidance and Legal Awareness, argued that awareness campaigns are needed alongside the law, including messages delivered through mosques and churches. Community-led programmes, where families publicly commit not to cut their daughters, have helped reduce rates in several countries.
The global picture
FGM is not an Egyptian problem alone. WHO estimates that more than 230 million girls and women alive today have undergone FGM in about 30 countries across Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and more than four million girls are at risk each year. Treating its complications costs health systems an estimated US$1.4 billion a year.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals include a target, number 5.3, to eliminate harmful practices such as FGM and child marriage by 2030. Most of the 28 African countries where FGM is common have now banned it, but as Egypt’s experience shows, the hard part is turning a ban into real protection for girls like the 15-year-old at the centre of this case.
Sources: Original reporting by Global Citizen, 3 February 2021; Al Arabiya, 27 April 2021; World Health Organization: Female genital mutilation fact sheet; Wikipedia: Female genital mutilation in Egypt; United Nations: Sustainable Development Goal 5.
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