DPM: Female circumcision part of our culture

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail has reiterated the government’s stand on female circumcision, calling it a part of Malaysian culture.

Wan Azizah, who is women, family and community development minister, said her ministry was in discussion with the Health Ministry to look at the benefits and downsides of the practice.

She was commenting on a statement by the Malaysian delegates during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on human rights in Geneva, Switzerland, last week, in which they defended the practice of infant female circumcision as a “cultural obligation” in Malaysia.

“We are in discussions with the Health Ministry because so far, it is something that is cultural, which we had since before, and this was one of the things they (the delegates) actually said.

“But we are not the same as Africa, all mutilation (there),” she said.

“If it doesn’t give any benefits, then we should do something about it,” she said at the Parliament lobby yesterday.

On Wednesday, the National Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) had accused the government of misleading UPR about the practice of female circumcision in the country — considered female genital mutilation (FGM) worldwide.

Suhakam chairman Tan Sri Razali Ismail had said the inaccuracy in describing FGM as a Malaysian culture could damage the country’s international standing on human rights.

He had said Suhakam was disheartened with the “unconvincing and misleading” response poorly attempted by the representative of the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry in Geneva that FGM was not practised in Malaysia.

Female circumcision is considered FGM by the United Nations World Health Organisation.