Egypt urged to end silence over FGM

LONDON: Silence around female genital mutilation (FGM) in Egypt is costing lives, campaigners warned on Tuesday ahead of the traditional “cutting season” when thousands of girls are expected to undergo the ancient ritual.

They called for better sex education in schools and urged clerics to talk about FGM at Friday prayers.

National data suggests almost 90 percent of girls and women in Egypt have undergone FGM, which involves the partial or total removal of the external genitalia.

Egypt banned the practice in 2008, but it remains widespread with around three-quarters of procedures carried out by health professionals, a report by anti-FGM group 28 Too Many said on Tuesday.

There has been mounting concern following the deaths of several girls during botched procedures, including a teenager who bled to death in a hospital last May.

“The silence around the harmful practice ... has cost too many Egyptian girls their lives,” said Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy, a leading voice on women’s rights in the Arab world.

Egypt, which has the highest number of women affected by FGM in the world, strengthened its law last year, but 28 Too Many said convictions were rare and sentences light. It called for law enforcement officers and community leaders to be especially vigilant during the cutting season which peaks in May and June.

Campaigners said a lack of sex education and information about FGM were preventing its eradication. The report said FGM in Egypt was often carried out in the name of religion and perpetuated by a “pervasive idea that women are ‘oversexed’.”