Girl/circumcision

[pledm]

Egyptian girl dies in circumcision


CAIRO, Egypt - A 13-year-old Egyptian girl has died during a circumcision operation, two months after the death of another girl prompted health officials to ban the widespread traditional procedure, local media said Saturday.

The latest death was uncovered when Karima Rahim Massoud's father applied for a death certificate Friday, insisting his daughter had died from natural causes, the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm reported Saturday. The father has been referred to the state prosecutor.

The doctor involved also has been referred to the prosecutor and his clinic in rural Gharbiyah province has been closed down, state-owned al-Gomhoria daily reported.

The reports could not be immediately confirmed as judicial authorities were not available for comment Saturday.

In June, the death of 12-year-old Badour Shaker during a circumcision operation in the southern town of Maghagh sparked a public outcry, prompting the government to officially ban hospitals from performing female circumcisions.

The Egyptian Health Ministry said violators would be punished, but did not specify the penalty. The ban is not as enforceable as a law, which requires passage in the national legislature.

The procedure, which many refer to as female genital mutilation, usually involves the removal of the clitoris and other parts of female genitalia. Advocates say it tames a girl's sexual desire and maintains her honor. Opponents say girls can bleed to death, suffer chronic urinary infections and have life-threatening complications in childbirth as a result.

It is practiced by Muslims and Christians alike and is deeply rooted in the Nile Valley region and parts of sub-Saharan Africa, Yemen and Oman.

While top clerics insist the practice has nothing to do with Islam, parents, especially in rural villages and Cairo slums, believe they are helping their daughters by protecting their virginity before marriage.

A 2003 survey by UNICEF said that 97 percent of married women in Egypt have undergone genital mutilation. A recent study by Egypt's Ministry of Health and Population found that only half of all girls between the age of 10-18 years have been circumcised.

Its sad that this still is happening.

[Summer]

I can't believe that they still do this, when there is no medical reason for it! How horrifying! They are just torturing their women. Why can't they see that? Are they idiots?

[Bob]

In a society where no man wants to marry an uncircumcised woman it's a "must" for parents to do this to their daughters to make sure they get a husband who will care for them when the parents are no longer there. They think the alternative is worse - their girls remaining unmarried, never having children of their own, and being an economical burden for their parents later on.

The future for an uncircumcised woman who has no one to provide for her is prostitution. In this culture, widows and women who's husbands divorce them, get "stitched back up" again by their own free will so that they can get married once again. Simply because the choice between marriage and working in a brothel to earn a living is simple.

It is the view of women that has to change. The idea of women just being a mans possession and a baby machine that he can control has to stop. For as long as men have this power to choose a "clean" (circumcised) girl who is robbed of all ability to feel any sexual pleasure, they will do it. It's a control issue. She won't cheat on him because it wouldn't be much fun so he can be sure all the offspring is really his.

Many cultures in both Africa and the Arab world have this view of women. Northing will change there unless the men change their ways.