Government seeks lengthier jail terms for those who perform banned practice of genital mutilation..
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Female genital mutilation involves the total or partial removal of, or injury to, the external female genitalia for no medical benefit, and can cause bleeding, infertility or death.
In Egypt, both Muslims and Christians practice the procedure. Late past year, the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, announced that Egypt is number one in the list of countries in which female genital mutilation is practiced. Previous legislation had stipulated that the punishment for performing FGM would be a prison sentence ranging from three months to two years and a fine of EGP 5,000.
Egyptian authorities are to increase the penalty for those who force women into genital mutilation (FGM). “The Cabinet agreed on this amendment and sent it today [Sunday] to the House of Representatives for endorsement”, the official said, referring to the Egyptian parliament. “The amendment provides for harsher punishment for a period not less than five years and not more than seven years”, he told a press conference. Activists say the campaign to end the practice may have suffered a setback with the 2011 overthrow of president Hosni Mubarak, whose regime imposed the ban. Previously, the penalty was three months to two years.
The drive for tougher sentences follows the recent death of a 17-year-old girl of complications during an FGM operation in a private hospital in Suez province. The girl’s mother, the doctor who performed the fatal procedure and two other people have been accused of “involuntary manslaughter” and are awaiting a trial, AFP reported.
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FGM affects an estimated 140 million girls and women across a swathe of Africa and parts of the Middle East and Asia and is seen as a gateway to marriage and a way of preserving a girl’s purity.
