Egyptian girl dies during female circumcision

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WORLD / Health

Egyptian girl dies during female circumcision

(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-08-12 14:50

A 13-year-old Egyptian girl has died during an illegal operation to
mutilate her genitalia, the Al-Masri Al-Yom daily reported on Saturday.

Karima Rahim Massud died as the result of problems with the anasthaesia
in the Nile Delta village of Gharbiya. Her death was discovered after her
father sought a death certificate from another doctor.

The medical practice where the operation took place has been closed, and
the doctor is being interrogated, the newspaper said.

Female genital mutilation, also known as female circumcision, is a
practice that dates back to pharaonic times in Egypt. It is common in a
band that stretches from Senegal in West Africa to Somalia on the east
coast, and from Egypt in the north to Tanzania in the south.

The practice, which affects both Muslim and Christian women in Egypt, was
banned in 1997 but doctors were allowed to operate "in exceptional cases."

Female circumcision can cause death through haemorraging and later
complications during childbirth. It also carries risks of infection,
urinary tract problems and mental trauma.

In June, following the death of 12-year-old Bedur Ahmed Shaker, Health
Minister Hatem al-Gabali issued a decree banning every doctor and member
of the medical profession from performing the procedure.

The ban must still be translated into law and could face a tough debate
in parliament, but is likely to be passed.

A government survey in 2000 said the practice was carried out on 97
percent of the country's women aged between 15 and 45 years of age.

Religious leaders, usually silent on taboos relating to female sexuality,
have also started to speak out against the practice, which many Egyptians
believe is a duty under Islam and Christianity.

After the death of Shaker, chief mufti Ali Gomaa declared female
circumcision forbidden under Islam.

Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, the sheikh of Al-Azhar university, the top Sunni
Muslim authority, and Coptic Patriarch Chenouda III also declared it had
"no foundation in the religious texts" of either Islam or Christianity.

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