EGYPT: Parliament criminalizes female circumcision

After weeks of heated deliberations, the Egyptian parliament on Saturday passed new pieces of legislation that impose relatively harsh legal restrictions on female circumcision and allow women for the first time to register their babies even if the father’s identity is unknown.

One law imposes a sentence of a maximum of two years and a fine of a maximum of $1,000 for performing female genital mutilation.  This issue has caused much stir in the people’s assembly, especially among the Muslim Brotherhood, which holds one-fifth of the parliamentary seats. Conservatives maintain that Islam condones the removal of a girl’s clitoris to tame her sexual desires and condemn the amendment as a western import. 

Attention-getting opposition to the bill came from an ostensibly secular MP a couple of weeks ago. Mohamed El-Omda, a member of a marginal opposition party, appeared before the people's assembly with his three daughters to protest the ban. One of his young daughters raised a banner reading: “No to any attempt to forbid what is divinely allowed. No to any attempt to allow what is divinely forbidden.”  El-Omda said that two of his daughters were already circumcised.

Although it was banned years ago, female genital mutilation remains widely practiced in Egypt. About 70% of Egyptian girls are believed to have undergone it. The promulgation of the new penalties came on the heels of the death of a 12-year-old girl in Upper Egypt while undergoing the procedure last summer. 

Under the new law, female circumcision remains allowable in cases of “medical necessity.”

The other new legislation granted women the right to receive birth certificates for their babies without necessarily giving the father's name. Under the old law, women could not register their out-of-wedlock children. According to women's rights activists, even married mothers face difficulties if they go to register their children without the father.

Islamists dismissed the amendment as enabling the proliferation of prostitution. “If woman carries a child and nobody knows who his father is, this means she is a prostitute,” contended a Muslim Brotherhood MP during the deliberations.

The bill’s proponents argued that a child should not be caught in the middle of parental feuds and had the right to receive a birth certificate. The amendment may help solve the problem of thousands of children whose fathers refuse to acknowledge them. According to official figures, there were 14,000 paternity cases in Egyptian courts in 2005.

—Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo

Photo: A poster opposing female genital mutilation in Egypt.

Photo credit: Newscom

Comments

[Saad Noah]

Peace is to the peaceful people,

The Quran is the only Divine Book that forbids FGM and considers it as the deed of the devil. To see a video response to FGM in Islam, please go to youtube channel fitnafitan5 video clip 31/49, go to the end of the 31/49 clip and continou to video clip 32/49. I wonder if the Moslims are going to understand the Merciful Quran, and how the Propehet of Mercy Mohammad applied the Merciful Quran, and live as Moslims?

[Dina]

Hi Cheryl and Keith, There is no mention of the act of female circumcision in the Qur'an. It is not an Islamic practice. It is a cultural practice that is common throughout Africa, the Middle East and the Far East. Furthermore, FGM is not a common practice in what are considered Islamic Countries. They are common in rural areas as well as low socioeconomic neighborhoods in urban areas. The issue of FGM is not as common in Egypt as the media portrays...it came as a shocker to most Egyptians.

[Cheryl]

You can tell how civiilised a society is by examining its attitudes to women. It seems that if Islam truly 'condones' the mutilation of women and girls, like many Egyptian men obviously believe - then Islam and the West truly are irreconcilable. This practice makes me sick to my stomach. I hear so often how Islam is far more respectful and egalitarian of women than us in the 'infidel' West - but I have yet to see any evidence of this. If Islam truly condones FGM I'd like those men to provide evidence in the Koran to substantiate this claim. I suspect that, as always, those who want to control women will interpret some vague statement in the Koran as meaning whatever they want it to - and brainwash everyone else into believing the same using the threat of divine, or more earthly, retribution.

[Keith]

You just wonder why anybody would worship a creator and then seek to alter the creation. It seems an insult to the divinity they worship, almost like changing scripture and putting your own interpretation in the mouth of the divine.

[jonathan]

The existing legislation allows for a three-year sentence for performing FGM, so this could be seen as a lightening of the penalty. No idea why, but Egyptian legislation is full of contradictions and inconsistencies