CAIRO: A doctor in Egypt will face trial for performing a female circumcision operation that killed a teenage girl, a judicial official said on Tuesday. The 14-year-old girl’s father who took her to the doctor for the procedure will also face trial.
Although banned in 2008, female genital mutilation is still rampant in Egypt, especially in rural areas where many believe it is part of their faith. The doctor in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura performed the dangerous procedure at a private clinic.
The practice has been common among both Muslims and Christians, said Nehad Abolkomsan, who heads the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights. A survey in 2000 said the procedure had been carried out on 97 percent of the country’s married women.
She said efforts to reach out to rural areas to end the practice had been partially successful, but more government supervision was needed.
“This will continue to need a lot of work and effort by the state to apply the law,” she said.
“Most cases don’t get to the attention of the prosecutor, unless the girl suffers health consequences.”
The WHO estimates that between 100 million and 140 million women have been mutilated worldwide.
Egypt doctor in the dock for fatal female mutilation
