Egypt to strengthen FGM laws
2007-08-13 12:06
Cairo - A law to strengthen penalties against female genital mutilation will be put to Parliament when it reconvenes in autumn, a health ministry spokesperson said, after a teenage girl died during an illegal operation to mutilate her genitalia.
Spokesperson Abdel Rahmane Shahine told AFP that a group of doctors and parliamentarians are working on the text which will be presented to Parliament when it meets again in November.
"The proposed law is aimed at strengthening penalties" for the practice, he said, without elaborating. Those currently in place, he added, are "not proportional to the seriousness of the crime".
People found guilty of carrying out female circumcision currently risk up to three years in prison.
The health ministry will also allocate a further €1m (R9.8m) in the fight to stamp out the practice, Shahine added.
Newspapers on Saturday reported that Karima Rahim Massud, 13, died as the result of problems with the anaesthesia in the Nile Delta village of Gharbiya.
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.
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".