Doing away with a barbaric practice

Egypt is setting a good example for countries still practising the barbaric female genital mutilation, working to seriously increase the prison sentences for those doing it from the now merely three months to two years in jail to up to seven years of imprisonment.

A bill on the issue is expected to be approved soon by the Egyptian parliament.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a horrible practice in many parts of Africa despite the national and international efforts to eradicate it, including by international human rights instruments and at different fora.

The practice stems from a contemptuous view of women as sex objects and outlasted centuries of attempts to uproot it altogether.

Egypt is one of the countries where this uncivilised practice exists even though women’s rights advocates in the country have been trying hard to combat it.

The 2008 Egyptian legislation against FGM was adopted in the aftermath of the death of an 11-year-old girl after the procedure was conducted on her.

No country in the world should put up with the death of women from FGM. The practice must be stopped, if need be by international sanctions on countries allowing it.

Obviously there is need for more than the enactment of stiffer punishments for FGM. It is basically a societal problem whereby uninformed traditional communities cling to the fallacious belief that FGM is a sure way of controlling and preventing illicit sexual relations.

The problem, then, lies in monitoring and working to prevent the practice, and that needs local policing coupled with countrywide campaigns educating people and, if need be, warning them of the consequences of carrying out such cruel practice.

Addressing archaic local customs and calling on community leaders to intervene should be the focal point in the fight against FGM, in Egypt and everywhere else where the problem exists.

For now, Egypt is taking a leadership role in combating FGM; it is hoped others will follow suit.