Practical effect is limited until higher courts rule.
Opponents, who call the procedure female genital mutilation, say the operation is cruel, harmful and sometimes deadly to the pre-pubescent girls who undergo it. Cairo Administrative Court Judge Abdul Aziz Hamade overturned a 1996 decree that forbade doctors and other health-care workers to perform the operation, either in public hospitals or in private clinics. For 14 centuries of Islam, our mothers and grandmothers have performed this operation. It is a very bad decision. The immediate impact was minimal.