WRITTEN QUESTION E-2774/97 by Marjo Matikainen-Kallström (PPE) to the Commission (1 September 1997)

Subject: Female circumcision in Egypt

An Egyptian court has reversed the government ban on female circumcision. The court ruling was a severe blow to human rights groups and, of course, Egyptian women. It champions the opposing cause, namely female circumcision and the doctors who earn their livelihood by performing the operation.

As a result of circumcision, many women suffer continuously from bleeding and traumas and completely lose their libido. Many have also died after being compelled to undergo circumcision at the hands of amateur surgeons, in many cases barbers.

The Union's assistance to Egypt amounts to tens of millions of ecus a year. One aim of the support is to improve the social situation in the country. What measures will the Commission undertake to improve the position of women in Egypt by ensuring that female circumcision is prohibited?

Answer given by Mr Marin on behalf of the Commission (26 September 1997)

The Commission deplores the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) as dangerous on health grounds, and as an inhuman physical assault on the human rights of women and girls. The Commission condemns the practice and supports measures to eradicate it through its own programmes and through the efforts of others. The Commission fully subscribes to the strong positions taken against FGM in the Cairo Conference of 1994 and the Beijing Conference of 1995.

The government of Egypt has also denounced the practice and has committed itself to eradicate it. In 1996 FGM was prohibited by law under a ministry of Health decree. It is this decree which has been recently overruled by an Egyptian administrative court and there is now technically no legal constraint on the involvement of the public health system in FGM. However the situation is complex and recent events are by no means a simple triumph of these in favour of genital mutilation over reason and humanity.

Female genital mutilation in Egypt is almost universal in the rural and semi-rural areas and very widespread also in towns. Although the debate on the overruling of the 1996 decree has centred on the involvement of the formal health sector, FGM is overwhelmingly (93%) undertaken by 'traditional' health workers. Female children aged between 7-11 are the principal victims. The importance of tradition rather than religion or law in explaining the practice is very important. Both Islamic and Christian supporters of FGM cite ancestral tradition and the cultural acceptability of FGM is very high including among women. The Community's own surveys of FGM in upper Egypt (where FGM is universal) suggest that 90% of women support FGM, mainly on cultural and presumed health grounds.

Given such widespread acceptance by the very population most affected it is no surprise that measures to eradicate FGM have proved so difficult to implement. It is equally clear that the eradication of FGM is far more than a health or human rights issue. Legal measures have a role but the real challenge will be to change through education and information deeply held attitudes and misconceptions.

The government of Egypt has proceeded with considerable caution in this sensitive area. Because of concern that the 1996 decree would simply force all FGM underground, the ministry continued to allow health service doctors to perform FGM provided attempts were made to persuade the families concerned not to proceed. Other campaigns, both national and donor supported, were also launched to persuade families to abandon the practice but their impact has been limited and the United Nations international children's emergency fund target of eradicating FGM by the end of the century is unlikely to be met. However the Egyptian national committee for population and development (NCPD) and the present minister of health and population remain clearly and publicly committed to progress.

Community assistance in Egypt can be expected to help in this process. The most notable contribution will be through the 10 MECU population programme in upper Egypt and through other population and reproductive health programmes. All of these stress the importance of information and education on reproductive health issues which not only specifically target FGM but will help create the essential understanding which must precede the eradication of this inhuman but deeply entrenched practice. The extension of basic education to women and girls, which is a key component of the proposed education enhancement programme (EEP), will also have a positive if indirect effect. The Commission will continue to focus on how best to assist in the eradication of FGM while being aware that only a strategy that is sensitive to widely held cultural values will succeed.