Egyptian Girl Dies During Genital Mutilation Surgery

A girl in Egypt has died following her genital mutilation surgery. The incidence took place in a private hospital in the coastal city of Suez. The victim was 17-year-old Mayar Mohamed Mousa.

This is how bad #FGM is in #Egypt: 87% of females in Egypt aged 15 to 49 underwent FGM from 2004-2015: Unicef https://t.co/LOmnH2BdoL

— Mona Eltahawy (@monaeltahawy) May 30, 2016

Mayar’s death is the first reported death from female genital mutilation (FGM) in Egypt since 2013. Lotfi Abdel-Samee, the health ministry representative in the province, condemned the news stressing that FGM is prohibited by the law in Egypt. Mayar reportedly died while under full anesthesia due to severe bleeding and a drop in the circulation of her blood.

“This is something that the law has prohibited,” said health ministry undersecretary Lotfi Abdel-Samee

Mayar’s mother is a nurse, while her late father was a surgeon. Both she and her sister had their surgeries on Sunday, her sister before her, and both surgeries were carried out by a registered female doctor, Abdel-Samee reported. The El Canal hospital has since been shut down and its patients transferred to other hospitals. Prosecutors are questioning the hospital managers and the medical staff involved in Mayar’s surgery. The mother is also under interrogation, the Guardian reports.

Some of Mayar’s friends took on Facebook, blaming the mother for putting her through the dangerous and illegal procedure. One of Mayar’s classmates posted the following.

“Mayar died due to ignorance and backwardness of her mother, who regarded her daughter as guilty only because she was created a female.”

The centuries-old practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) was banned in Egypt in 2008. However, despite its prohibition, it is still pretty widespread in Egypt, especially in the rural areas. Both Muslims, as well as the minority Christians, subject their girls to this brutality.

Female genital mutilation has been observed in Egypt and throughout the Muslim communities of the world for many centuries. Egyptian authorities have been working hard in recent years to eradicate the practice. Earlier this year, for instance, the medical license of a local doctor was revoked by a disciplinary court in the province of Mansura following a conviction that involved him in the death of a girl he had performed FGM on back in 2013. The court also ordered his clinic to be closed for a year and sentenced the victim’s father to a three-month suspension on charges of complicity.

It is estimated that almost 90 percent of all women in Egypt have been subjected to this savage practice, which either involves the removal of the entire clitoris or at least some part of it. This is usually carried out before the girls reach puberty. The situation was even worse in the past as most of these procedures were carried out by local midwives or even barbers using knives and no anesthesia under very unsanitary conditions. Official figures, however, show that in recent years 82 percent of FGM surgeries are carried out by trained medical practitioners.

This problem stretches far beyond Egypt. More than 200 million women and girls around the world have been subjected to the practice. FGM is more widespread in African nations. A UNDP report from last year, however, shows that the officials are winning in their battle against FGM. Some officials point out the drastic change in the attitudes of the mothers as an indicator of this. The UNDP report states the following.

“While 92% of mothers had undergone the procedure, only 35% of them intend to circumcise their daughters.”

[Photo by Bosnian/Shutterstock]