Battling the scourge of female genital mutilation in Egypt
By Simon Ingram February 2005 Awatef Ramadan's first harrowing glimpse of the practice known as female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C) came at the age of six, when she was growing up in the southern Egyptian town of Manfalout. “My eleven year old elder sister was to be circumcised and I was among the female relatives who witnessed the event. I heard my sister scream out with pain, and then we saw that she was bleeding heavily. My mother started yelling in panic and my sister was rushed to hospital. Her life was saved but only just.” Those terrible memories were still vivid in Awatef's mind a few years later, when she was told that it was her turn to be circumcised. “It was the school holidays – the traditional time for girls to be circumcised. The daya (village midwife) came to our home and I realized what was to happen." Recalling her sister's ordeal, Awatef knew she could never submit to such a fate. As the daya tried to grab hold of her, Awatef kicked out, before fleeing from the house and running to the sanctuary of her aunt's home nearby. In Upper Egypt, and indeed throughout the country, studies show that the vast majority of girls and women are circumcised. The practice – whose origins date back more than two thousand years -- is widely seen as a necessary step towards womanhood, and as a requirement for a girl to be accepted in marriage. Circumcision is thought to curb a girl's sexual desire, helping to keep her chaste before marriage, and faithful to her husband afterwards. Girls and women who are not circumcised suffer stigmatization. Awatef say she was more fortunate. “Up till now I didn’t face any problem for not undergoing FGM/C, and it meant that in my sexual relations with my husband I have no problems." With her passionate conviction against FGM/C, Awatef was an ideal candidate to join the FGM Abandonment Programme implemented by the Assiut Childhood and Development Association (ACDA) with the support of UNICEF. Indeed, even before the start of the programme -- which today targets sixteen communities in the governorate of Assiut -- Awatef managed to convince her brothers and sisters not to circumcise her nieces. The cornerstone of the of the ACDA programme are so-called “positive deviants”, using a strategy developed by another NGO, the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA). "Positive deviants" are individuals like Awatef, who have strong personal convictions against FGM/C and are prepared to try and persuade others in their community that it is both unnecessary and harmful. Public awareness sessions are another means of battling the practice. Awatef and other campaigners – including Muslim and Christian leaders – use a mixture of passion and reason to persuade their audiences that an ancient practice must end. "I appeal to future mothers not to subject their children to this operation which is an act of abuse," explains Awatef. "I tell people that if they really love their daughters they should take good care of them and see that they are well educated. This is something much more important to give a girl and her future husband than circumcising her.” “In the old days we used to hear about groups of 10 or 15 girls being taken to a home and being circumcised one after the other. Such things are rare nowadays."
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