Call to impose harsh penalty for parents involved in FGM-related crimes

CAIRO – 1 February 2019: Soad El Masry, Parliamentarian and Member of the small and medium enterprises, called for imposing harsh penalty on parents and physician, who are involved in female genital mutilation (FGM) crimes.

El Masry said in a press statement, “we have to strengthen censorship on healthcare centers and hospitals to put an end for this phenomenon and keep dignity and rights of young girls.”

The applicable anti-FGM law of 2016 stipulates that those who carry out the FGM shall face prison term from five to seven years, and the penalty shall be toughened to 15 years in prison in case the crime resulted in death of permanent disability.

Thanks to exerted efforts in this regard, ratios of female genital mutilation has been decreased to a crawl. “Yet, we still need to change obsolete customs and tradition,” she added.

Contribution of Civil Society organizations, social and press media as well as religious leaders become a must. In addition to making benefit of the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation on February 6 to spread this initiative across country, according to the member of parliament.

The Egyptian government will launch a new anti- female genital mutilation (FGM) initiative nationwide on the International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM on Feb. 6, stated Minister of Health Hala Abou Zeid in a press conference on Sunday.


“The council is paying great attention to the anti-FGM file [...] and a new initiative will be launched to fight this phenomenon,” she said in the conference held following a meeting for the National Population Council after a 4-year hiatus.


On July 10, 2018, Vivian Fouad, the National Population Council (NPC)'s FGM program spokeswoman, told Egypt today that awareness campaigns to combat female genital mutilation (FGM) in Egypt are paying off.


The presence of programs raised the citizens' awareness of the phenomenon through civil society organizations, she added, noting that the council cooperated with the Public Prosecution and the Ministry of Interior to enforce the law and punish violators.


FGM is considered an attack on religion; it damages the most sensitive organ in the female body. In Islam, protecting the body from any harm is a must and mutilation violates this rule; therefore, if the parents of females who undergo FGM consent to the abhorrent surgery, they should be punished.