Female genital mutilation: the road to success in Egypt

Plan Parent Chall. 1993:(2):40-2.

Abstract

PIP: An aggressive national educational campaign has been influential in reducing the incidence of female genital mutilation in Egypt. The Cairo Family Planning Association (CFPA), with long experience in addressing taboo social issues, has been in the forefront of this movement. In 1979, the CFPA commissioned a survey that revealed a female circumcision rate of at least 80% of rural and urban Egyptian women. Survey findings were discussed at a seminar entitled Bodily Mutilation of Young Females; emerging from this seminar was a communication program targeted at those directly involved in the perpetuation of this damaging custom including nurses, midwives, doctors, and parents. In 1992, 228 nurses, 51 doctors, 284 social workers, 197 television personnel, 228 radio broadcasters, 228 public health officials, and 261 nursery supervisors received intensive training on this topic. Also reached with education on female circumcision were 1845 university students, 600 nursing students, and 200 youth camp members. In 1992, the Female Circumcision Project of the CFPA became an autonomous organization, the Egyptian Society for the Prevention of Traditional Practices Harmful to Women and Children. Program evaluation has revealed a positive association between female education and the rejection of female circumcision. Only 35% of Egyptian girls with more than a secondary school education are circumcised, compared to 89% of those with a primary education. Discouraging, however, has been an unintended effect of a Ministry of Health decree confirming the procedure to partial excision of restricting its performance to doctors--an increase in both the number of clandestine procedures done under unhygienic conditions by traditional practitioners and in the proportion of Egyptian doctors participating in this lucrative business from 15% in 1986 to 20% in 1991.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Africa
  • Africa, Northern
  • Age Factors
  • Child Welfare*
  • Child*
  • Communication*
  • Delivery of Health Care
  • Demography
  • Developing Countries
  • Economics
  • Education*
  • Educational Status*
  • Egypt
  • Health
  • Health Personnel
  • Middle East
  • Physicians*
  • Population
  • Population Characteristics
  • Reproductive Medicine*
  • Social Class
  • Socioeconomic Factors