Egyptian fundamentalists ignoring female circumcision ban

ASYUT, Egypt (January 6, 1998 00:42 a.m. EST) - Egypt ruled last month, after a long legal battle, that female circumcision was illegal. But in fundamentalist strongholds many say they will never abandon a practice which they say protects their daughters' virtue.

Many families say circumcising their young girls is so necessary to their traditional way of life that they will ignore the court decision to punish doctors or others carrying out the operation with up to three years in prison.

Circumcision is necessary for a woman because it protects her chastity and virginity, says Khaled al-Sharif, 45, a leading member of the Abnob tribe in the Upper Egyptian provinces of Asyut, Sohag, and Qena.

Osman Antar, the mayor of the village of Sabee, some 250 miles southof Cairo, calls the court's ruling absurd.

How can we leave our daughters uncircumcised? he asks. The government can do what it wants and we, too, will do what we want. We will all circumcise our daughters, no matter what the punishments.

According to official estimates, more than 90 percent of Egyptian girls are circumcised, usually at the age of 5 or 6. More than 70 percent of the operations are carried out at home in unsanitary conditions, sometimes resulting in girls bleeding to death.

But many here dispute claims that there is any health risk associated with the age-old operation, in which all or part of the clitoris and sometimes the labia are removed, with the aim of removing a woman's sexual desire.

Circumcision has no negative effects as (the government) claims and today, with the progress of medicine, the operation can be done without any danger, Sharif says.

Egyptian health officials banned circumcision in July 1996 but until late last year the ban languished in the court system under attacks by Islamic fundamentalists who claimed the practice is dictated by the Koran.

The country's highest administrative court, the State Council, finally ruled on December 28 that female circumcision was illegal -- throwing out a lower court ruling last summer which overturned the health ministry's ban on the practice.

The State Council said circumcision of girls is not an individual right under Sharia (Islamic law) because there is nothing in the Koran which authorizes it and nothing in the Sunna, the sayings and traditions of the Prophet Mohammad.

But while the court ruled that henceforth, it is illegal or anyone to carry out circumcision operations, even if the girl or her parents agree to it, the legal decision appears to carry little weight in Upper Egypt.

For many in this region, Egypt's poorest, female circumcision is so deeply rooted in tradition that it is unimaginable to abandon it. The operation is practiced both by villagers who are Muslim fundamentalists and their Christian neighbors.

Nadia Ibrahim, a woman living in the city of Sohag, 310 miles south of Cairo, says she fears banning circumcision will lead to an explosion of illegitimate relationships, particularly today, when girls marry late, at 25 years old at the earliest.

Even some intellectuals in the region oppose the government trying to root out a practice so deeply embedded in popular culture.

This is an arbitrary decision which it seems impossible to apply because it goes against all the traditions of the people, says Azza Abdel Aziz, a communications professor at the University of Sohag.

Both supporters of circumcision and its critics agree on one thing:banning the practice could just drive it underground.

Antar, the mayor of Sabee, says that by penalizing female circumcision the government will push people to have their girls circumcised in secret, to run to the village barber or midwife instead of the doctor.

A local women's organization opposing female circumcision urges the government to proceed with caution in using legal force to root it out.

Before trying to enforce the law, it will be necessary to sensitize the population of Upper Egypt to the reasons for the ban, says the president of Association of Arab Women in Asyut.

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