Thursday, June 28, 2007

Egypt takes a big step out of the Dark Ages

Egypt permanently bans "female circumcision" (more accurately, female genital mutilation).

On Thursday, Health Minister Hatem al-Gabali decided to ban every doctor and member of the medical profession, in public or private establishments, from carrying out a clitoridectomy, a ministry press official told AFP.

Any circumcision "will be viewed as a violation of the law and all contraventions will be punished," said the official, adding that it was a "permanent ban".

A survey in 2000 said the practice was carried out on 97 percent of the country's women.

Will this change the mentality of Egyptian women who have millennia of cultural conditioning to believe that this practice is necessary for their daughters' upbringing?

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