Health Minister Ahmed Emad Eddine said that Egypt will celebrate the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation, which conforms to the 2015-2030 national population strategy and the national strategy against female genital mutilation (FGM).
The minister’s remarks came after a message from UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation, during which he said there has been an urgent need to end FGM.
He added that the ministry will launch an initiative called “Doctors against FGM” to crystalize the vision among doctors to reject the circumcision surgery. He indicated that the 2014 population survey proved that the high rate of the surgeries are carried out by medical teams of doctors and nurses.
Egypt's 2015 health survey revealed that around 9 in 10 women aged between 15-49 experienced female genital cutting, which is in defiance of an official ban of the surgeries.
In January 2015, a doctor was sentenced to two years for the fatal circumcision of 13-year-old Soheir al-Batea.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
