Egyptian justice on Saturday ordered the arrest and the launching of legal proceedings against a doctor accused of having excised a 12-year-old girl, causing her death. The gynecologist, who said he had carried out this operation in late January alone in his private clinic, had been arrested for the first time before being released a few days later.
He claimed to have carried out only one “cosmetic surgery operation” on the little girl, whose name was Nada. But according to a statement from the prosecution, the forensic doctor who examined Nada established that the little girl died because of the pain caused by female genital mutilation. As a result, the public prosecutor ordered that the gynecologist be arrested again and "tried before a criminal court," said the prosecution.
Little enforced law
The parents of the girl - who had complained and who were briefly arrested - will also be tried for their "participation in this crime", according to the same source. The death of Nada had aroused excitement on social networks, Egyptian Internet users denouncing the practice of excision. Those who exercise it risk seven years in prison. The law, however, is not always enforced and the practice remains common in Egypt, a conservative country where many believe that female circumcision encourages chastity in women.
According to a study published in 2016 by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), nearly 90% of Egyptian women and adolescent girls aged between 15 and 49 years have been cut. Unicef condemned the "tragic death of Nada (who) highlights the need to urgently protect girls from this dangerous practice. "
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World
12-year-old girl dies after being cut in Egypt
- Violence against women
- World
- Egypt
- Sexism