Four people detained after 12-year-old girl died from FGM

CAIRO - 31 January 2020: Four people, including a parent, an uncle and a retired physician, were imprisoned four days pending investigation after a 12-year-old girl died from Female genital mutilation (FGM) in Upper Egypt’s Assuit, according to a statement from the General Prosecution Office on Thursday.

The initial investigations revealed that parent and the uncle went to a gynaecologist for FGM. However, after the retired doctor carried out the FGM operation, the girl suffered from complications led to her death.

Head of the National Council For Women and Childhood (NCCM) Maya Morsi called for toughening the penalty against the perpetrators, adding that National Anti-Female Genital Mutilation Committee in contact with with the concerned bodies to followig up the latest concerning this incidents and the circumstances.

The committee is headed by Maya Morsy, president of the National Council for Women, and Azza al-Ashmawy, secretary general of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM).

In a statement, the committee strongly rejected any justification used to practice this crime, calling for holding the responsible accountable.

Egypt imposed a complete ban on female genital cutting — also known as female genital mutilation or circumcision — in June 2007.

Egypt’s Grand Mufti, the government’s official arbiter of Islamic law, decreed during the same year that female genital cutting was forbidden by Islam, in his strongest statement yet against the practice.

FGM was criminalized by Egyptian parliament in June 2008, thus creating a paradigm shift by moving the practice from social norm to crime.

As per the 2008 amendments to the Child Law, those who convicted in FGM crimes shall be sentenced to 5 to 7 years in prison, and the crime is punishable by life imprisonment if the victim died.