Alessia de Luca Tupputi

 

Egyptian media have defined it a “small revolution”, but it has not been a coup d'etat or  a protest of the opposition to catch the attention of newspapers and local TVs. It has been, instead, a meeting held in Cairo among top-grade representatives of Islamic Egyptian and African institutions who have condemned with no appeal the practice of female genitals mutilation.

A non-Islamic practice. The meeting, organised by a German non governmental organisation, has been attended by personalities like the Minister of Religious Affairs Hamdi Zaqzouq, the al-Azhar Imam, Mohammed Sayyed Al Tantawi and the Egypt Grand Mufti, Ali Gomaa. “The Prophet's daughters were not circumcised” he reminded during his speech, explaining that “the Koran forbids believers to commit acts of physical or psychological violence against neighbours”, so that the mutilation of female genitals must be considered a “sin” for every Muslim.
Also Imam  al-Tantawi  lined up against this “pre-Islamic tradition” which, he said, “is not mentioned in the Koran and in the Sunna (collection of the Prophet's sayings, editor's note)”, quoting the two main sources of the Islamic law. He also underlined that “Islam prescribes circumcision only for men, but no similar commitment for women is mentioned”. Also sheikh Youssef al-Qardawi, a controversial but very popular Islamic televangelist, was present at the conference; after having criticised the foreign organisation, stated that “even if female mutilation is not a religious commitment, the last word is up to doctors”.

A withstanding tradition. The meeting has been attended also by many specialists who flatly denied that mutilation of female genitals can heal any kind of disease. In fact it is widely believed in Egypt, and in other countries where female circumcision is practised, that mutilation helps young women to preserve virginity and, once married, to be faithful to their husbands. Non mutilated women, instead, often do not find a husband because they are considered impure and unchaste. This practice is often performed by de'yas (a sort of midwives, editor's note) by means of broken glasses, tin caps, scissors, razors or other cutting tools and causes infections of the urinary duct that may compromise womb, Fallopian tubes and ovaries. Other dramatic consequences may occur during pregnancy and delivery. There is no religious imposition founding this practice followed equally by Islamic and Christian communities, and in sura 95, verse 4, the Koran says: “We have created the human being in his perfect form”.

A painful toll. In 1996 the Egyptian Department of Health issued a decree forbidding the practice, leaving the doctors the freedom to “express themselves” and the possibility to “carry it out if required by conditions”. Nowadays in Egypt just a few villages are declared “free from mutilations” as a result of various campaigns and of monitoring by international organisations, but according to Amnesty International about 75 percent of Egyptian girls is still subjected to mutilation. In Africa mutilation of female genitals is practised against millions of women. Three are the kinds of mutilation according to the deepness of the surgery: clitoridectomy in which all or part of the clitoris is removed; excision, consisting in the ablation of clitoris and labia minora; infibulation, the extreme form, that foresees, besides clitoridectomy and excision, curettage of labia majora which are then bonded together in order to close completely the vagina aperture, apart from a small orifice through which urine and menstrual blood can drain. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 8 thousand girls are subjected to mutilation every day all over the world, and more than 150 million women suffered this trauma, which is cause of serious psychological consequences besides carrying infections which are sometimes lethal.