Hospital Shut Down After Egypt Girl Dies During Circumcision

[DJKeefy]

Hospital Shut Down After Egyptian Girl Dies During Circumcision.

A 17-year-old girl has died while undergoing female circumcision in Egypt, prompting health authorities to shut down the hospital and refer doctors for prosecution, a senior health official said Tuesday.

The centuries-old practice, believed to control women's sexuality, was criminalized in Egypt in 2008. But it remains widespread in the country, where an estimated 90 percent of women have undergone some form of the procedure.

Lotfi Abdel-Sameeia, a senior Health Ministry official, said Manar Moussa and her twin sister underwent the surgery in the city of Suez on Saturday. The other girl survived, but Manar died of a suspected stroke while under anesthesia.

The Suez city health inspector in charge of issuing the burial permits reported his suspicions to health and security authorities after examining the body. A forensic report has yet to be released to determine the cause of death, Abdel-Sameeia said.

Authorities ordered the hospital closed on Monday and referred two doctors and the head of the hospital for prosecution. Abdel-Sameeia said they face allegations of conducting a banned procedure and causing Manar's death. He said the hospital has received several warnings before over its poor health record, including its lack of an intensive care unit.

Vivian Fouad, the head of a Health Ministry program to combat female genital mutilation, called the incident a "crime committed by criminals known as doctors. " She said such operations are usually carried out on younger girls.

The first case in which a doctor was charged, convicted, and sentenced for carrying out female circumcision was in 2015, after a girl's death two years earlier. The doctor was sentenced to two years in prison, which Fouad said had served as "deterrence."

Rights groups have criticized the law because it considers the practice a misdemeanor punishable by up to two years in prison. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, along with Fouad, has called for the crime to be reclassified as a felony.

In 2012, The U.N. General Assembly unanimously approved a resolution calling for a global ban on female genital mutilation.

Source: The Associated Press

[DJKeefy]

Do you think they can ever put an end to this practice?

Talking to some people I know in Luxor one who will get married soon (he is 26 yrs old) he says of course if his wife as a baby girl he would have her circumcised. infact ive not heard anyone in Luxor say anything different, so it must still be easy to get done.

[Horus]

Barbaric! end of

[carrie]

I hadn't realized that they left female genital mutilation until such an age, and that is what it is NOT circumcision.

[DJKeefy]

I think it's all down to the many insecurties of what Egyptian men seem to have, One in which they think if a girl is not circumcised they will get HOT (Horny) and may go off with other men.

[BENNU]

if a girl is not circumcised they will get HOT (Horny) and may go of with other men.

There are other things that could be cut off to prevent that ...

[LovelyLadyLux]

I'm surprised the girls were so old! Am also surprised it was done in hospital by doctors and not some back street private clinic by some less than health conscience old woman! So long as the used razor is sharp eh?

Egypt is not the only country to practice this by any means so the ban shouldn't be exclusive to Egypt. Should be Universal.

I'd also love to see the PARENTS prosecuted or whomever it was who gave permission. Hardly think they walked into the hospital on their own demanding this be done.

If I was in charge of the world it would be mass mandatory education of parents and Grandparents at birth along with having the parents and grandparents officially sign a legal document saying they will never have this procedure done. I'd list numerous severe penalties if they dis-obeyed my edict. Since there is such social incline towards this procedure I'd be stuffing it down the parents and grandparents (or whomever was influential in the family) throat NOT to have this done and holding a legal paper over their heads by way of trying to intimidate enforcement until the practice was totally dead and gone. IF I RULED THE WORLD!

[carrie]

What always amazes me is that it is quite often the female members of the family who insist on this being done. Hadn't a lot of time for Mrs. Mubarak but she did push to have this made illegal in Egypt.

[Major Thom]

Bloody disgusting, goes o show no respect and how small the men's minds are in Egypt. Bennu has the answer, cut the bloody C---ks off let them p--s like the rose on a watering can, uneducated morons!

[Dusak]

With my friends brothers all having new arrivals, all girls, all had this done, plus the insertion of ear studs as soon as they were born, another ''tradition''. My friend is totally against the practice, but has no voice in the matter. There are plenty of places where this can be done, untouched by the authorities until one operation goes pear shaped, figuratively speaking.