Egyptian court authorises female circumcision

The judge said the ruling “cancelled” Health Minister Ismail Sallam’s ban on female circumcision which came into force last year, a decree the court labelled an “abuse of power.”

“God be praised, we have won and can apply Islam,” said Sheikh Yussef Badri, an Islamic clergyman who was a party to the suit filed with the Cairo court by a group of Islamists, lawyers and doctors.The age-old practice of female excision, usually carried out on girls aged around 10, continues to be widespread in Egypt, where 97 percrent of women are circumcised, according to a study released in February.

Supporters say excision is important to quell sexual desire before marriage.But it has claimed the lives of several young girls who bled to death at the hands of amateur `surgeons,’ often barbers.

“This judgement is not only against women’s rights but also against the Egyptian penal code which contains a clause prohibiting mutilation of any part of the human body,” said Siham Abdel Salam, a doctor with the Egyptian organisation for population and development.

“Circumcision has nothing to do with religion. In Egypt it is practised by both Muslims and Christians,” Salam added.

The country’s highest civil court, the council of state, recommended in may that female circumcision should be legal although it is not mandatory under Islam, and said the decision should be left to each individual family.

The administrative court said today that Sallam had committed a “abuse of power” because he did not have the right to decide alone to ban, and therefore criminalise, the practice.

Only Parliament can decide on what constitutes a crime, the court said.The debate erupted after a 14-year-old girl died while a doctor was carrying out a circumcision in August last year. The doctor was later charged with negligence.

Badri said excision was recommended by the `sunna,’ acts or words by the Prophet Mohammed which along with the Koran are considered the basis of Islamic law.

He said circumcision was already widely practised and he wanted to prevent young girls becoming the victims of barbers’ razors.