FGM: What Now for Egyptian Women?

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By Maureen Gill


opednews.com

Equality for women in Egypt is an open, far from resolved, issue. I am not talking about equal pay for equal work and I am not talking about corporate "glass ceilings." Nor am I am talking about abortion, child care, or property rights, or access to political positions of power.

The most pressing issue facing womanhood in Egypt today is far less about basic legal equality and much more significantly about human rights.

This issue is at the very core of what it means to have personal control over one's own bodily integrity and human sexuality.

The issue is female genital mutilation.

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Statistics compiled by UNICEF for the years 1997 to 2007 show that 96 percent of women between the ages of 15 and 49 have experienced some form of female genital mutilation (FGM). In order to address FGM, as well as the many other gender issues impacting women in Egypt, many governmental and non-governmental organizations such as the Land Center for Human Rights, the courts, and the Ministry of Health have worked together to put new laws into effect that will protect and empower women. One of the most prominent of these has been The National Council of Women (NCW) which is a governmental organization that was headed by First Lady Suzanne Mubarak. The NCW works on women's social, political and economic empowerment in general and has successfully helped tackle two significant issues: raising the minimum age of marriage to 18 years and criminalizing FGM. The Mubarak government, for all of its flaws and corruption, was in several ways far ahead of other countries in the region.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/FGM-What-Now-for-Egyptian-by-Maureen-Gill-110216-998.html