Egyptian Girl, 13, Dies After Being Circumcised

This is the kind of story that makes my blood boil- supremely ignorant parents still forcing their daughters to undergo the barbaric practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), and then when it goes wrong (and it does) blaming the unethical doctor who performed the procedure.

FGM can cause irreparable damage to young girls which can worsen as they age, but in some cases they die, like the 13-year-old Egyptian girl- Suhair al-Bata’a- who had the illegal operation and then expired 15 minutes later.

“We left our daughter with the doctor and the nurse. 15 minutes later, the nurse took my daughter out of the operation room to a nearby room, along with three other girls whom the doctor was circumcising,” Mohammed Ibrahim, a farmer, told al-Masry al-Youm.

“I waited half an hour, hoping that my daughter would wake up, but, unfortunately, unlike the rest of the girls, she did not,” he said.

Two years ago, the same doctor circumcised Suhair's older sister, and the mum wants revenge.

“I want nothing but to hold the doctor accountable and to have justice for my daughter,” the victim’s mother, Hasanat Naeem Fawzy, told the newspaper.

UNICEF and Egypt's National Council for Women (ENCW) have condemned what happened, and ENCW has demanded an inquiry and punishment for those involved.  Since the parents are equally responsible- for bringing her to that doctor in the first place- let's hope they are punished as well.

FGM has been illegal in Egypt since 1996, but only one person has been prosecuted since that time- and that was back in 2009.

FGM will continue until it becomes a major crime, with an appropriately severe punishment, for all those involved, including the parents.