FGM Banned in Egypt

The BBC & New York Times reported today that Egypt has banned the practice of female genital mutilation (or female circumcision, as supporters call it) universally. One of the interesting things noted in the Times’ coverage was the shift in social taboos surrounding the topic in Egypt. Unlike years past, the media in Cairo and other cities now uses far more explicit language to discuss botched operations that result in excess scarring or the death of the woman (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/20/world/middleeast/20girls.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5070&en=04934e7ed73d6aac&ex=1190865600&emc=eta1).

This spells progress on multiple fronts. Not only has the practice become more discussed and publicly banned (and one can hope that this will spread to sub-Saharan Africa, where the practice is far more widespread than it is in the north of the continent), but it speaks well to the pressure that transparent public discourse can bring on the issue. Marking the times when the practice goes wrong makes it harder for advocates to insist that because their wives and mothers turned out alright, their daughters will too. And I would like to think that breaking social taboos can, in fact, have a significant impact on the political will to act.

This and other pieces are cross-posted at http://web.mac.com/caitlin.howarth/iWeb/thedial