CAIRO: Newly released figures are showing that the prevalence of female genital mutilation (FGM) among teenage girls in Egypt between the ages of 15-17 has dropped from 74 percent to 61 percent from the years 2008-2014.
The country’s Health Ministry along with the National Population Council released the figures this week saying Egypt was able to cut the rate of the practice by 13 percent over a period of six years.
It said that new policies, laws and awareness campaigns have contributed to the decrease, a report by Al-Masry El-Youm has said.
According to the United Nations, the global number of women and girls who have undergone FGM has reached 200 million.
In 2014, according to the population health survey, FGM in Egypt stood at 92 percent among married girls between the ages of 15-49.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines FGM as “any operation involving partial or total removal of female genitalia.”
Despite the fact that the practice has been criminalized in Egypt since 2008, an estimated 87 percent of the country’s girls and women aged between 15 to 49 have undergone FGM.
The practice is culturally believed among certain sectors of the Egyptian society that it “reduces” a woman’s sexual appetites.
But Egypt’s religious institutes such as Al-Azhar University and Dar El Iftaa’ have made efforts toward integrating anti-FGM in their programs.
FGM rate drops in Egypt by 13% among teenage girls in six years
FGM rate drops in Egypt by 13% among teenage girls in six years
Israel warns Lebanon of severe response if Hezbollah joins US-Iran conflict
- Israel dealt heavy blows to the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah during a war in 2024
GENEVA/BEIRUT: Israel has sent an indirect message to Lebanon that it would strike Lebanon hard, targeting civilian infrastructure including the airport, in the event that Hezbollah gets involved in any US-Iran war, two senior Lebanese officials said on Tuesday.
The office of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Lebanese presidency did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Iran and the US will hold a third round of nuclear talks on Thursday in Geneva, Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said on Sunday, amid growing concerns about the risk of military conflict between the adversaries.
Israel dealt heavy blows to the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah during a war in 2024, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah along with thousands of its fighters and destroying much of its arsenal.
Shiite Muslim Hezbollah was established by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982.
Hezbollah’s new leader
Naim Qassem
said in a televised address last month that the group was “not neutral” in the standoff between Washington and Tehran, and that it was “targeted by the potential aggression.”
“We are determined to defend ourselves. We will choose in due course how to act, whether to intervene or not,” Qassem said.
The U.S
. State Department
is pulling out non-essential government personnel and their eligible family members from the US embassy in Beirut, a senior State Department official said on Monday. (
