Egyptian justice on Saturday ordered the arrest and prosecution of a doctor accused of cutting a 12-year-old girl, causing her death.
The gynecologist, who said he had carried out this operation in late January alone in his private clinic, was arrested for the first time before being released a few days later. He said he didn’t realize that a “cosmetic surgery operation” on the little girl, whose name was Nada.
But according to a statement from the prosecution, the forensic doctor who examined Nada established that the little girl died because of the pain caused by female genital mutilation.
As a result, the attorney general ordered the gynecologist to be arrested again and “tried by a criminal court,” said the prosecution.
The parents of the girl – who had complained and were briefly arrested – will also be tried for their “participation in this crime”, according to the same source.
Unicef condemns
Nada’s death had sparked uproar on social media, with Egyptian Internet users denouncing the practice of female genital cutting.
Those who exercise it risk seven years in prison. The law, however, is not always enforced and the practice remains common in Egypt, a conservative country where many believe that female genital cutting promotes female chastity.
According to a study published in 2016 by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), nearly 90% of Egyptian women and adolescent girls aged 15 to 49 have been cut.
Unicef condemned the “tragic death of Nada (who) highlights the need to urgently protect girls from this dangerous practice.”
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