UNICEF on Monday called for pressure to be maintained on Egypt to stop the practice of female genital cutting, AFP/Yahoo! News reports (AFP/Yahoo! News, 9/10). Egypt in June announced that it will impose a total ban on female genital cutting, rescinding a provision that allowed the practice to be performed by qualified physicians in exceptional cases.

Female genital cutting -- sometimes referred to as female circumcision or female genital mutilation -- is a practice in which there is a partial or full removal of the labia, clitoris or both. About 6,000 girls undergo genital mutilation daily, and the World Health Organization estimates that 100 million to 140 million women worldwide have undergone the practice. At least 90% of women who undergo genital cutting live in developing countries -- such as Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Sudan -- while almost no women undergo the practice in Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, according to UNICEF.

A spokesperson for the Egyptian health ministry has said that under the ban, no member of the medical profession would be allowed to perform the operation in public or private clinics and that any person who breaks the law will be punished. The country's top religious authorities, including the head of the Coptic Church and the Grand Mufti, have expressed support for the ban (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 7/2).

UNICEF acknowledged that Egyptian authorities have made progress in implementing the ban but added that the problem is still widespread. "Egypt is one of the few countries in the Middle East where excision is a problem, with a level of 77% of young girls between 15 and 17 years and around 60% among girls under the age of three," Ernon Manoncourt, UNICEF's representative in Egypt, said, adding that the practice was performed by medical personnel in 75% of cases. Manoncourt called for "pressure to be maintained so that the subject is not forgotten" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 9/10).