The first doctor in Egypt to be convicted of carrying out female genital mutilation (FGM) served just three months of his sentence, despite the case being seen as a landmark in curbing the practice by campaigners and the UN.
Sohair al-Bata’a, 13, died at the hands of Raslan Fadl in 2013, although Fadl still denies performing the operation that killed her. Her case prompted outrage among both local and international observers, seen as a rare opportunity for conviction for a practice that is widespread despite being officially banned in Egypt in 2008.
After an initial acquittal, Fadl was sentenced in January 2015 to two years and three months in prison for involuntary manslaughter, but avoided serving his sentence. Leila Fadel, a journalist with the US National Public Radio, tracked him down in December 2015, and found him to be continuing to practise medicine in a public hospital near his home town of Mansoura.
According to Reda Eldanbouki, from the Women’s Centre for Guidance and Legal Awareness who represented Sohair during the trial, it took until April this year for Fadl to turn himself in. He did so, the lawyer said, after reconciling with the Bata’a family, which annulled two years of his sentence. Fadl then served three months in prison, until 2 July.
“The family are party to the crime, and this shouldn’t have happened,” said Eldanbouki. In the retrial of January 2015, prosecutors argued that Sohair’s father had forced the 13-year-old to submit to the procedure, which involves the cutting of the genitals and sometimes the entire removal of the clitoris.
“There need to be clearer classification of crimes related to FGM,” explained Dalia Abdel-Hamid of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights in Cairo. “Because then there would be no room for reconciliation.”
Abdel-Hamid explained that had Fadl been convicted of a more serious crime than involuntary manslaughter, he would not have had the option to reconcile with the Bata’a family and later walk free.
“There is a lack of political will, meaning no pressure to implement the law – it doesn’t even stop at the stage of failing to arrest those who are already sentenced for practising FGM,” she explained.
“The clear fact that there was no single report coming from the state itself shows the state doesn’t fulfil its role to protect the women right to health and life. The state has a responsibility to supervise the clinics – plus public and private hospitals,” said Abdel-Hamid.
Egypt’s government has pledged to eliminate FGM by 2030. According to data published by Unicef, 74% of Egyptian girls aged 15-17 have undergone the practice, while 54% of women and 57% of men surveyed support it. Unicef’s research showed that rates of FGM were slowly falling as of 2008, especially among young women. However, more than 90% of married Egyptian women had suffered the practice.
“We will bring up the example of this case during the Mayar trial to make sure that nothing like this happens again,” said Eldanbouki, referring to the forthcoming trial of a doctor following the death of Mayar Mohamed Mousa in the province of Suez. Mousa, 17, died undergoing the procedure at a private hospital.
Observers say they are most concerned by the number of doctors carrying out the practice: 82% of FGM procedures are undertaken by those with medical training, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
