NewsFlash: Egypt bans all circumcision of females

Elizabeth — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 10:26:48 -0700

The AFP is reporting that Egypt has banned all circumcision for females. This is major news in a country where, despite a past limited ban on the surgeries the vast majority of girls were circumcised anyway.

I'm not entirely clear yet on a key aspect of the ban. The AFP article linked, via Yahoo!, above, contains the following statements which appear to me to conflict:

On Thursday, Health Minister Hatem al-Gabali decided to ban every doctor and member of the medical profession, in public or private establishments, from carrying out a clitoridectomy, a ministry press official told AFP.

and

Any circumcision "will be viewed as a violation of the law and all contraventions will be punished," said the official, adding that it was a "permanent ban".
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