FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION IN EGYPT; DETERMINANTS AND PROPOSED INTERVENTIONS
Raouf Alebshehy1, Mahua Das2
Ministry of Health, Egypt1, University of Leeds, United Kingdom2
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a huge health problem that affects many women around the globe. One of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals’ targets is to end FGM by 2030. Egypt has the highest prevalence of FGM among countries with representative data. It is estimated that 91% of Egyptian females have undergone this procedure. 33% of females plan to make their daughters undergo FGM, while 24% of them have already circumcised their daughters, which shows that this generation will have around 57% prevalence of FGM. This study aims to analyse the determinants of FGM in Egypt, in addition to proposing interventions to address the problem. Two frameworks were followed; the first is McLeroy et al. framework for analysis of FGM determinants, and the second is a health promotion framework to propose a comprehensive interventions that could tackle FGM in Egypt. This study reveals the existence of many contributing factors to FGM occurrence. Moreover, the study proposes upstream, downstream, and setting based interventions to address the problem.
December 2016