![]() With this rising trend, understanding why healthcare providers perform the practice and why women/families rely on them has become essential. Further, a higher number of younger women compared with older women have been cut by medical personnel, demonstrating a trend toward medicalization. In many of these countries at least one-third of women reported that their daughters were cut by a trained healthcare provider. ![]() Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data shows that medicalization has increased particularly in Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, Nigeria, Guinea, Yemen and, more recently, in Indonesia. These medical health professionals may include physicians, nurses and/or midwives. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines medicalization as “the situation in which FGM/C is practiced by any category of healthcare provider, whether in a public or a private clinic, at home or elsewhere”. To reduce the incidence of these complications whilst complying with a cultural demand, and as a response to the emphasis on the health risks characterized in anti-FGM/C campaigns, FGM/C is increasingly carried out by health care providers “medicalization”. Universally considered a violation of human rights, FGM/C not only physically harms women and girls, but it also causes psychological problems because of the traumatic experiences the victims undergo. Most women and girls who are cut live in Africa and Asia. FGM/C is defined as “all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons”. ![]() This also highlights the critical role that health providers can play in efforts to drive the abandonment of FGM/C in Egypt.Īpproximately 200 million women and girls in 30 countries have undergone female genital mutilation/ cutting (FGM/C). These contradictions and contestations highlighted in this study among mothers and healthcare providers suggest that legal, moral and social norms that underpin FGM/C practice are not harmonized and would thus lead to a further rise in the medicalization of FGM/C. Such reframing may be one way for providers to overcome the law against FGM/C and market the operation to the clients. Finally, the language around FGM/C is being reframed by many healthcare providers as a cosmetic surgery. Also, the social construction of girls’ well-being and bodily beauty makes FGM/C a perceived necessity which lays the ground for stigmatization against uncut girls. For many mothers and healthcare providers, adherence to community customs and traditions was the most important motive to practice FGM/C. Thus, the factors that support FGM/C overlap with the factors that support medicalization. Study findings suggest that parents who seek medicalized cutting often do so to minimize health risks while conforming to social expectations. ![]() It was conducted in three geographic areas in Egypt: Cairo, Assiut and Al Gharbeya. ![]() The study drew on a “mystery client” approach, coupled with in-depth interviews (IDIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs) with health care providers (i.e. MOTHERS X AND O COOKIES DRIVERSIn this qualitative study, we explored the drivers and motives behind why healthcare professionals perform FGM/C and why mothers rely on them to perform the practice on their daughters. The medicalization of FGM/C has been increasing significantly in Egypt making it the country with the highest rate of medicalization. Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) is a traditional harmful practice that has been prevalent in Egypt for many years. ![]()
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