Doctors Take to the Streets to Ring Alarm Against Female Mutilation

Female genital mutilation (FGM) may have been banned in Egypt in 2008, but that hasn’t stopped many from illegally undertaking the procedure. In response, doctors went out of their hospitals to raise awareness about the dangers of the practice.

The U.N. Children’s Fund found that 87% of women and girls between the ages of 15-49 had undergone genital cutting, according to a 2016 survey. After the recent death of a 12-year-old girl whose parents arranged the procedure with a retired doctor, doctors set up a “White Coats” campaign, handing out leaflets about why FGM a crime.

“We want to send a message to other doctors that we do not want our white coats to be stained with blood as well as to citizens that medicine refuses this practice,” says organizer Randa Fakhr El Deen, head of the NGOs’ Union Against Harmful Practices on Women and Children, to the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

FGM is an ancient ritual common among both Muslims and Christians, and involves partially or entirely removing external genitalia, which can cause long-lasting mental and physical health problems. World leaders have pledged to eradicate the procedure by 2030.