Female genital cutting in Egypt: drivers and potential responses

Wodon, Quentin; Yedan, Ali; Leye, Els

doi:10.1080/09614524.2017.1330401

Cited by 3 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Thus, higher percentages of Muslim than Christian women practice FGMC, intend to cut their daughters, and view FGMC as desired by religion, “good” for the girl, cleansing or purifying, and protective against sexual transgressions (32). Findings from the 2014 Survey of Young People in Egypt confirm that Christian women and men are much less likely than Muslim women and men to report favorable views about the practice (69). Thus, the emergence of FGMC as a symbol of authentic Muslim womanhood has transformed the practice from a widespread gender norm to a gender norm aligned more narrowly with Muslim identity (36).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community gender systems and daughter’s risk of female genital mutilation/cutting: New theory and application to Egypt

Yount

James‐Hawkins

et al. 2019

Preprint

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We proposed and tested a feminist social ecological theory about daughters' experience of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGMC) in Egypt, where over 90% of women ages 15 to 49 are cut. FGMC has potential adverse effects on demographic and health outcomes and has been defined as a human rights violation. Contextual factors are important determinants of FGMC, but an integrated theory is lacking, and quantitative multilevel research is limited. We theorized that more favorable community level gender systems, including gender norms opposing FGMC and expanded opportunities for women outside of the family, would be associated with a daughter's lower risk of FGMC and would strengthen the negative association of a mother's opposition to FGMC with her daughter's risk of cutting. Using a national sample of 14,171 mother/daughter dyads from the 2014 Egypt Demographic and Health Survey, we estimated multilevel discrete time hazard models to test these relationships. Community gender norms opposing FGMC had significant direct, negative associations with the hazard that a daughter was cut, but women's opportunities outside the family did not. Maternal opposition to FGMC was negatively associated with cutting a daughter, and these associations were stronger where community opposition to FGMC and opportunities for women were greater. Results provided good support for a gender systems theory of the multilevel influences on FGMC. Integrated, multilevel interventions that address gender norms about FGMC and opportunities for women in the community, as well as beliefs about the practice among the mothers of at-risk daughters may be needed for sustainable declines in the practice.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community gender systems and daughter’s risk of female genital mutilation/cutting: New theory and application to Egypt

Yount

James‐Hawkins

et al. 2019

Preprint

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show abstract

“…In these communities it is also associated with hygienic considerations and aesthetic preferences (Mohammed et al, 2014). Agreement with these beliefs (El-Zanaty and Way, 2009;Rasheed et al, 2011;Abdelshahid and Campbell, 2015;Wodon et al, 2017;Mostafa et al, 2020), and positive general attitudes toward the practice (Mohammed et al, 2018) are associated with the acceptance of it among women (Afifi and Von Bothmer, 2007). Undergoing the practice moreover enhances their qualities as wives and mothers and secures their social position within the community (Assaad, 1980;United Nations Childrens Fund Gupta, 2013).…”

Section: The Main Drivers Of Fgm/c In Egypt Enhancing Female Acceptan...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This creates great dependence on male family members (Yount et al, 2020), and later a favorable marriage (Yount, 2002). Consequently, the acceptance of traditional gender roles and discrimination, and favoring to marry at an early age are associated with the support of the practice among women (Wodon et al, 2017).…”

Section: The Main Drivers Of Fgm/c In Egypt Enhancing Female Acceptan...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, oftentimes mothers report to be held back from abandoning the practice out of fear of social exclusion, and because they don't see other means to secure their daughter's social position (Abdelshahid and Campbell, 2015) and a favorable marriage that they are oftentimes dependent on (Yount, 2002;Yount et al, 2020). This leads back to the pressure of marriageability (Wodon et al, 2017), and sufficing male sexual preferences (Abdelshahid and Campbell, 2015). Thus, exploring female attitudes toward the discontinuation of FGM/C could not be complete without including the role of men.…”

Section: Changing Female Attitudes Toward Fgm/c In Egyptmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring the association between perceived male attitudes and female attitudes toward the discontinuation of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting in Egypt

Zsabokorszky,

Van de Velde,

Michielsen

et al. 2023

Front. Sociol.

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IntroductionThere are 200 million girls and women alive worldwide that have undergone the practice of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) and 4 million girls are at risk of undergoing the practice each year. FGM/C provides no known health benefits, while puts a plethora of medical, psychological, and sexual health risks into perspective. One of the countries where the prevalence of FGM/C is the highest in the World, even though local authorities legally banned the practice in 2008, is Egypt. Within the Egyptian context, there are several complex socioeconomic, religious, and cultural drivers that influence the familial decision making of the daughters being cut. Female attitudes hold great significance in the process, because mothers and female family members are typically the prime decision makers at the daughter's circumcision. However, whilst FGM/C is often performed to enhance marriageability and address male preferences, in practicing communities there is little to no open communication between men and women about the practice, making women rely on their perceptions on FGM/C related expectations of men. Even though the connection between female and perceived male attitudes toward the discontinuation was established almost 20 years ago, since then to our knowledge little is known about the further characteristics of this association. Therefore, this study aims to explore the association between female and perceived male attitudes within families of a younger cohort and moreover attempts to provide a more layered picture of it within different levels of education.MethodsTo explore the relation between female and perceived male attitudes toward the discontinuation of FGM/C we conducted a 3-step binary logistic regression model.ResultsOur results show that women are significantly less likely to favor a continuation of FGM/C if they think men are disapproving of the practice, compared to women that think men want it to continue. The strength of this association partially varies between the different levels of education as it is less pronounced at the level of secondary education, compared to the reference group.DiscussionIn alignment with previous findings in the literature, women were more likely to support the discontinuation of FGM/C if they believed that men want the practice to discontinue as well and vice versa. At a higher level of secondary education however this association is less pronounced. This result concludes that the role of perceived male attitudes should be an important factor associated with female ones and studied further, and underlines the importance of education in women empowerment.

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“…Thus, higher percentages of Muslim than Christian women practice FGMC, intend to cut their daughters, and view FGMC as desired by religion, "good" for the girl, cleansing or purifying, and protective against sexual transgressions [34]. Findings from the 2014 Survey of Young People in Egypt confirm that Christian women and men are less likely than Muslim women and men to report favorable views about the practice [61]. Thus, the emergence in Egypt of FGMC as a symbol of authentic Muslim womanhood has transformed the practice from a widespread gender norm to a gender norm that defines Muslim identity [37].…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Community gender systems and a daughter’s risk of female genital mutilation/cutting: Multilevel findings from Egypt

et al. 2020

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We tested a feminist social-ecological model to understand community influences on daughters' experience of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGMC) in Egypt, where over 90% of women ages 15-49 are cut. FGMC has potential adverse effects on demographic and health outcomes and has been defined as a human-rights violation. However, an integrated multilevel-level framework is lacking. We theorized that a more favorable community-level gender system, including stronger gender norms opposing FGMC and expanded extrafamilial opportunities for women in the village or neighborhood, would be associated with a daughter's lower risk of FGMC and would strengthen the negative association of a mother's opposition to FGMC with her daughter's risk of cutting. Using a national sample of 14,171 mother-daughter dyads from the 2014 Egypt Demographic and Health Survey, we estimated multilevel discrete-time hazard models to test these relationships. Community gender norms opposing FGMC had significant direct, negative associations with the hazard that a daughter was cut, but women's opportunities outside the family did not. Maternal opposition to FGMC was negatively associated with cutting a daughter, and these associations were stronger where community opposition to FGMC and opportunities for women were greater. Results provided good support for a gender-systems framework of the multilevel influences on FGMC. Integrated, multilevel interventions that address gender norms about FGMC and structural opportunities for women in the community, as well as beliefs about the practice among the mothers of at-risk daughters, may be needed for sustainable declines in the practice.

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Female genital cutting in Egypt: drivers and potential responses

Cited by 3 publications

References 17 publications

Community gender systems and daughter’s risk of female genital mutilation/cutting: New theory and application to Egypt

Community gender systems and daughter’s risk of female genital mutilation/cutting: New theory and application to Egypt

Exploring the association between perceived male attitudes and female attitudes toward the discontinuation of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting in Egypt

Community gender systems and a daughter’s risk of female genital mutilation/cutting: Multilevel findings from Egypt

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