The National Committee for the Eradication of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) held its eighth meeting on December 8, headed by Dr. Maya Morsy, President of the National Council for Women and Eng. Nevine Osman, Secretary-General of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood.

The meeting brought together Frederika Meijer, UNFPA Representative in Egypt, Jeremy Hopkins, UNICEF Representative in Egypt, Dr. Magued Osman, CEO of the Egyptian Center for Public Opinion Research (Baseera), Dr. Fatma El-Zanaty. Technical Director of the Egyptian Family Health Survey 2021, among representatives of other government entities and civil society organizations.

Dr. Maya Morsy confirmed that Egypt has made significant progress towards the elimination of FGM, specifically in 2021 when Egypt’s parliament harshened penalties on FGM, explaining that this indicates strong political will to protect women and girls from all forms of violence.

 Dr. Morsy also referred to the results of the recently launched Egyptian Family Health Survey 2021 (EFHS), which show a decline in the prevalence of FGM among girls aged 0-19.

She said that she is hopeful that young generations, aged 10-19 will contribute heavily to the elimination of the harmful practice.

The EFHS revealed that 86 percent of Egyptian married women between the ages of 15 and 49 have undergone FGM, which is a decline from the 2014 survey in which the prevalence rate among the same age group stood at 92 percent.

On her part, Meijer reaffirmed UNFPA’s commitment towards the eradication of FGM in Egypt and the creation of a zero-tolerance culture for harmful practices.

“We are keen, through the global joint programme together with UNICEF, to support the Government of Egypt to achieve the SDG target 5.3 on the elimination of harmful practices including FGM in Egypt by 2030,” she said.

The UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme to Eliminate FGM supported the establishment and launch of the National Committee to Eradicate FGM in 2019, under the leadership of the National Council for Women and the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood.