Female circumcision doc 'on the run’

An Egyptian doctor sentenced to two years in prison over a girl's death during a female circumcision operation said Tuesday he was on the run, but an NGO claimed he is still practising.

Police said they were seeking the doctor, Raslan Fadl, after his sentencing in January and denied the claim that his clinic is still open.

Fadl is the first doctor sentenced to prison for female genital mutilation (FGM), since the practice, still widespread, was banned in 2008.

The court in Mansoura province also handed a suspended three-month sentence to the father of the victim, 14-year-old Sohair al-Bataa.

Eleven months later, Fadl said he was still free and hiding from police.

"I am in very bad condition," he told AFP by phone.

"I am moving around every day, scared of detectives. They want to apply the sentence and I have to move around."

Fadl denied that he was practising medicine, but the New York-based women's rights group Equality Now said his clinic was still open.

"He has not served a single day of his prison sentence and his clinic remains open," the group said.

The group said representatives had travelled to his province demanding his arrest.

"Though the chief of police promised to do within 48 hours, Dr Fadl still remains free," it said.

A police official told AFP Fadl was being sought.

"There is a final ruling against this doctor, and we are trying to apprehend him," he said, adding that the clinic was closed.

FGM involves the removal of the clitoris, and sometimes even more extreme mutilation, in a bid to control women's sexuality.

It can cause lifelong pain and serious complications during childbirth.

A 2000 survey found that 97 percent of married women in Egypt had undergone the procedure.

Activists say the campaign to end the practice suffered a setback with the 2011 overthrow of president Hosni Mubarak, whose regime had imposed the ban.

Some Islamists argued that the ban was a legacy of his autocratic rule which should not be enforced.

FGM is also practised in a number of other African countries as well as parts of the Middle East, and is usually carried out by women.

The World Health Organization estimates that up to 140 million women have been victims worldwide.

 

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