ISLAMIST radicals scored a victory in their campaign against the Egyptian government yesterday when a Cairo court struck down a ministerial ban on the practice of female genital mutilation.
The ruling, which said the ban was un-Islamic, was a blow to human rights groups and non-governmental organisations fighting to eradicate the practice, also known as female circumcision, but they vowed to fight on. The government did not comment on the verdict.
The ban was decreed by the Minister of Health, Mr Ibrahim Sallam, last year following a number of deaths after botched circumcisions. The operation, which involves the removal of all or part of the clitoris and other genitalia, is often carried out by butchers or traditional midwives using unsterilised equipment, and an unknown number of girls are killed or maimed each year.
A recent government health survey found 97 per cent of Egyptian women are circumcised and Muslim supporters of the practice claim it is a religious duty.
For Islamists the tradition has proved an ideal issue with which to undermine government authority and although one of Sunni Islam's highest authorities, the head of al-Azhar University, has said the practice is not Islamic, radical sheikhs such as Mr Youssef el-Badri who won yesterday's case, insist it was recommended by the prophet Mohammed.