Nicholas Kristof's "A Rite of Torture for Girls": Indeed, and What About Egypt?

In a New York Times op-ed entitled "A Rite of Torture for Girls" (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/opinion/12kristof.html?_r=1&hp), Nicholas Kristof deplores the practice of female genital mutilation, also known as female circumcision. Writing from Somaliland, Kristof describes this abomination, intended to deprive women of their sexual drive, which can lead to a host of medical problems:

"This is one of the most pervasive human rights abuses worldwide, with three million girls mutilated each year in Africa alone, according to United Nations estimates. A hospital here in Somaliland found that 96 percent of women it surveyed had undergone infibulation.

. . . .

But it is clear that the most effective efforts against genital mutilation are grass-roots initiatives by local women working for change from within a culture. In Senegal, Ghana, Egypt and other countries, such efforts have made headway.

. . . .

Although some Christians cut their daughters, it is more common among Muslims, who often assume that the tradition is Islamic. So a crucial step has been to get a growing number of Muslim leaders to denounce the practice as contrary to Islam, for their voices carry particular weight."

"Headway" in working for change in Senegal, Ghana and Egypt? What about Egypt? As reported by DHS in a June 2009 report (http://www.measuredhs.com/pr1/post.cfm?id=103D45DB-5056-9F36-DC5160A996D00DDC):

"While over 90% of Egyptian women age 15-49 have been circumcised, the 2008 Egypt Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) indicates that female circumcision rates are declining and that support for the practice is waning.

Four in five (81%) young women age 15-19 have been circumcised compared to 94% of women age 24-29. This marks a substantial decline in female circumcision in recent years. Female circumcision is least common among those with secondary or higher education; only 87% of women with secondary or higher education are circumcised compared to 98% of women with no education.

Women’s support of female circumcision is also decreasing. The 2008 EDHS reports that only 63% of ever-married women believe that female circumcision should continue, compared to 82% in 1995. In 2008, more than one-third of women and one-quarter of men believed that female circumcision should be stopped."

Sure, these statistics would appear to indicate progress, but not nearly enough.

I ask myself why Kristof did not write about this issue during his recent sojourn in Cairo, where he extolled the downfall of Mubarak. Likewise, Kristof didn't tell us about the "Million Women's March" from Cairo's Tahrir Square two months ago, intended to coincide with International Women's Day, but which brought out only several hundred persons. As reported by The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/08/rival-protesters-clash-women-tahrir):

"There have been ugly scenes in Tahrir Square as hundreds of women, many of whom had recently faced tear gas alongside men during the protests that toppled Hosni Mubarak, attempted to hold a 'Million Women's March' in Cairo to highlight their hopes of playing an active part in building a new Egypt.

They were harassed and intimidated by a counter-protest made up of mainly men objecting to the call for a new constitution allowing women to stand for the Egyptian presidency.

As the women, who were marching on International Women's Day, found themselves surrounded they chanted 'the people want to bring down women' – a variation on the 'the people want to bring down the regime' chant that became the Egyptian revolution's battle cry.

"Women were caught in the middle and groped," witness Ahmad Awadalla said. "When I tried to defend them they said, 'why are you defending women? Are you queer?'" These scenes were repeated until the army dispersed the crowd."

While in Cairo, Kristof also didn't write about the ongoing horrors being perpetrated against Egypt's Christian Copt minority. This past Saturday, Muslims attacked the Saint Mina Church in the Cairo suburb of Imbaba with firebombs and gunfire, resulting in 10 dead and 186 wounded (see: http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=219704).

Why didn't Kristof write from Cairo about the persecution of the Copts or female genital mutilation? Is it because these stories didn't jibe with his otherwise rosy picture of nascent Egyptian democracy? Such columns certainly would have provoked the Muslim Brotherhood, and Kristof might have quickly learned that he had overstayed his welcome in Egypt.