Understanding the role of medicalisation in mothers' decision-making on daughters' female genital cutting in Assiut, Egypt.

Abstract

In recent decades, female genital cutting (FGC) has become increasingly medicalised (with the practice being performed by health professionals) in Egypt. Whilst various national and international policies condemn medicalised FGC, the basis for these policies frequently rests on moral arguments and presumed outcomes rather than rigorously derived evidence. What remains largely unaddressed in debate on the shift towards medicalisation of FGC is an understanding of the decision to medicalise, viewed through the lens of the practising communities involved. Therefore, in this paper, we explore how mothers weigh the different options regarding their daughter's FGC (a traditional cut, a medicalised cut, or no cut at all) and the meanings attributed to these options. After interviewing 25 mothers in Assiut, Egypt on their decision-making, we identified two main narratives, which each provide a different answer to the question of how the choice to (not) medicalise a girl's cut is embedded in the choice of whether or not to cut. The narrative of aligning with community expectations emphasises that the practice is primarily driven by community norms and beliefs and remains the main driver behind FGC. Here, whether to turn to a healthcare provider to perform a girl's cut is decided after the decision whether a girl will be cut. In the second narrative, the narrative of observable need, families typically turn to healthcare providers with the question of whether or not to cut their daughter rather than the question who should perform their daughter's cut.