Twelve-year-old girl dies during circumcision in Egypt

Religious and health authorities of Egypt banned female circumcision after a 12-year girl had died on the hands of a doctor, performing the operation.

The girl, Badour Shaker, died earlier in June while being circumcised in an illegal clinic in the southern town of Maghagh. Her mother, Zeniab Abdel Ghani, told the Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper that she had paid 50 Egyptian pounds (about US$9 dollars) to a female physician to perform the procedure.

The mother also told the paper that the doctor later tried to bribe her to withdraw a lawsuit accusing the physician of murder, in return for 15,000 Egyptian pounds (about US$3,000), but she refused.

A forensic investigation into the case showed the girl's death was caused by an anesthesia overdose during the procedure.

The case sparked widespread condemnation and was closely followed in Egyptian papers, which also reported that Shaker had passed out sweets to pupils in her class earlier on the day of her death, to celebrate her good grades.

Continue....