Female Circumcission in Egypt

"A 2005 Unicef report found that 97 percent of Egyptian women between 15 and 49 had had the procedure."

And recently;

Egypt strengthened its ban on female genital cutting by eliminating a legal loophole that allowed girls to undergo the procedure, the Health Ministry said

What do the religious clercis say;

Egypt's state-appointed Grand Mufti, in the strongest statement yet on the issue by the government's official arbiter of Islamic law, said on Sunday Islam forbade the "harmful tradition of circumcision" of girls.

The Grand Sheikh of Cairo's prestigious al-Azhar mosque, Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, has also described the practice as un-Islamic, but some other clerics have supported it.

Both Tantawi and Coptic Pope Shenouda, the leader of Egypt's minority Christian community, have said that neither the Koran nor the Bible demand or mention female circumcision, which is usually performed on pre-pubescent girls.

The practice involves cutting off part or all of the clitoris and other female genitalia, sometimes by a doctor but also often by a relative or midwives. Side effects include haemorrhage, shock, and sexual dysfunction.

Female genital cutting is performed on both Muslim and Christian girls in Egypt and Sudan, but is rare elsewhere in the Arab world. It is also common in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia.