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| 教 育 專 題 深 入 報 導《2007-09-07》 |
| 本期內容 | |
| ◎國際專題：割禮－－強摘的花蕾在哭泣 | |
| ◎埃及女孩的死亡激起女性割禮的辯論火花Egypt death sparks debate on female circumcision | |
| ◎埃及加強執行女性割禮禁令Egypt strengthens ban on female genital cutting | |
| 國際專題：割禮－－強摘的花蕾在哭泣 | |
| 策劃、編譯■陳銳嬪、陳玫伶 | |
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傳統習俗與文化，應該隨著時代的演變，而有所變化。那些不合時宜的傳統習俗，如女性割禮，應該被遺棄。 有些部落給女孩行割禮，是要讓男性在性愛中能夠獲得更多的樂趣，但因為傷口很可能一世都不會康復，進行性行為對行過割禮的女孩來說是痛不欲生的。此外，割禮手術通常都在醫療簡陋的診所或者家中，由不合格的醫生、親戚或者助產婦協助進行，這造成了不少女孩在手術過程中因為醫療疏失或者人為因素而逝世。 本期國際專題把大家帶到埃及，讓大家看看在這個文明時代中的不文明習俗，也請大家為不幸犧牲的雪克爾以及千千萬萬個女孩默哀。 |
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| （回目錄） | |
| 埃及女孩的死亡激起女性割禮的辯論火花Egypt death sparks debate on female circumcision | |
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每年有數以千計的埃及女孩要接受這個儀式，但是對雪克爾來說，「淨化」儀式──割禮──卻奪走了她的生命。11歲的雪克爾在傳統村落穆哈哈的一間私人診所接受陰蒂割除術，她死亡之後，政府才開始正視儀式中對女性生殖器官的虐待行為。估計全國約95％的女性都接受過割禮儀式。 強制禁止割禮儀式進行恐有困難，一般民間相信，女孩施行割禮可以證明其貞潔，因此埃及傳統村落還是會私下進行，施行時間約是女孩進入青春期之際。 尼羅河邊穆哈哈村的女人和女孩表示，她們希望割禮儀式被允許，但是希望有醫療專業人士的嚴格審視。 16歲的中學生阿思瑪說：「如果一個女孩沒有經過淨化，他會跟男人亂搞，這是在維護女性的榮耀，否則他們會變得跟美國人女孩一樣隨意跟男人出去。」她和許多女學生的意見一樣，即使過程不愉快，他們還是支持習俗。「說這裡沒有割禮儀式者肯定是100％騙人的，這裡沒有人沒做過割禮手術，而這個儀式還會持續。」就像其他在穆哈哈村落的女學生一樣，她告訴《路透社》，她雖然害怕要行割禮儀式，但是她還是支持這個習俗。 唯一反對割禮式的學生，被其他同學要求閉嘴，直到她承認割禮是成長必經過程。她說：「沒經歷割禮儀式者將無法嫁出去。」而15歲的蘭蒂則強調：「埃及能夠和平安全是因為我們有割禮儀式。」 雪克爾6月在私人診所因施打過量麻醉劑逝世後，埃及政府下令禁止女性陰蒂割除手術──也稱為割禮或女性生殖器切斷。負責埃及伊斯蘭教法律事務的伊斯蘭教大教長於6月裁決伊斯蘭教禁止割禮儀式，這也是他反對割禮儀式的談話中措辭最強烈的一次。 在埃及，通常施行割禮的是穆斯林和基督徒，由醫師切除女性的陰蒂或其他生殖器官，常見的副作用為過量出血、性行為障礙和驚嚇過度。 埃及和蘇丹以南之外的地區已經很少進行割禮儀式，但是割禮儀式依然在阿拉伯世界如厄立特里亞、衣索比亞和索馬利亞等地方盛行。根據2005年埃及家戶人口和健康調查報告，超過95％的埃及女性曾進行割禮儀式，尤其是南部尼羅河沿岸邊沿的貧困人家。 只是扎一小針 雪克爾因割禮而死的時節，是被反割禮運動者稱為「割禮盛行」的季節，那時候剛好是夏季學校放假時節，迫使開羅正視該項議題，關閉了最常被醫生以健康理由而進行割禮手術的法律漏洞。 像雪克爾一樣，約有30％的埃及女孩由醫生或護士等醫護人員進行割禮，費用從埃及鎊50到500不等 （約新台幣290到2千9百元），每年這個季節有不少女孩因此死亡，麻醉劑過量、失血過多，以及其他併發症皆有案例。 聯合國兒童基金會的官員亞斯蜜‧瓦貝表示：「一些醫師為了對自己的良心有個交代，會說：『我戳她使她流血，她的父母就會覺得開心……』我聽到很多醫生說如果他們不做，這些父母一樣會尋找其他願意這麼做的醫生。」 亞斯蜜‧瓦貝補充道：「我覺得這是很愚蠢的想法。」她覺得，割禮儀式在檯面下依舊流行。 即使政府明令禁止，割禮還是繼續發生，埃及南部的反割禮人士指稱說現在醫生會要求高額費用以補償非法進行割禮的風險。衛生官員表示，南部城鎮就有一名7歲女孩艾德芙在村子裡的診所進行割禮時流血不止，而被緊急送到醫院。 衛生部門在開羅南區調查的結果發現，有些護士一天之內到3名女孩家中為她們進行割禮手術。據衛生部官員表示，如果罪名成立，這些護士將面對至少兩年的牢獄之災。瓦貝說：「至少醫生們會害怕，他們怕法律將嚴格執行。」 （路透社） It was a routine procedure undertaken by thousands of Egyptian girls every year, but something went wrong and Budour Ahmed Shaker died while having her genitals cut in a rite known locally as "purification". The death of the 11-year-old schoolgirl at a private clinic in the Egyptian village Mughagha in June prompted the government to outlaw the custom of female genital mutilation, which is so widespread in Egypt that 95 percent of the country's women are estimated to have undergone the procedure. But the ban may be hard to enforce and activists fear the practise may go underground as the vast majority of Egyptian families still view circumcision as necessary to protect girls' chastity. Most girls are cut by the time they reach puberty. Even in Mughagha, a village of low rise houses hemming the Nile, many women and girls say they want the procedure to be allowed but under more stringent medical supervision. "If a girl is not purified, she will just go hook up with men. This protects women's honour. Otherwise it will become just like America here and girls will go with guys," said Asma Said, a 16-year-old secondary school student. "Those who say it doesn't happen are lying 100 percent. There is not one person here not circumcised, and it will continue." She like many of the schoolgirls in Maghagha who spoke to Reuters said they supported the practice, even if they were frightened of having it done. The only girl who spoke against the practice was shouted down by her classmates until she conceded that genital cutting was a necessity. "No one can get married without it," said the girl. Another classmate, 15-year-old Nesma Radi, chimed in: "Egypt lives in peace and security because there is circumcision." Egypt imposed a complete ban on female genital cutting -- also known as female genital mutilation or circumcision -- in June after Shaker died of an excessive dose of anaesthesia while being cut at a private clinic in Maghagha. Egypt's state-appointed Grand Mufti, the government's official arbiter of Islamic law, decreed in June that female genital cutting was forbidden by Islam, in his strongest statement yet against the practice. In Egypt, the cutting is done on both Muslim and Christian girls and typically involves excising the clitoris and sometimes other female genitalia, often by a doctor. Side effects include haemorrhage, shock and sexual dysfunction. Outside of Egypt and Sudan to the south, the practice is extremely rare elsewhere in most of the Arab world but is common in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. More than 95 percent of Egyptian women had been circumcised, with the highest levels in poor families living in rural areas of the Nile valley in southern Egypt, according to an Egyptian Demographic and Health Survey conducted in 2005. JUST A PINPRICK The highly publicised death of Budour Shaker at the start of what activists call Egypt's "circumcision season", spanning the hot summer months when school is out of session, prompted Cairo to close a legal loophole that had allowed doctors to perform the rite for documented "health reasons". Like Shaker, nearly three quarters of girls who are circumcised in Egypt are cut by medical personnel, including doctors and nurses who receive fees of 50 to 500 Egyptian pounds ($8.85 to $88.50), activists say. They say that a handful of girls die each season -- either because they receive an improper dose of anaesthesia or from haemorrhage or other complications. "Some doctors, so that they feel better about themselves and more ethical in a way, say: 'I'll prick her' so she bleeds and her parents are happy ... I've heard a lot of doctors saying if I don't do it they will go to my fellow doctor who will do it," said Yasmine Wahba, child protection officer at UNICEF. "I think it's cuckoo," she added, referring to the logic. She said she feared the practice may now be driven underground. Even after the government imposed its full ban on the practice, the procedures continue to happen, although an Egyptian anti-circumcision activist in southern Egypt said doctors were now demanding higher prices to compensate for increased risk. In the southern town of Edfu, a 7-year-old girl was brought to hospital in July after she haemorrhaged while being cut in a village clinic, the health ministry said. Health authorities are investigating reports that a nurse in a town south of Cairo had cut the genitals of three girls in a single day in procedures done in their homes. The ministry said the woman, who confessed, could face up to two years in jail. "At least the doctors will be scared," Wahba said. "They will be scared because there is a lot of talk now of enforcing the law." REUTERS |
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| （回目錄） | |
| 埃及加強執行女性割禮禁令Egypt strengthens ban on female genital cutting | |
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埃及衛生部表示，埃及將消除法律漏洞，不再允許女孩以健康理由進行割禮手術，並加強執行女性割禮禁令。 在埃及，女孩的割禮儀式──通常是生殖器官的毀損或切斷，是被禁止的。但是這個被認為是女孩通往大人的重要儀式依然在各個角落盛行，且被認為可以保護女孩的貞潔。 衛生部發表文告說，該部門在一名11歲女孩於一家私人診所進行割禮手術而喪生後，已經全面禁止割禮手術。據安全的消息來源指出，今年7月下旬，雪克爾在南部的一個小村落進行割禮時，因為被給予過量的麻醉劑而死亡。 衛生部在事件發生後，馬上取消1996年的割禮條款，該條款允許在生病的情況，如果獲得醫生的允許與勸告，得以進行割禮手術。負責埃及伊斯蘭教法律事務，受政府當局所任命的伊斯蘭教大教長，也明確地指出：「伊斯蘭教禁止割禮這個傷害女孩的傳統習俗。」 開羅著名的阿茲哈清真寺大教長莫哈末‧但塔威認為割禮儀式並不符合伊斯蘭教教義，但是也有一些伊斯蘭教教長是支持這個習俗的。 除了但塔威，埃及之土著基督教派教主申納達也指出，無論是可蘭經或者聖經都沒有要求或者提及女性割禮這回事。割禮儀式通常在女孩要踏入青春期前進行。 這個習俗包括切除部份或者全部陰蒂和其他女性生殖器官，有時候這些習俗由醫生執行，但是通常由親戚或者助產婦操刀。割禮的副作用有出血、震驚和性行為障礙。 在阿拉伯世界，其實已經很少有割禮儀式，但是在埃及和蘇丹，無論穆斯林女孩或者基督教女孩都難以逃過割禮儀式。而割禮習俗在厄立特里亞、衣索比亞和索馬利亞依然普遍。 埃及醫生聯合會曾經對因為割禮而死亡的女孩的死因進行調查，聯合會警告醫生不要在診所或者家裡進行割禮手術，因為這將會給這些女孩帶來「不利的健康影響」。埃及當地一家主要大報報導，有關當局會中止被發現從事割禮手術醫生的一些職務。 聯合國兒童基金會2005年的報告發現，97％年齡介於15歲到49歲的埃及女子，都曾經進行割禮手術。埃及終止女性割禮習俗運動者進行各種運動希望可以結束這個習俗，其中一個運動是，在電視節目中推廣這個觀點，目標是說服家長遺棄這個古老習俗。 （路透社） Egypt strengthened its ban on female genital cutting on Thursday by eliminating a legal loophole allowing girls to undergo the procedure for health reasons, the health ministry said. Genital cutting of girls, often referred to as female genital mutilation or circumcision, is banned in Egypt although the practice remains widespread as a rite of passage for girls and is often viewed as a way to protect their chastity. The health ministry said in a statement it had now outlawed the practice entirely after an 11-year-old girl died while undergoing the procedure at a private medical clinic. Budour Ahmed Shaker died last week in the southern province of Minya after she was given a heavy dose of anesthetic, security sources said. The health ministry's step cancelled out a 1996 provision to the law which had permitted the operation "in situations of illness" should doctors advise it, the health ministry said. 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 hemorrhage, 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. The Egyptian doctors' syndicate has launched a probe into the girl's death and warned doctors against performing the procedure either in homes or medical facilities, citing "detrimental health effects" on girls. A major Egyptian daily newspaper said authorities had suspended the doctor who performed the operation from some work. A 2005 UNICEF report found 97 percent of Egyptian women between ages 15 and 49 had been circumcised. Egypt's campaign to end female cutting has included television programs aimed at persuading parents to abandon the ancient practice. REUTERS |
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