Defend the Human Rights of Adolescent Girls

Thank you!

With your support and continued advocacy, we have been working on behalf of courageous young women around the world.

We are thrilled to report that the appeal in our campaign to get Justice for Soheir was successful! In January, the appeals court in Mansoura sentenced Dr. Fadl to two years in jail for manslaughter and three months for performing female genital mutilation (FGM). Soheir's father received a three-month suspended sentence under the anti-FGM law. The case was the first time that the 2008 law was used. The doctor's clinic, where the FGM was performed, was also ordered to be shut down for one year.

This first ever FGM trial in Egypt is hugely important in a country that has the highest number of affected women and girls in the world. It is also extremely significant that a medical professional was sentenced as medicalization of FGM in Egypt is very high -- more than 75% of cases are performed by medical practitioners. With these convictions, Egypt is sending a strong message that FGM will not be tolerated and puts medical practitioners on notice.

This will be an important stepping stone towards ending this extreme human rights violation once and for all. 

Soheir was just one of an estimated 125 million women worldwide who have undergone some form of FGM. Of those, 1 in 5 lives in Egypt. We estimate that 91 percent of Egypt's female population has undergone the procedure which often involves cutting off parts of the female genitalia and, in some cultures, sewing together the labia and is sometimes practiced under the belief that it may prevent extramarital sexual activity.

Thank you for believing in Equality Now and our work to defend the rights of adolescent girls like Soheir.

Read more about this groundbreaking case in the Guardian, Al Jazeera, New York Times and BuzzFeedNews.

Links:

• Doctor Convicted Of Carrying Out FGM In Egypt
• Egypt Court Convicts Doctor of Female Genital Mutilation
• Doctor jailed after Egypt's first FGM conviction

Thank you for being an agent of change for women and girls everywhere!

With your support, we have been working  on behalf of courageous young women around the world.

In Kenya, sixteen-year-old Liz was gang raped while walking home from her grandfather’s funeral. Following the rape the perpetrators dumped Liz, unconscious and battered, down a pit latrine. Liz was ultimately rescued by nearby villagers and the attack was reported at the Tingolo Administration Police Camp the next day. Three of the suspects were apprehended, but the police officer on duty astonishingly recorded the attack as a mere “assault.” After completing their “punishment” of cutting the grass outside the police station, all the men were released from custody. As a result of the attack, Liz was confined to a wheelchair and developed obstetric fistula. Since the launch of the global #JusticeForLiz campaign and release of our action,  Kenyan officials have upgraded the charges against all the suspects and the trial began in June (to be resumed in September). Liz is now recovering after surgery and recently began walking again. She remains hopeful despite threats against her and her family for speaking out. After Equality Now’s advocacy, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has begun detailing almost 100 additional rape cases that have been identified by our local partners  as not being investigated and/or in which the identified suspects had not been arrested. The DPP subsequently has called for “speedy and thorough investigations” into the cases and appointed a team from the DPP’s Sexual and Gender Based Violence unit to provide guidance.

Thank you for believing in the importance of our work to defend the rights of adolescent girls like Liz, and for helping us to protect them from this and other harmful traditional practices.

Links:

• Link to Equality Now's Action campaign