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Legal Awareness and Practices of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) among United Arab Emirates Medical Practitioners

Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), due to its regional occurrence, is a marginalized issue in the international arena. The aim of the study was to verify reasons for performing a procedure prohibited by international and domestic law. A cross-sectional study was conducted among nurses and do...

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Autores principales: Al Awar, Shamsa, Zareba, Kornelia, Sallam, Gehan Sayed, Osman, Nawal, Ucenic, Teodora, Khair, Howaida, Shdefat, Suzan Al, Fattah, Hadya Abdel, Maki, Sara
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10049077/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36981617
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20064710
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author Al Awar, Shamsa
Zareba, Kornelia
Sallam, Gehan Sayed
Osman, Nawal
Ucenic, Teodora
Khair, Howaida
Shdefat, Suzan Al
Fattah, Hadya Abdel
Maki, Sara
author_facet Al Awar, Shamsa
Zareba, Kornelia
Sallam, Gehan Sayed
Osman, Nawal
Ucenic, Teodora
Khair, Howaida
Shdefat, Suzan Al
Fattah, Hadya Abdel
Maki, Sara
author_sort Al Awar, Shamsa
collection PubMed
description Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), due to its regional occurrence, is a marginalized issue in the international arena. The aim of the study was to verify reasons for performing a procedure prohibited by international and domestic law. A cross-sectional study was conducted among nurses and doctors practicing in the UAE. The study was conducted from the 1 of January 2020 to the 31 of December 2021. The total number of recruited individuals who agreed to participate was 120, with the rate of return being 82%. About half of the participants (n = 59, 49.2%) have seen FGM/C patients in their UAE practice. Regarding medical staff, the total knowledge score concerning possible complications of the performed procedure was assessed at 64%, i.e., at a moderate level. None of our study participants had previously performed any type of FGM/C. However, 6.7% were willing to do it upon a mother’s or guardian’s request. About 83% of study participants stated that FGM/C should be halted internationally. Only 26.7% of the medical practitioners were aware of UAE law concerning FGM/C, while 50% had no knowledge concerning this issue. The present study reveals that cultural conditions take priority over medical knowledge, making medical practitioners inclined to accept the circumcision of girls and women. The crucial goals of future activities should focus on sensitizing society and the medical community, the need to create clear laws penalizing the practice, and the legal obligation to report the circumcision of a girl or woman.
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spelling pubmed-100490772023-03-29 Legal Awareness and Practices of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) among United Arab Emirates Medical Practitioners Al Awar, Shamsa Zareba, Kornelia Sallam, Gehan Sayed Osman, Nawal Ucenic, Teodora Khair, Howaida Shdefat, Suzan Al Fattah, Hadya Abdel Maki, Sara Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), due to its regional occurrence, is a marginalized issue in the international arena. The aim of the study was to verify reasons for performing a procedure prohibited by international and domestic law. A cross-sectional study was conducted among nurses and doctors practicing in the UAE. The study was conducted from the 1 of January 2020 to the 31 of December 2021. The total number of recruited individuals who agreed to participate was 120, with the rate of return being 82%. About half of the participants (n = 59, 49.2%) have seen FGM/C patients in their UAE practice. Regarding medical staff, the total knowledge score concerning possible complications of the performed procedure was assessed at 64%, i.e., at a moderate level. None of our study participants had previously performed any type of FGM/C. However, 6.7% were willing to do it upon a mother’s or guardian’s request. About 83% of study participants stated that FGM/C should be halted internationally. Only 26.7% of the medical practitioners were aware of UAE law concerning FGM/C, while 50% had no knowledge concerning this issue. The present study reveals that cultural conditions take priority over medical knowledge, making medical practitioners inclined to accept the circumcision of girls and women. The crucial goals of future activities should focus on sensitizing society and the medical community, the need to create clear laws penalizing the practice, and the legal obligation to report the circumcision of a girl or woman. MDPI 2023-03-07 /pmc/articles/PMC10049077/ /pubmed/36981617 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20064710 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Al Awar, Shamsa
Zareba, Kornelia
Sallam, Gehan Sayed
Osman, Nawal
Ucenic, Teodora
Khair, Howaida
Shdefat, Suzan Al
Fattah, Hadya Abdel
Maki, Sara
Legal Awareness and Practices of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) among United Arab Emirates Medical Practitioners
title Legal Awareness and Practices of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) among United Arab Emirates Medical Practitioners
title_full Legal Awareness and Practices of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) among United Arab Emirates Medical Practitioners
title_fullStr Legal Awareness and Practices of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) among United Arab Emirates Medical Practitioners
title_full_unstemmed Legal Awareness and Practices of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) among United Arab Emirates Medical Practitioners
title_short Legal Awareness and Practices of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) among United Arab Emirates Medical Practitioners
title_sort legal awareness and practices of female genital mutilation/cutting (fgm/c) among united arab emirates medical practitioners
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10049077/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36981617
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20064710
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