The first article I read this, Egypt’s Battle to End Female Genital Mutilation, had a short video with a young girl and mother talking about FGM. The video shows the women who does the procedure of FGM. She shows how she rubs alcohol to sanitize then uses scissors to finish the job. It mentions that its takes four people to hold down the child. two for the arms and two for the legs. The children scream until the procedure is over. The mother of the child says that if the daughter dies during the procedure, its ok because she died cleansed. Another young girl witnessed her cousin being circumcised and begged her mother not to have the procedure done on her. After seeing her daughters reaction, the mother began to encourage others to avoid having the procedure done on their children. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29735574 The second article I read,Egypt:Deadly risks, but Female Genital Mutilation Persists, talks about an ongoing case of FGM. A doctor and the childs father are being taken to trial for performing FGM. The young girl, Suhair, died during the procedure in Egypt. The doctor claims that he did not perform FGM. He performed another procedure and later gave her penicillin, which she was allegoric to an d later died. Faith and tradition have been the main reasons behind FGM. There have been multiple reports of FGM being performed on newborns. FGM was outlaid in 2008 but to avoid being caught, clinics have been opened in private homes to perform FGM.

Both articles were very interesting to read. Now that we are covering Egypt in class, it is interesting to read on what the women go through. FGM has been an ongoing problem. Even though it was outlawed it continues to occur. Something needs to be done fast. I do believe that FGM is a type of child abuse. No child should be put through such pain. While reading both articles, I realized that male babies are often circumcised soon after birth. Every culture is different, but I think it crosses the line when death is involved.

Prevalence of female genital cutting among Egyptian girls, was a very interesting article. It describes why females have their genitals cut and why they do so.  In certain cultures, it is custom that the women have their genitals cut at young age such as 4. There are many complications that could occur during the procedure such as the loss of too much blood. Anesthesia is not commonly used so the pain is known to be extreme. It has been estimated that between 100 and 130 million women have been subject to Female Genital Cutting (FGC). The womenn find the word "circumcision" offensive. In Egypt, 97% of married women have undergone FGC. They are not considered pure if they have not gone through the procedure and will be avoided by possible suitors. 69.1% of those married women had their daughters go through FGC. In a study, it showed that parents with little to no education were supporters of FGC and parents with an education seemed to have lower statistics for FGC. The second article I read was Egypt’s post-Morsi constitution gets almost total voters’ approval published on January 18, 2014, discusses the new constitution for Egypt. 98.1 % of Egyptians voted yes for the new constitution. Many people believe that the new constitution is the first step towards change. There are multiple problems though. One of the major concerns is whether Sharia Law will be the main source of legislation. Christians and liberals have tried to remove it from the constitution but the Salafi party insisted that it remain in a weaker form. The Muslim Brotherhood boycotted and stated that the poll was illegitimate.

Both these articles were very interesting to read. The women circumcision article did relate much to our readings but it helps to understand why females are subject to FGC. The second article related to our readings because it mentions the constitution and fighting for change. It reminded me of the documentary we are watching in class because these events occurred in Tahir Square in Cairo.

The first article I read this week was, ISIS Kills Iraqi Woman Activist in Mosul. It talked about how ISIS killed a lawyer in front of the public. Samira Salih al-Nuaimi had been posting on Facebook about the religious sites that ISIS had destroyed. After finding out, they seized Samira from her home. She was then tortured for five days and publicly executed. Samira is not the only to be affected by militants. They broke into a females politicians home and killed her and took her husband. There have been several cases where militants kill and abduct women politicians. The second article I read was Egypt’s Trouble with Women. Lotfia El Nadi was the first female pilot in Egypt. She broke free of her fathers rule and followed of her dream of being an aviator. She was and continues to be a role model for young Egyptian women. The fight for equality was an ongoing issue and women followed her example and took flying lessons. Women have always been seen as their husbands property. The revolutions are fighting for equality for women. Both these articles were very interesting. The first article talks about ISIS which is a name that is very popular right now. ISIS has been seen all over the news.