VZCZCXYZ0011
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHEG #3127/01 2980956
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 250956Z OCT 07
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7286

UNCLAS CAIRO 003127 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR G/IWI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PHUM KPAO KWMN EG
SUBJECT: NOMINATION OF AMBASSADOR MOUSHIRA KHATTAB FOR THE 
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN OF COURAGE AWARD 
 
REF: STATE 126072 
 
¶1.  Ambassador Moushira Khattab, Embassy Cairo's nominee for 
the Secretary's International Woman of Courage award, 
deserves USG commendation for having formed and led a broad 
alliance to combat female genital mutilation (FGM) in Egypt. 
Since the beginning of her tenure as Secretary General of the 
National Council on Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) in 1999, 
Ambassador Khattab has pursued an agenda of progressive 
reform in Egyptian family law.  Recently Ambassador Khattab 
recruited religious leaders and other important stakeholders 
to address the highly charged and sensitive issue of FGM. 
Thanks to Ambassador Khattab, both the Egyptian government 
and society have begun to take concrete and specific steps to 
eradicate a practice that has long inflicted pain and 
suffering on the great majority of Egyptian women. 
 
¶2.  FGM is a long-standing custom in Egypt.  Government 
statistics indicate that 97 percent of ever married women 
aged 15 to 49 -- Christians and Muslims alike -- have 
undergone FGM.  Practitioners frequently conduct the 
operation without anesthetic, using knives or razors.   The 
procedure can lead to death through shock from pain or 
bleeding.  Failure to use sterile instruments may lead to 
infections.  Egypt has the highest rate of Hepatitis C in the 
world; many girls are infected as a result of FGM procedures. 
 Other complications include urinary and reproductive 
infections, scarring that causes difficulty during 
childbirth, and infertility, and a host of other urinary and 
reproductive tract problems. Experts estimate that 70 percent 
of female infertility rates in Egypt are the result of FGM 
complications.  FGM, rooted in obscure traditional practice, 
harms Egyptian women both physically and mentally. 
 
¶3.  Ambassador Khattab has worked with vigor and passion to 
combat FGM.  She is one of Egypt's most outspoken and 
inspirational leaders lobbying for the rights of women and 
children.  In her role as the head of the NCCM, she has 
considerable influence with policy makers and commands 
admiration and respect from grassroots women activists for 
her leadership, commitment, vision, and courage.  Working 
closely with First Lady Suzanne Mubarak, she has enlisted the 
assistance of the Minister of Health to lead a nationwide 
effort to eradicate FGM.  The NCCM, working with the MOH, has 
also enlisted top Egyptian religious leaders, including the 
Coptic Orthodox Pope, the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, and the Grand 
Mufti, to launch an ambitious public awareness campaign, to 
spread the message to the Egyptian people that there is no 
basis for FGM in Christianity or Islam. 
 
¶4.  Ambassador Khattab has also led the effort to bring the 
NCCM message to rural Egypt.  Under her leadership, NCCM 
trainers go to villages throughout the country.  Working at 
the community level, volunteers educate citizens on the 
medical risks and lack of religious basis for FGM.  After 
extensive community dialogue, NCCM volunteers obtain pledges 
from village mothers and fathers that they will not subject 
their daughters to FGM. 
 
¶5.  The impact in Egypt has been extraordinary.  The Ministry 
of Health (MOH) has banned FGM, once an endemic human rights 
problem, and prohibited medical personnel and clinics from 
any involvement in the procedure.  MOH inspectors, for the 
first time, are closing clinics involved in the banned 
practice.  Parliament is expected to consider a new law 
making FGM illegal when it reconvenes late in 2007.  Thanks 
to Ambassador Khattab's leadership, the media has also 
focused on the violence of FGM procedures, with ordinary 
citizens re-examining and rejecting the practice.  As the New 
York Times noted in a recent story, Ambassador Khattab and 
the NCCM are leaders of "one of the most powerful social 
movements in Egypt in decades, uniting an unlikely alliance 
of government forces, official religious leaders and 
street-level activists," in an effort to transform Egyptian 
society and improve the lives of girls and women. 
 
¶6.  Notwithstanding the clear benefits of Ambassador 
Khattab's campaign, there are still some reactionary voices 
in Egypt who oppose it.  These voices charge the anti-FGM 
movement of being a tool of the West and of disrespecting 
ancient customs.  Ambassador Khattab's courageous response 
has been to confront these critics with facts and move 
forward with increased passion and determination.  In 
addition to fighting FGM, the NCCM focuses on several other 
important issues that face women in Egypt such as greater 
access to education for girls.  Ambassador Khattab is the 
primary author of a national plan of action to improve girls' 
education, and NCCM works closely with NGO's to ensure that 
successive generations of Egyptian women receive the skill 
sets they need for a flourishing future.   Finally, she is 
leading a fight against child labor and protecting the rights 
 
of often neglected street children. 
 
¶7.  With her campaign against FGM well-launched, Ambassador 
Khattab--who also represents Egypt on the UN Committee for 
the Protection of the Child--has now embarked on a new 
campaign to improve Egypt's legal protections for children. 
The NCCM has authored new legislation to protect children 
against trafficking, prostitution, and other exploitation. 
The Egyptian parliament is expected to consider the new child 
protection law late in 2007.  Its passage will mark another 
major advance for the expansion of human rights in Egypt. 
 
¶8.  With admiration and respect for Ambassador Khattab's 
tireless leadership in the fight against FGM in Egypt and for 
her efforts to protecting children, in Egypt and around the 
world, Embassy Cairo is pleased to nominate Ambassador 
Moushira Khattab as a Woman of Courage. 
 
¶9.  Biodata for Ambassador Khattab, per para 12 of reftel: 
 
Full legal name:  Moushira Khattab 
 
Job title/association:  Secretary General/National Council 
for Childhood and Motherhood 
 
DOB: N/A  (o/a 1950) 
 
Country of Birth:  Egypt 
 
Citizenship:  Egypt 
 
Address: NCCM, Corniche El-Nil, National Population Council 
Building, Maadi, Cairo 
 
Telephone number: 20-2524-0277 
 
e-mail: rola toghby@yahoo.com (personal assistant) 
 
Passport number: N/A 
 
Per reftel instructtions, Ambassador Khattab has confirmed 
that she is honored to be nominated for this award. 
RICCIARDONE