Does Maternal Education Curb Female Genital Mutilation? Evidence from a Natural experiment in Egypt (2021)
This study is a Descriptive research regarding All FGM/C with the following characteristics:
Author(s): Ahmed S.R and Mesbah F.S
FGM/C Type(s): All
Health area of focus: None.
Objective: This study aimed to investigate the causal impact of education on the actual practice,attitude towards,and the mother’s intention to perform FGM to her daughters in the future in Egypt.
Study Population: ever-married women aged between 15-49 from the 2008 Egypt’s Demographic and Health Survey
Findings: The key findings suggest that maternal education did not discourage the actual implementation of the FGM practice in Egypt. It did not reduce either the probability of having a circumcised daughter or the motivation to perform FGM in the future. However,our results suggest maternal education had a favorable impact on the sentiment toward the FGM practice. The unexpected results maybe explained by the poor quality of schooling in Egypt on human capital protection and the power of traditionalism versus education. While in this study we focused only on the impact of the quantity of mothers’ education on
FGM of their daughter,further research is needed to assess the impact of education quality
and the extent to which the mother is gaining health knowledge and awareness through the
public education system in Egypt which is known with its poor quality of education.
A key policy message based on the findings of the current study is that reducing the school
dropout rates and increasing years of schooling could have a beneficial effect on changing the
supportive attidudes that would supplement other policy measures implemented to
discontinue the FGM practice.
Geographical coverage
Region(s):
Country(ies):Egypt