الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Female Genital Cutting is a hannful practice which affects all aspects of women’s health negatively. It is an extreme form of violence against women which violates their fundamental human rights and impedes their ability to fully participate in public life. According to EHIS 2015, 87% of all Egyptian women age 15-49 years have undergone FGe. The survey also clarified the dangerous issue facing Egypt which is medicalization of the practice. As health care providers, mainly physicians conducted 78% of FGC procedure among girls aged from 0-14 years. Such fmding highlights the negative and unexpected role of health care providers, as they supposed to protect people instead of harming them. Health care providers, especially PHSPs represent an important sector in the health care delivery system due to their privileged position, as they are the primary communicators with the public. They can play an important role in raising public awareness toward combating FGC through transferring appropriate health messages to the public and inspiring them to change their inappropriate behavior and bring the desired behavioral change. On the other hand, jf health services providers do not represent a role model and do not comply with healthy behavioral patterns they cannot by any means help o transfer the appropriate healthy messages to the public. On the contrary, they will be contributing negatively in propagating the wrong practices. Accordingly, this study was conducted to explore and compare attitudes of PHSPs, including nurses and physicians in two distinct Egyptian governorates, namely Alexandria and El Behera. Studying the attitudes of this important sector of the society is an important step toward successful elimination of this harmful practice. It can be a precursor to imparting positive changes of PHSPs’ behavior and consequently that of the public. Furthermore, this study sought to determine factors which favor continuation or discontinuation of FGC which should be considered in developing and implementing strategies to eliminate this inhuman practice. |