Makassar, South Sulawesi (ANTARA News) - Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih said Ministerial Decree Number 1636 of 2010 on female circumcision was not meant to ban the practice but to protect girls.

"If it is not regulated, it may lead to the procedure being carried out not by medical personnel but perhaps by shamans or others who would cause infection, bleeding and excessive cutting," the minister said here on Tuesday.

In the health minister`s decree issued in November 2010 it is stated that only doctors, nurses or midwives can perform female circumcisions.

"And what they can do is merely making a scratch with a sterile needle. There is no prohibition," she said.

The ministerial decree on female circumcision has been rejected by various parties who are calling for a halt to the practice. They said the ministerial regulation was only legitimizing it.
(Uu.H-YH/HAJM/F001)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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