State feminism and international policy transfer negociations : the case of FGM in Egypt

Since the mid-1990s, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) has been the subject of particular attention in Egypt. The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development organised in Cairo brought Egypt, concerned about its international image, to raise the issue publicly (Seif-El-Dawla 1999). In 2008, as the medicalisation of FGM was growing, a law was passed officially banning the operation. However, the rate of excision did not decline as expected (El-Zanaty 2015). Starting with an interrogation about the non-compliance with law and the de facto tolerance of FGM practices by the state (Dewey et al. 2021), my work is inspired by the analyses of transnational public policies that challenge the notion of international ‘transfers’ (Allal 2010; Hassenteufel et Maillard 2013). While the cause was added to the agenda in a context of international pressure and continues to be promoted and funded by international programmes, the anti-FGM policy is nonetheless renegotiated at the national level within a framework of public action specific to the interests of the actors involved, closely linked to the way in which women's rights are framed by the executive. As President al-Sissi made the promotion of women's rights a cornerstone of its popular legitimacy in 2013 (Zaki 2015), my work focuses on the first eight years of his term (2013-2021) and highlights the institutional configurations that are behind the accelerated yet constrained implementation of UN gender standards. Wishing to contribute to a better understanding of public action with regard to the practice of FGM, not as such, but as a means of implementing state feminism in a context of dependence on international aid, I show how, within a homogeneous development milieu, members of government institutions and Cairo-based representatives of international organisations (IO) work together to redefine the anti-FGM norm, in a consensus that is adapted both to the gender framework as defined by state institutions and in conformity with international norms. This work is based on my master’s research conducted between 2019 and 2021 in Cairo, through participant research in an IO in Cairo, as well as a series of interviews with members of IOs and national institutions.