FEMALE genital mutilation survivors in Egypt spoke out today against the “hellish” practice as they awaited the outcome in the country’s first trial for carrying it out.

The verdict on Dr Raslan Fadl’s case is expected today. He could face up to two years in prison if convicted.

Reporters visiting his Nile delta village Manshiet el-Ikhwa said the medic still had a popular practice — even though 13-year-old Sohair el-Batea died when he operated on her last year.

FGM was outlawed in Egypt in 2008 but it remains common in the country. 

Sohair’s father faces charges alongside Mr Fadl, but her family have refused to condemn the doctor — with her grandmother saying the death was simply “her destiny.”

Unicef’s Egypt representative Philippe Duamelle said the court case was an opportunity for the government to show that “this crime is now taken with all the seriousness it requires.”

Campaigner Manal Fawzy agreed, calling for a “sharp punishment” to show the ban would be forcefully applied.

“But to change behaviour is more difficult,” she admitted. 

A 2008 survey showed that the practice is falling out of favour, finding that 91 per cent of Egyptian women between the ages of 15 and 49 had suffered FGM — with the proportion dropping to 74 per cent among 15 to 17-year-olds.

Ms Fawzy runs the Assiut Childhood and Development Organisation, which works to convince people to abandon FGM.

“Slowly, the taboo is being broken,” she said.

But other locals showed scant concern for the law, with Emad Hamdi saying he hadn’t decided whether to make his daughters undergo FGM. He had heard that without it they would be “sexually voracious.”

Mother and daughter victims Manal and Marina Nasef Fahmy said the practice came out of ignorance.

“My father took me far away so I don’t hear my older sister screaming as she underwent the operation. I was next after my sister and I will never forget it,” Marina said.

“I decided to have her circumcised before being educated about it,” her mother added. “I will always regret it.”

Laila Nazma recalled the “day of hell” when she underwent FGM, “fainting from the pain and bleeding a lot.”