Twice circumcised, Wafaa Helmy swore her own daughters would never suffer the same fate. But one night her own mother secretly took her first-born to go under the knife in their Upper Egypt village.

Despite pronouncements to the contrary by both Muslim and Christian clerics, she believes, as do many Egyptians, that this "purification" is a religious duty that helps preserve a girl's virtue and honour.

The social stigma of not having her granddaughter's labia and/or clitoris cut off was just too strong for her.

Official Egyptian statistics say 97 percent of women aged 15 to 49, Christians and Muslims alike, have undergone what the UN prefers to call female genital mutilation, or FGM.

Women here feel they are guarantors of a certain social order and few dare question a tradition that goes back to the time of the pharaohs, in spite of the stories of bleeding, infection and other nefarious effects.