Egypt’s prosecutor-general has referred a doctor and a father of three to criminal court for performing female genital mutilation (FGM) on the man’s three daughters.

According to a statement by the prosecutor-general’s office, the divorced father of the three girls, all of whom are under the age of 18, agreed with a doctor to conduct the FGM procedure without first informing the girls or their mother.

The statement said that the man deceived the three girls and his wife by claiming that the doctor would vaccinate them against coronavirus, but instead forcefully put them through the illegal FGM operation.

The forensic authority confirmed that they had undergone the operation.

The prosecutor-general’s office also took the statements of the girls’ mother and their aunt as witnesses.

FGM has been criminalised in Egypt since 2008. A 2016 amendment mandates sentences of between five and seven years in prison for those involved in the procedure if it results in the death or disability of the victim.

The first conviction for performing FGM in Egypt was in January 2015, seven years after the practice was first criminalised in 2008.

According to the 2014 Egyptian Demographic Health Survey, 92.3 percent of ever-married women aged 15-49 have undergone FGM.

Four-fifths of such operations are carried out by medical professionals, according to the survey.

According to a health ministry in 2018, the rate of FGM among teenage girls aged 15 to 17 fell from 74 percent in 2008 to 61 percent in 2014.