The appalling results of a recent government health survey in Egypt indicate that many Islamic nations need profound cultural change before they can make progress with Democratic principles. According to the investigators an amazing 96% of all married, divorced and widowed Egyptian women had been subjected to the brutal practice of genital cutting. Performed mostly on helpless girls between the ages of 7 and 13, this cruel tradition eliminates the possibility of normal sexual satisfaction and produces a long list of lifelong risks and painful, permanent consequences. To its credit, the authoritarian Egyptian government has launched a major national campaign to halt this nightmarish abuse, despite the fact that most citizens – particularly outside Cairo – want to continue mutilating their daughters. When the populace chooses to sustain barbaric medieval practices -- as it does in Egypt and in many other Islamic and African states-- it’s obvious that free elections alone won’t bring such nations into the 21^st century.