Jakarta – The Health Ministry says that its regulation on female circumcision does not oblige girls to undergo circumcision but merely regulates the standard operating procedure.

Several NGOs such as the Legal Aid Foundation of the Indonesian Women's Association for Justice (LBH APIK), the National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) and Kalyanamitra urged the government to annul the regulation as it condoned female circumcision.

Murti Utami, the ministry's public communication center head, said the ministerial regulation was made to protect girls from illegal circumcision practices, if they wanted to be circumcised.

"If it is not regulated, we are worried that traditional female circumcision can harm the girls' health," Murti said in a press release made available to newsportal detik.com.

She said the regulation guaranteed the safety of girls as it stipulated that female circumcision could only be performed by female licensed doctors, nurses and midwives.