Egyptian MP Ilhami Agina was interviewed on Al-Hayat TV following an earlier statement in which he had expressed support of female genital mutilation because, he claimed, over 50% of Egyptian men suffered from impotence and were incapable of meeting the sexual urges of uncircumcised women. The TV interview turned into a wrangle when host Tamer Amin struggled to defend the virility of Egyptian men, "the most manly men in the whole world," in his words. The interview aired on Al-Hayat TV on September 3.

Following are excerpts

Interviewer: [MP] Ilhami Agina said that he supports female circumcision - not just any circumcision, but the more extreme kind. When asked about the reason, he dropped the bombshell. He said that a large percentage of Egyptian men suffer from impotence, or at the very least, from erectile dysfunction. Therefore, if women are not circumcised, they will never find men who can satisfy their sexual desires. This is what he said.

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Ilhami Agina: What I said was not my own opinion, but a scientific fact backed by research. I base what I say about Egypt upon... I said that 50% of Egyptian men suffer from erectile dysfunction. This is a well-known medical condition. The proof is that the imported sexual performance-enhancing drugs, or those produced in Egypt... Egypt is one of the largest importers of these drugs.

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I have evidence. There are reports that...

Interviewer: Where do these reports come from?

Ilhami Agina: Bear with me and I'll tell you, and you can check it out on Facebook. It is no secret. These reports are signed by Dr. Sami Al-'Afifi, the head of a department in the Faculty of Medicine at Benha University, and head of the Egyptian Society of Andrology - a formal society under the auspices of the Ministry of High Education. These reports stated that 64% of Egyptian men suffer from erectile dysfunction.

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Interviewer: One cannot make generalizations about such a sensitive matter. It's a crime!

Ilhami Agina: I did not generalize. I did not say 100%...

Interviewer: When you say 50% of Egyptian men, you are making a generalization. 50% of men means every other man. It's a catastrophe!

Ilhami Agina: Tamer, I'm sure that you are among the healthy 50%. It's me who belongs to the defected 50%. I just don't want you to take it personally...

Interviewer: I'm not taking it personally. I'm taking it as a national matter. I consider it to be a national matter that concerns the honor of Egyptian men, who should never be publicly humiliated like this.

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Let me tell you that these statistics are not documented, not accurate, and not indicative.

Ilhami Agina: You have taken us off-topic, Tamer. Okay, let's say that it's not indicative, so that we can move on. Let's say that some percentage of the Egyptian people - you might say 1%, someone else might say 50%, another might say 30%...

Interviewer: It's the same percentage worldwide. Egyptians are just like the rest of the world. As a matter of fact, the Egyptians are more manly than the rest of the world. We are the most manly men in the whole world.

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Ilhami Agina: More than 50% of Egyptian men suffer from sexual dysfunction. This is a medical condition that has no bearing on whether they are manly or not. I did say anything about manliness or lack thereof.

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Ilhami Agina: Anybody who is upset by this must be taking sexual performance-enhancing drugs. If you are upset by this, you must be taking such drugs also.

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