Doctors and nurses in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, can no longer perform female genital cutting, a senior Health Ministry official said yesterday. Some Indonesian communities encourage parents to cut parts of a newborn daughter's clitoris although the country's Islamic groups are in dispute over such non-therapeutic practices. Sri Hermiyanti, who heads the ministry's family health directorate, said symbolic female circumcisions that do not involve physical damaging of the child still could be carried out. "Hurting, damaging, incising, cutting the clitoris are not allowed. These acts violate the reproductive rights of these girls and harm their organs," said the doctor, adding the announcement has been circulated to health workers since April.