Detroit Doctor Accused Of Female Genital Mutilation Of Young Girls

DETROIT, MI — Little girls as young as 6 thought they were taking a “special girls’ trip” or needed to make a long journey to see the doctor because their tummies hurt, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court Thursday charging a Detroit emergency room doctor with female genital mutilation. Female mutilation is a religious and cultural practice most often found in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, but it is illegal in the United States and has been denounced as a violation of women and girls by the World Health Organization.

Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, 44, of Northville, was expected to be arraigned in federal court Thursday afternoon on the felony charges, which the Justice Department said may be the first brought under a federal statute that criminalizes the practice, commonly known as FGM. Nagarwala is accused of performing the procedures on girls between the ages of 6 and 8, many of whom traveled across state lines to her office in Livonia, Michigan.

The young girls were confused about the reasons behind their visits to Nagarwala and told not to talk about the “secret procedure,” according to the complaint. A 7-year-old from Minnesota told an FBI forensic investigator that she screamed in pain when she “got a shot” after being told to take off her pants and underwear, and that she could “barely walk and felt the pain all the way down to her ankle,” the complaint reads.

Nagarwala, an emergency room doctor at Henry Ford Hospital, is a member of a religious and cultural community that practices FGM as a means of controlling girls' sexuality, the government said. She didn't perform the procedures at the hospital, according to the complaint.

Authorities said Nagarwala performed the procedures on “multiple minor girls,” both from Michigan and out-of-state, at her Livonia clinic. The FBI’s Detroit Division and Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case, with the assistance of the Livonia Police Department, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Michigan and the FBI’s International Human Rights Unit, Criminal Investigative Division.

“Female genital mutilation constitutes a particularly brutal form of violence against women and girls,” Acting U.S. Attorney Daniel Lemisch said in a statement announcing the charges. “The practice has no place in a modern society.”

U.S. Attorney General Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said the Department of Justice is committed to stopping female genital mutilation in the United States and “will use the full power of the law to ensure that no girls suffer such physical and emotional abuse.”

David Gelios, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit Division, called the allegations against Nagarwala “disturbing” and the practice itself “barbaric.”

Steve Francis, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) Detroit Field Office, said the allegations against Nagarwala “are made even more deplorable, given the defendant’s position as a trusted medical professional in the community.”

While male circumcision does not affect the male sex organ, FGM damages female sex organs and both inhibits pleasure and causes severe pain and complications for women’s sexual and reproductive health, according to the group Equality Now. The ideology behind the practices is different, too, the group said, noting that FGM is a “patriarchal cultural tradition carried out with the intent of subjugating women and controlling their bodies,” while male circumcision is “not rooted in a blatantly discriminatory ideology.”

The World Health Organization said FMG has been internationally condemned as a violation of the human rights of girls and women.

“It reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes, and constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against women,” WHO said. “It is nearly always carried out on minors and is a violation of the rights of children. The practice also violates a person's rights to health, security and physical integrity, the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the right to life when the procedure results in death.”

The United States officially criminalized FGM in 2012 under 18 U.S.C. 116, which also includes a travel ban prohibiting parents and others from taking minor girls out of the country to obtain the procedure. It is punishable by up to five years in prison, but Nagarwala could get anywhere from 10 years to life in prison if she is convicted of transportation of an individual with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

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