Genital Mutilation A Religious Ritual, Doctor’s Attorney Says

DETROIT, MI — A Detroit area doctor accused of performing illegal female genital mutilation procedures was ordered held without bond Monday by a federal magistrate judge who said Dr. Jumana Nagarwala’s is not only a flight risk, but also poses a danger to the community. An attorney representing Nagarwala, 44, of Northville, admitted the doctor performed procedures on minor children’s genitalia, but said they were in keeping with a religious practice common in a small sect of Indian Muslims known as the Dawoodi Bohra, according to testimony in the U.S. District Court detention hearing in Detroit.

Nagarwala, a U.S. citizen and Johns Hopkins University-trained physician, was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport Thursday as she was about to board a flight bound for Africa. The trip had been previously planned, but now that she is facing federal criminal charges, she should be held until her trial in the internationally prominent case, federal prosecutors argued.

The complaint against Nagarwala, who is accused of performing FGM procedures late at night at a Livonia clinic, involves two 7-year-old girls from Minnesota who were kept in the dark about the reason for their trip to Michigan in February and were told to keep quiet about what happened after they arrived. At least one of the girls has been removed from her home by child protection workers in Minnesota.

The case against the physician is believed to be the first of its kind in the United States. According to the criminal complaint, Nagarwala performed the procedures out-of-state girls as young as 7, who were kept in the dark about the real reason for their trip to Michigan. They were told they were taking a “special girls’ trip,” or needed to make the long journey to see a doctor because their tummies hurt, according to the complaint.

Multiple girls in Michigan may have had the procedure as well, according to the complaint, but it’s unclear if additional charges will be brought against Nagarwala.

• See Also: Detroit Doctor Accused Of Female Genital Mutilation Of Young Girls

FGM has been globally condemned as a violation of the human rights of girls and women. Though still practiced in parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East as a means to curb girls’ and women’s natural sexual urges and exercise dominance in patriarchal societies, FGM has been illegal in the United States for more than two decades. Federal prosecutors said the case against Nagarwala is believed to be first FGM case to go to trial in the United States. The case relies on a federal law that criminalizes FGM and makes punishable by up to five years in prison.

Nagarwala was also charged with transportation of an individual with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and lying to a federal agent. She initially denied having performed the procedures in an interview with a Homeland Security Investigations agent and Michigan Child Protective Services personnel, according to the complaint.

Nagarwala’s attorney, Shannon Smith, said the physician, a member of the Dawoodi Bohra sect, removed membranes from the girls’ genitalia, then presented the tissue to their parents for a ritualistic burial, the Detroit Free Press reported. Smith denied the procedure involved cutting, according to testimony.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Woodward said during the detention hearing that Nagarwala performed the procedure after hours and didn’t keep patient or billing records.

“She knew that this was illegal but did it anyway,” Woodward said.

Nagarwala has been placed on leave at Henry Ford Hospital, where she was an emergency room doctor, hospital spokesman David Olejarz said in a statement.

“We are shocked by the allegations,” he said. “The alleged criminal activity did not occur at any Henry Ford facility. We would never support or condone anything related to this practice.”

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During Monday’s detention hearing, a small group of protesters rallied outside the federal courthouse and argued for the criminalization of male circumcision — a procedure about 49,000 baby boys go through annually in Michigan at the request of their parents, the Free Press reported.

Jody Farrugia, a registered nurse at Detroit Medical Center, told the newspaper she tries to talk new parents out of having their sons circumcised. “I still hear their screams from down the hallway,” she said. “It haunts me.”

Proponents of the procedure say it’s a health benefit, but Farrugia argued otherwise, citing complications such as erectile dysfunction and others.

“The genitals of both girls and boys needs to be protected from the harm of any genital cutting practice,” Norm Cohen, executive director of NOCIRC of Michigan, a nonprofit, consumer-rights advocacy group that opposes male circumcision, told the Free Press. “Michigan has one of the highest rates of circumcision in the world. This unnecessary custom violates a child’s right to bodily integrity and normal functions.”

However, the reasons for FGM are much different, according to Human Rights Watch, which said that “in some societies, the prevailing myth is that girls’ sexual desires must be controlled early to preserve their virginity and prevent immorality.”

“In other communities,” the New York City-based organization said, “FGM is seen as necessary to ensure marital fidelity and to prevent deviant sexual behavior.”

The Shia Muslim sect Nagarwala belongs to was linked to a mutilation scandal in Australia, The Detroit News reported. The World Health Organization estimates more than 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone the procedure in the 30 countries where FGM concentrated. Another 3 million girls are at risk of being subjected to the procedure every year, the WHO said.

Earlier this year, ABC Australia reported that researchers at Westmead Children’s Hospital in Sydney found pediatricians and children’s health specialists had treated almost 60 girls who had undergone an extreme form FGM — removal of the clitoris — since 2010, but the actual number was probably much higher. They experienced both physical problems, but also psychological issues, according to the study’s author, Elizabeth Elliott, a professor in pediatrics and child health.

“Many of these girls were experiencing physical complications such as urinary tract infections, difficulty passing urine, difficulty with menstruation, but a lot of them were also suffering from psychological consequences of having had the procedure,” Elliott said.

Photo via Henry Ford Health System