Nagarwala, Accused Of Genital Cutting, May Lose Parental Rights

DETROIT, MI — The Detroit area doctor at the center of a sweeping federal and state investigation into female genital cutting — a practice condemned worldwide as a barbaric violation of women’s and girls’ human rights, but a religious ceremony in a Shia Muslim sect known as Dawoodi Bohra — could lose custody of her two school-aged children, a boy and a girl. Michigan Child Protective Services filed a petition to terminate the parental rights of Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, 44, of Northville, is Wayne County Juvenile Court.

The petition was one of three filed by CPS in Wayne County, and comes on the heels of three others filed in Oakland County, including one against Nagarwala’s co-defendants in a federal case, Dr. Fakhruddin Attar, 53, and his wife, Farida Attar, 50, of Farmington Hills. The CPS petitions are in response to the historic case against the three, who are accused of conspiring to perform the procedure on two 7-year-old girls from Minnesota at the Attars’ now-closed Livonia clinic.

The most serious of the charges against Nagarwala, who was fired by Henry Ford Health System, where she had privileges, could send her to prison for life. All three defendants are being held in federal custody without bond.

Six more girls from Metro Detroit have been identified as having undergone the procedure since the federal investigation began. The other parents at risk of losing their children have not been criminally charged. In the Oakland County cases, juvenile court referees declined to remove the children from their homes. In the case of the Attars’ daughter, she will remain in her Farmington Hills home under the supervision of relatives.

Nagarwala will appear in court on the petition to terminate parental rights at 3 p.m. Friday, May 19, the Detroit Free Press reported. Genital mutilation is considered child abuse under Michigan law, and the CPS petition alleges that Nagarwala’s daughter underwent the procedure.

Female genital mutilation, or FGM, has been illegal in the United States for more than two decades, but the case being brought in U.S. District Court in Detroit is the first court test of the law. Nagarwala and the Attars, through their attorneys, have said they are being persecuted for being Muslim and have denied that any cutting was done in the procedures. However, the government maintains in court complaints that medical examinations show scarring and other evidence that prove the opposite.

Anjuman-e-Najmi Detroit, an organization managing the affairs of the local Dawoodi Bohra community, said in a statement that it condemns genital cutting and encourages its members to follow U.S. law.

“We take our religion seriously but our culture is modern and forward-looking,” the statement said. “We are proud that women from our community have high levels of educational attainment and enjoy successful, professional careers.”

The aim of sexual mutilation is to suppress women’s and girls’ sexual desires, but it can have serious health complications, including urinary tract infections, difficulty passing urine, difficulty with menstruation and complications during childbirth.

About 125 Metro Detroit families are members of the Dawoodi Bohra sect and worship at a mosque in Farmington Hills. The federal investigation and now the CPS petitions have unsettled Dawoodi Bohra parents, who told the Free Press their daughters had been pulled from classes, interrogated by child welfare workers and subjected to medical examinations to determine if their genitals had been cut.

Nagarwala, a John Hopkins University-trained physician, is a U.S. citizen.

Photo of Dr. Jumana Nagarwala via Henry Ford Health System