Minnesota House OKs Harsh Penalties For Genital Cutting

SAINT PAUL, MN — Lawmakers in Minnesota, home of two young girls at the center of a historic Michigan court case testing U.S. laws forbidding female genital mutilation, took a step toward making the internationally condemned practice illegal in the state. The Minnesota House voted, 124-4, Monday to impose harsh penalties on doctors who perform genital cutting, practiced among some Muslim sects as a religious ritual.

Under federal law, female genital mutilation is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. The Minnesota House bill would tack on felony charges and prison sentences ranging from five to 20 years in prison, depending upon the severity of damage to girls subjected to the procedure. Doctors who cut the girls, as well as the parents and guardians who allow the procedures, could be charged, and teachers and caregivers would be mandatory reporters. Additionally, parents who allow genital cutting could lose custody of their children.

The Minnesota Senate is expected to take up the measure later this week. If the bill is signed into law, Minnesota would join 24 other states that currently have statutes against genital cutting.

Women who underwent the procedure as girls cheered the House action criminalizing genital cutting, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

“I have two beautiful daughters,” said Somali immigrant Waris Mohamud. “I don’t want my two beautiful daughters [to] go through what I [went] through.”

The Minnesota Legislature took up the issue about a month after a Detroit area emergency room doctor was charged with female genital mutilation in a federal indictment accusing her of performing the procedure on two 7-year-old girls from Minnesota. The girls were kept in the dark about the reason for the trip, believing they were taking a “special girls’ trip” or needed to make a long journey to see the doctor because their tummies hurt, and were then told to keep quiet about it, according to the complaint charging Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, 44.

A subsequent federal indictment charged another Michigan doctor, Dr. Fakhruddin Attar, 53, and his wife, Faida Attar, 50, with conspiring with Nagarwala. All three have denied involvement in genital cutting and through their attorneys have said the government is persecuting them for being Muslim. Genital cutting is common in a small Shia Muslim sect known as Dawoodi Bohra, but the defendants say the Minnesota girls weren’t cut, but rather a small mucous membrane was removed from the clitoris,wiped on a portion of gauze and then presented to their parents for burial. However, doctors have said an examination of girls showed evidence of cutting, according to court documents.

Sexual mutilation, performed to curb girls’ and women’s sexual desires, has been denounced as a violation of women and girls by the World Health Organization.

“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.”

Dawoodi Bohra leaders have condemned the practice, and said in a statement to Patch that members of Minneapolis and Detroit congregations were warned last year of their obligation to follow U.S. laws. “It is an important rule of the Dawoodi Bohras that we respect the laws of the land, wherever we live,” the statement said. “This is precisely what we have done for several generations in America. We remind our members regularly of their obligations. ... It is unfortunate if anyone has not abided by the laws of the country.”

Despite that, the practice has deep cultural roots that won’t be easy to change, Farhio Khalif, a Somali-American told the Star Tribune.

“The women are afraid,” she said. “We were raised [to believe] if you’re not circumcised, you’re not going to get married. Men are not going to love you if it’s not done.”

State Rep. Mary Franson, the Alexandria Republican who sponsored the legislation, labeled as “heroes” the women who stepped forward to talk publicly about a practice that is only whispered about in the immigrant communities where it is practiced. The extent to which it is practiced in Minnesota is unknown, but the WHO estimates more than 200 million women around the world have been subjected to genital cutting. According to a study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 513,000 girls in the United States have been subjected to or at risk of undergoing genital mutilation.

The bottom line for Franson is, “if you harm your child in this way, you’re going to be held responsible, parents.”

“I don’t care what religion, what culture, anything,” she said.

Though the measure overwhelmingly passed the Minnesota House, some lawmakers worried felony convictions could result in deportations for immigrant parents and traumatize children who might be removed from their homes. Minnesota child-welfare workers have filed protection orders for the girls in the federal case. In Michigan, six petitions have been filed to terminate parental rights of parents whose children underwent the procedure.

State Rep. Rena Moran, a member of the Democratic Farmer Labor Party who represents St. Paul, said that while lawmakers don’t want to see any young girl undergo the procedure, “neither do we want to tear families apart” because parents are ignorant of U.S. laws.

Photo by Teresa Boardman via Flickr Commons