Doctor charged with performing genital mutilation on young girls
A Detroit emergency room doctor has been charged with performing genital mutilation on young girls in what is believed to be the first criminal case of its kind brought by U.S. prosecutors.
Jumana Nagarwala, 44, of Northville, Mich., was charged in federal district court in Detroit with female genital mutilation, transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and making a false statement to a federal officer, court records show. In a criminal complaint, FBI Special Agent Kevin Swanson alleged that two young girls traveled with their parents from Minnesota so Dr. Nagarwala could perform the procedure on them in early 2017, and that investigators had identified other children who might have been victimized between 2005 and 2007.
The Justice Department said the case is believed to be the first brought under the particular U.S. law that criminalized female genital mutilation.
“According to the complaint, despite her oath to care for her patients, Dr. Nagarwala is alleged to have performed horrifying acts of brutality on the most vulnerable victims,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in a statement. “The Department of Justice is committed to stopping female genital mutilation in this country, and will use the full power of the law to ensure that no girls suffer such physical and emotional abuse.”
Female genital mutilation — or removing all or part of a female’s genital for nonmedical reasons — is considered a human rights violation, though it is practiced mostly in some African countries and also some areas of the Middle East and Asia, according to UNICEF.
The procedure is typically performed on girls before they reach puberty and can lead to infections, childbirth complications or pain during urination or menstruation. The World Health Organization estimates that worldwide, more than 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone some form of genital cutting.
A June 2016 report from the Government Accountability Office found that increased immigration from countries where it is practiced had brought it to the United States, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that in 2012, 513,000 women and girls here were “at risk of or had been subjected” to it.
According to the complaint, members of a particular religious and cultural community are known to use the procedure, which some see as a way to curb sexuality in girls. The complaint did not identify the community but said Dr. Nagarwala, a U.S. citizen who also speaks Gujarati, a language spoken in the same ethnic area that Mahatma Gandhi came from, was a part of it.