Doctor’s arrest brings attention to U.S. female circumcisions

DETROIT — Zehra Patwa learned only a few years ago that during a family trip to India at age 7, she was circumcised, which is common for girls in parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Ms. Patwa, 46, doesn’t remember undergoing the procedure, which is also called female genital mutilation or cutting and which has been condemned by the United Nations and outlawed in the U.S. But she doesn’t want to.

“I have no desire to get that memory back. … Psychologically, it feels like a violation, even though I don’t remember it,” said Ms. Patwa, a technology project manager from New Haven, Conn., who now campaigns against the centuries-old practice.

The recent arrest of a Michigan doctor accused of performing the procedure on two 7-year-old girls from Ms. Patwa’s own Shiite Muslim sect, the Dawoodi Bohra, highlights how female genital mutilation is alive and well in parts of the Western world where its adherents have migrated and formed communities.

Depending on the culture, female circumcisions are performed on girls of various ages and by various methods, and they are seen as a way of controlling a girl’s sexuality, maintaining her purity or even making her more fertile as she grows into adulthood. Critics, though, say it can cause complications during childbirth, make intercourse painful and eliminate any pleasure a woman can derive from sex.

Jumana Nagarwala is accused of performing the procedure on two Minnesota girls that left them with scars and lacerations. Her attorney, Shannon Smith, insists that Dr. Nagarwala conducted a benign religious ritual that involved no mutilation.

Prosecutors two weeks ago charged two other Bohras, Fakhruddin Attar and his wife, Farida Attar, with conspiracy. Fakhruddin Attar owns the Detroit-area clinic where the alleged procedures were performed in February, and investigators say the couple knew Dr. Nagarwala was doing the procedures after business hours.

There are more than a million Bohras in the world, most of whom live in India. No one knows how many there are in the U.S., but it’s estimated there are about 25,000 and that they have about 20 mosques and gathering places.

Ms. Patwa, who is part of the activist group Speak Out on FGM, said that given its clandestine nature, it’s hard to estimate how many people perform female circumcisions in the U.S.

When many Bohra girls are age 6 to 8, their parents approach — or are approached by — a “secret network” of female elders about getting the girls cut. There is then an informal vetting process to make sure a request is legitimate and not an attempt to expose any activities, Ms. Patwa said.

“Everybody knows somebody who has gotten their daughter cut … but nobody wants to rat out their family members or friends,” she said.

Ms. Patwa said many Bohra mosques, including hers, have sent letters to members encouraging them not to engage in khatna because it could be considered illegal. But she said some critics don’t see this as a serious attempt by mosques to end the practice, but rather as legal cover.