Seven months ago, a Henry Ford Hospital emergency room doctor was arrested for the female mutilation of young girls 6-8 years old. Young girls who traveled with their families to Dr. Nagarwala for the barbaric “procedure” were told they were going to Detroit for a “special girls trip.”
The alleged genital mutilations were NOT performed by Dr. Nagarwala at the Henry Ford Hospital in Dearborn, MI. Authorities are saying the procedures took place at the Dr. Attar owned Burhani Medical Clinic in Livonia, MI.
The child victim also stated that she said she had to go to the doctor “to get the germs out.” Upon a medical exam on April 11, a doctor determined that the child’s genitals had been altered or removed. The child identified Dr. Nagarwala as the doctor who performed the procedure.
This practice though widely accepted in the Middle East is (at least for now) against the law in the United States.
A second Michigan doctor and his wife were also arrested and charged with performing female genital mutilation on minors, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Fakhruddin Attar, 53, and his wife, Farida Attar, 50, of Livonia, were both arrested and have been charged with conspiring to perform female genital mutilations on minor girls out of Dr. Attar’s medical clinic in Livonia.
Now, a federal judge is dismissing the charges, calling them unconstitutional.
The Detroit News – The ruling by U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman comes two weeks after defense lawyers mounted the first challenge to a 22-year-old genital mutilation law that went unused until April 2017.
That’s when Dr. Jumana Nagarwala of Northville was arrested and accused of heading a conspiracy that lasted 12 years, involved seven other people and led to mutilating the genitalia of nine girls as part of a religious procedure practiced by some members of the Dawoodi Bohra, a Muslim sect from India that has a small community in Metro Detroit.
Friedman delivered a significant, but not fatal, blow to a novel criminal prosecution being closely followed by members of the sect and international human-rights groups opposed to female genital mutilation. The case raised awareness in the U.S. of a controversial procedure and prompted Michigan to enact new laws criminalizing female genital mutilation.
Friedman removed four defendants from the case — including three mothers accused of subjecting their daughters to female genital mutilation — while concluding Congress had no authority to enact a law criminalizing female genital mutilation, known as FGM.
“There is nothing commercial or economic about FGM,” Friedman wrote in a 28-page opinion. (Female genital mutilation) is not part of a larger market and it has no demonstrated effect on interstate commerce. The Commerce Clause does not permit Congress to regulate a crime of this nature.”