MICHIGAN: 3 charged, accused of mutilating two girls’ genitals

Two Michigan doctors and the wife of one of the doctors have been charged and accused of mutilating the genitals of two 7-year-old girls’- a procedure that is banned in the United States.

In a case that is playing out as the first federal case involving female genital mutilation filed in the United States, Dr. Fakhruddin Attar, 53, and his wife, Farida Attar, 50, were arrested Friday at their medical office in Livonia, Michigan, west of Detroit.

They were charged with three federal criminal counts including conspiracy, female genital mutilation and aiding and abetting.

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According to court documents; one girl said they had gone to the doctor’s office because their “tummies hurt” and the doctor had to “get the germs out.” The second girl said that after the procedure, “she could barely walk, and that she felt pain all the way down to her ankle.”

Both girls said their parents told them not to talk about the procedure. When investigators questioned the parents, one couple described the procedure as a “cleansing” of extra skin.

However, the third suspect, Detroit emergency room physician Jumana Nagarwala, 44, was arrested on April 12 and she is currently in jail awaiting trial after a federal judge deemed her a flight risk and a threat to the community.

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