A Michigan mosque allegedly paid for young girls to receive female genital mutilation (FGM) procedures. This information came from a lawyer who represents the two children of Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, who was arrested in April and charged with performing FGM surgeries on two young girls from Minnesota. Nagarwala, along with Dr. Fakhruddin Attar, and his wife Farida Attar, have all been arrested and charged with crimes related to FGM procedures. Dr. Attar allegedly permitted Nagarwala to use his clinic, and Mrs. Attar allegedly helped to calm the victims during the procedures. Nagarwala may have as many as 100 victims.
A local mosque was paying a physician to perform female genital mutilation on young girls, an attorney serving as a guardian for the doctor's children alleged in court Tuesday.
The disclosure occurred during a hearing in which the state is seeking to terminate the parental rights of Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, 44, of Northville, the lead defendant in Detroit's historic genital cutting case.
Nagarwala's attorney emphatically denied the allegation.
Nagarwala's attorney claims that she was being reimbursed for donating food to the mosque's food bank program, not being paid to mutilate the genitals of small girls. Last week, Nagarwala's husband moved out of their home to avoid their children being placed in foster care. They are instead living with their grandparents.
All of the doctors arrested and accused of genital cutting are members of the Dawoodi Bohra sect of Islam. Authorities say that the Attars and Nagarwala encouraged people to either lie about the procedures or simply keep quiet to cover up the crimes.
The defendants intend to claim a "religious freedom" defense.
In Virginia, an imam came under fire after he said that sometimes FGM was the "honorable thing" to do. He later apologized.
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