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Coming to America: FGM
I couldn’t bring myself to spell out the initials in the title: Female Genital Mutilation. In fact, I nearly didn’t write the post, the topic is so abhorrent. But given the facts, and the manner in which this crime has been reported, I felt compelled to write about it.
Just over one week ago, Jumana Nagarwala was jailed in Detroit for practicing female genital mutilation on two, seven-year old girls. Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco said, “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.”
Nagarwala was a 44-year old emergency room physician working at Henry Ford Health System. In protesting her arrest, her attorney, Sharon Thompson, explained the following: “Nagarwala never performed female genital mutilation … The doctor merely wiped off a portion of the mucous membrane from the girls’ clitoris. A small amount was placed on a gauze pad and given to the family for burial. This is part of the culture,” Thompson told the magistrate.
Nagarwala is a member of the Dawoodi Bohra from India, a community that is based locally out of the Anjuman-e-Najmi mosque on Orchard Lake Road in Farmington Hills. It’s the only Dawoodi Bohra mosque in Michigan. At this writing, no one confirmed that her attorney’s description of the procedures she performed was accurate. At a hearing on Monday, she was held without bond while awaiting trial.
In my research I discovered that FGM is practiced by 29 African countries and also ethnic groups in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf. The Female Genital Mutilation website provides this chart:
Unicef provides the following data from 2016:
According to the data, girls 14 and younger represent 44 million of those who have been cut, with the highest prevalence of FGM among this age in Gambia at 56 per cent, Mauritania 54 per cent and Indonesia where around half of girls aged 11 and younger have undergone the practice. Countries with the highest prevalence among girls and women aged 15 to 49 are Somalia 98 per cent, Guinea 97 per cent and Djibouti 93 per cent.
In most of the countries the majority of girls were cut before reaching their fifth birthdays.
The global figure in the FGM statistical report includes nearly 70 million more girls and women than estimated in 2014.This is due to population growth in some countries and nationally representative data collected by the Government of Indonesia. As more data on the extent of FGM become available the estimate of the total number of girls and women who have undergone the practice increases.
In researching the data regarding the countries that immigrate to the US, I found the following information from Pew Research:
If you compare this chart to the previous chart, you can see that although some countries that immigrate to the US practice FGM with only a small portion of their children, it still occurs, and the numbers in those countries are increasing.
I feel obligated to point out a number of factors that counter such a devastating picture: we don’t know precisely which Muslims are actively practicing FGM in their countries of origin because complete data is hard to collect; we don’t know how many of the immigrants will maintain FGM practices if they immigrate to this country, given its illegality; we don’t know how many Muslim doctors will practice the procedure for the same reasons. There is simply a great deal we don’t know.
Regarding this topic, M. Zuhdi Jasser, at the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, reported on the crime and demanded a full investigation.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, originally from Somali, made the following points on Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News:
People don’t like talking about the genitals of little girls, but we do have to describe what happens. The clitoris of the little girl is removed, and the labis is sewed shut. This is done to kill the sexual libido… and ensure virginity. Some people say they have religious reasons — it is because of Islam. Some say it is because of cultural reasons. Or a mixture of that. That can never be an excuse to harm girls in that way.
After checking the internet every day for the past week, I have only seen Dr. Jasser and Hirsi Ali speak out publicly against this travesty in Detroit.
Nagarwala’s mosque and the Muslim community in general, to my knowledge, have been silent.
Published in Culture
A savage and barbaric practice.
The statistics in the UK are very concerning. Of course, the population mix in the UK is quite different from that in the US. But it would appear as though this practice is not always “left behind” in the country of origin when someone emigrates.
The National Health Service (Britain’s government-run healthcare system) has a very detailed and explicit section on FGM and what to do if you’re a victim or have a concern about another common practice, which is to take the child or young woman out of the UK for the procedure, and then bring them back in. I mention this only to demonstrate that it’s a real issue for Britain, not just something people rant about on websites (not implying that you’re ranting, Susan, I’m with you on this one). Firm statistics are hard to come by, but the BBC reported that there were almost 6,000 new cases in the UK between April 2015 and March 2016. It’s a huge problem.
Hopefully, the situation you reported on will act as a wake-up call in this country, and the problem and the practice will be consigned to the ash-heap of history where it belongs. “Diversity” be [redacted].
Thank you for posting this. The following is a graphic video made by Ann Barnhardt some years ago about FGM. What they do and how they do it.
https://www.tubeid.co/download-video/qKXRw_3MscLReKs/ann-barnhardt-female-genital-mutilation-in-islamic-culture-warning-graphic-nsfw-7-of-13.html
Apparently this has been going on for at least 7 years in MI and other states. Several more girls have stepped forward to the FBI and several more doctors arrested.
I don’t ever remember clitorectomy on the list of requested Emergency Room procedures when applying to a hospital staff.
“Diversity is our strength” / sarc
This is beyond question savage and barbaric:
However this at least sounds fairly innocuous:
It sounds like something that could be done w/o any actual harm, much like taking a tissue sample for a lab test. Please correct me if I’m wrong!
This certainly warrants further investigation, but shouldn’t we at least get the facts straight before condemning Nagarwala of FGM?
Thanks so much for expanding on this topic, She. I wasn’t aware (but I’m not surprised) that people are sending the children away for the procedure. I suspect the same is happening here.
Joseph, there is already evidence that this is not what she did. They also have other little girls who have gone through the procedure and they are being investigated. Parents should also be punished.
Edit: there was also an authority who verified that it is not a practice that her religious group performs. It’s in one of the linked articles.
Nope. Zero tolerance. You can’t normalize this in any way shape or form.
My only source of information about this case is your article, and you wrote:
You seem to be adopting a “guilty until proven innocent” standard here. If there is in fact evidence that her attorney’s statement is false, perhaps you should update your post to mention this (and link to sources)?
I agree it’s an important (if unpleasant) topic to discuss, I just think in doing so it is vitally important to get all the facts right.
Yes. The Complaint that was filed (available at the link Susan provided, recounts the findings of a doctors who examined two of the girls. I should think the evidence in this case should be easy to obtain, and dispositive, very quickly.
Also, @josephstanko, from the same link:
According to the FBI–
“The girls’ parents admitted bringing their daughters to Metro Detroit when questioned by investigators and having Nagarwala perform the procedure at an unnamed Livonia clinic.”
Yes but what exactly was “the procedure?” That seems to be the crux of the case. After reading your post, I got the impression that Nagarwala was accused of doing this:
Now if that actually happened it should be very easy to prove, and she should go to prison for a very long time.
I hope people don’t miss the larger issue of FGM and it’s possibly spreading in this country. People are already coming forward in the US and stating they were victims (which can easily be verified through examination). But many new immigrants are coming from countries where this is practiced. I don’t have an easy answer, but the big question is, how do we protect the children?
Well, we can’t have any restrictions on immigration lest we make ISIS mad. /s
The only one to deny the full procedure was completed was her attorney.
Again the article says:
“When I saw her picture, I knew immediately that she was a part of the Dawoodi Bohra community,” said Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
The sect’s mosque in Farmington Hills was built in 1988 and is attended by about 125 families.
“It is a more insular community,” Walid said. “They do not mingle, and that mosque doesn’t really affiliate with any of the other mosques in Metro Detroit.”
Walid also said he has never heard of a religious procedure described by Nagarwala’s defense team.
“Her admission of it being a religious practice is not a legitimate defense,” Walid said.
I didn’t think I’d see the day when I’d be grateful to CAIR for speaking up.
If the goal is to “protect the children,” which is more likely to protect young girls: admitting them into the United States where FGM is illegal and prosecuted by the FBI, or forcing them to stay in countries where the practice is perfectly legal?
Good point. But then the question is, is it up to us to protect the children of the world from their parents?
Given current trends, followers of the ROP will change our society far more than we will change their practices. As Steyn says, immigrant rights appear to trump women’s rights, Gay rights etc.
You’re wrong, Patrick, thank you for keeping an open mind but you are so wrong.
“Mucous membrane” does not mean a little bit of fluid dripping from the nose. “Mucous” is not “Mucus”. “Mucous membrane” here means the delicate overlying skin of the crurae of the clitoris, the most nerve=filled and sensitive part of the female anatomy.
“Wiped off” means cut off, with a knife, a pair of scissors or a cautery.
FGM is a savage crime, a felony, no different than if someone were to lop of your toe or the head of your penis without anesthesia. This Doc should lose her license be jailed. Mutilating the genitals of a child is not a laughing matter.
Why isn’t this a major point for the Left, for the Feminists? Just askin’.
And while I am at it, why do we permit circumcision?
I think you got us mixed up, you’re saying I’m wrong and Patrick is right.
That is the obvious next question, as defenders of FGM prefer the term “female circumcision.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/female-genital-mutilation-fgm-case-per-hour-uk-nhs-circumcision-a7564571.html
A third obvious question is why we would permit surgical removal or alteration of children’s breasts or genitals as part of so-called “gender reassignment surgery.”
So hard to absorb these numbers, P. Thanks for chiming in!
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/nigerian-mom-of-triplets-flees-to-winnipeg-to-avoid-female-genital-mutilation-1.3401142
I share your horror and repulsion, but
do we really have religious freedom if people are not allowed to indoctrinate their children, and to do with them as the parents’ religion dictates (case in point, circumcision). Isn’t that the very essence of religious liberty?
It’s like the Jehovah’s Witness blood transfusion thing. If you believe in an eternity of reward or punishment, what’s the difference if your child dies at seven or seventy-seven? What is a lifetime compared to ETERNITY?
Whatever we think, the hijabbed moms who bring their daughters to these gyns for mayhem are doing it in the sincere belief that their daughters will experience a happier life, and afterlife, as a result.
And are these benighted Muslims any different than “enlightened” parents who get genital mutilation surgically performed on their pre-pubescent children because of the parents’ belief that the child is transgendered?
In my opinion, the irrational, contrarian faith in the dogma of gender fluidity is doing just as much harm as the Dark Ages creed now seeping into a Western nations like an inky poison.
I just threw up in my mouth. Oops, I did it again.
Actually, Hypatia, there’s a debate within the religion whether this is a cultural practice or a religious one. It is practiced to be able to prove that their daughters are virgins and to ensure that they don’t enjoy sex (and probably to keep them from straying). I don’t believe the “sincere belief” you refer to applies. Women have been quoted saying they’ve just always done it, without any reference to religious doctrine.
You might have missed this post .