Nagarwala was arrested in April 2017 after two young girls accused her of performing mutilation procedures on them earlier that year. She had then fiercely contested the allegations and asserted that she was only performing a religious practice as ordained in Islam and in accordance with the customs followed by the Muslim sect of Dawoodi Bohras

Dr Jumana Nagarwala, a Muslim doctor in the United States is facing trial on charges of performing female genital mutilation on minor girls, all seven-year-olds. But the federal authorities have now revealed that Ms Nagarwala was not the only doctor cutting the children.

Nagarwala is reportedly a part of a secret nexus of doctors who travelled across the country carrying out the brutal procedure under the guise of performing religious rituals.

In November 2018, a federal judge dismissed several charges against Dr. Jumana Nagarwala in the historic female genital mutilation case, ruling that the federal law against female genital mutilation is unconstitutional.

However, the Muslim doctor is still facing an obstruction charge for allegedly concealing information during the trial. As per a report published in Detroit Free Press, prosecutors on Thursday revealed that there were other doctors in California and Illinois who were also cutting young girls as a part of religious rites followed by the Indian Muslim sect, Dawoodi Bohras. 

The prosecution also asserted that Ms Nagarwala travelled to the Washington DC area to perform female genital mutilation (FGM) on as many as five minor girls there. 

Dr. Jumana Nagarwala

Besides Nagarwala, one Dr Fakhruddin Attar was also charged with mutilation, conspiracy and obstruction, for allowing her to perform the surgeries at his clinic in Livonia, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.

Additionally, the same charges were also levelled against Attar’s wife, Farida, a woman named Tahera Shafir who reportedly helped in the procedure, along with four other women who suckered their daughters into undertaking the procedure for religious purposes. 

During the trial in November 2018, the US district court dismissed all the cases except one obstruction charge against Nagarwala, Attar, his wife Farida and Shafiq. The judge cited a 1996 federal law to declare the ban on the practice as unconstitutional and concluded that it’s up to the states to regulate female genital mutilation.

The trial was brought to a halt as the coronavirus pandemic swept across the globe, including in the United States. Later in March 2021, the prosecutors issued a superseding indictment with five new charges, including conspiracy to make false statements and witness tampering. 

As per prosecutors, Nagarwala and her three cohorts lied to the FBI about the female genital mutilations they were performing and threatened others in their community to lie should the FBI decides to interview them about it.

What is the Ritual?

“Circumcision is obligatory (for every male and female) (by cutting off the piece of skin on the glans of the penis of the male, but circumcision of the female is by cutting out the bazr ‘clitoris’ [this is called khufaadh ‘female circumcision’]).” — ‘Umdat al-Salik e4.3, translated by Mark Durie, The Third Choice, p. 64

Why is it obligatory? Because Muhammad is held to have said so: “Abu al- Malih ibn Usama’s father relates that the Prophet said: ‘Circumcision is a law for men and a preservation of honour for women.’” — Ahmad Ibn Hanbal 5:75

“Narrated Umm Atiyyah al-Ansariyyah: A woman used to perform circumcision in Medina. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said to her: ‘Do not cut severely as that is better for a woman and more desirable for a husband.’” — Abu Dawud 41:5251

“Do not cut severely,” but not “Do not cut.”

Female genital mutilation is prevalent in some majority Muslim countries and is sometimes called “cleansing” by its practitioners. It involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, often performed without anesthesia. It is designed to ensure females remain virgins until marriage.

There are certain Hadiths, particularly from the Shafi, Hanbali and Hanafi schools of Islam, which mention female circumcision as either permissible, honourable or as a sunnah (recommended) practice.

Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin

In June 2016, Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin issued a press statement in which he described circumcision as an act of “religious purity”. He claimed that the main reason for female and male circumcision, according to Da’im al-Islam (a 10th century book of jurisprudence), is hygiene or taharat – not just physical but also “spiritual” and “religious”

After being arrested, Nagarwala claimed FGM was a religious ritual followed by Dawoodi Bohra Muslims

Nagarwala was arrested in April 2017 after two young girls accused her of performing mutilation procedures on them earlier that year. She had then fiercely contested the allegations and asserted that she was only performing a religious practice as ordained in Islam and in accordance with the customs followed by the Muslim sect of Dawoodi Bohras. Nagarwala had said that the procedure only involved scraping the membrane of the girls’ genitalia as part of the religious custom.

However, the doctor’s reports procured by the Detroit Free Press reveal the FGM procedure often rendered severe injuries, including scarring, a small tear, lacerations and other complications.

As per federal authorities, Nagarwala and her cohorts are performing female genital mutilation procedures since 2015, and charged her with mutilation of seven other girls from Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota.

Court records cited by reports revealed victims who were subjected to FGM whailed, screeched and bled during the procedure, with one of them drugged with Valium ground in liquid Tylenol to calm her down during the procedure.