The liberal media are all about covering what they call the “war on women” and their “reproductive rights.” But the broadcast networks have remained silent on a U.S. case of female genital mutilation – even as it progresses.
Earlier this month, the Justice Department publicized charges against Michigan Doctor Jumana Nagarwala for performing female genital mutilation (FGM) on girls between 6 and 8-years-old. Now, two others have been arrested in connection to what is “believed to be the first case brought under” U.S. federal law that forbids FGM. But the three broadcast networks have yet to cover the atrocious story.
On Friday, the Justice Department announced the arrest of Doctor Fakhruddin Attar and wife Farida Attar after a complaint accused the two of working with Nagarwala. Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Lisa Keith listed two charges against the Attars: “conspiracy to commit female genital mutilation” and “aiding and abetting female genital mutilation.”
The complaint reported that Fakhruddin allowed Nagarwala the use of his Livonia clinic to perform FGM, while Farida held the hands of little girls for “comfort” while they were mutilated.
In his defense to federal agents, Attar claimed Nagarwala “sees minor girls for problems with their genitals, including treatment of rashes,” and only “when the clinic is closed.”
ABC, CBS and NBC have yet to mention the appalling story during their morning and evening news shows.
In a hearing April 17, a judge pronounced Nagarwala a “danger to the community.” Employed by Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital, she is now on leave. Present at court, The Detroit News learned Nargarwala, a U.S. citizen, “belongs to a small, insular group of Shia Muslims." Now, the outlet reveals, the Attar couple and the girls’ families also belong to the sect.
Both the complaints against Nagarwala and the Attars focused on two 7-year-old victims from Minnesota.
During one interview, the first little girl revealed that both children traveled to Michigan under the premise of a “special” girls’ trip. They visited the doctor, the 7-year-old said, “because our tummies hurt” and underwent a procedure “to get the germs out.” While on an examining table, with her legs spread, she remembered being “pinched” by the doctor on the “place [where] she goes pee.”
According to a medical doctor who later examined her, the girl’s “genitals are not normal” due to either alteration or removal and showed “scar tissue” as well as “small healing lacerations.”
The second 7-year-old “got a shot” that made her scream in pain, she recalled. In a picture she drew of the scene, she placed blood on the examination table and said that she could barely walk afterwards. She identified Farida as one of the women holding her hand. The parents admitted they took their daughter for a “cleansing” of extra skin, and a medical doctor discovered an incision and tear on her.
The two agents who submitted complaints disclosed the reasoning behind the horrific practice:
[S]ome members of a particular religious and cultural community (hereafter “the Community”) are known to practice FGM on young girls in the Community as a part of their religious and cultural practice … According to some members of the Community who have spoken out against the practice, the purpose of this cutting is to suppress female sexuality in an attempt to reduce sexual pleasure and promiscuity.
In the wake of last week's hearing, Detroit Free Press reported that Nagarwala's attorney admitted her client "removed the membrane from the girls [sic] vaginal parts and gave it [to] the girls' parents, who would then bury it following a custom practiced by a small sect of Indian Muslims known as the Dawoodi Bohra."
Besides Nagarwala, the Attar couple and the girls’ families belong to Dawoodi Bhora, The Detroit News later added. Staff writer Robert Snell detailed the sect’s history:
The Dawoodi Bohras hail mostly from western India and were traditionally comprised of businessmen, entrepreneurs and professionals. There are about 1 million followers worldwide.
Two years ago, three Dawoodi Bohras faced trial in Australia in a case that raised awareness of female genital mutilation. The case ended in prison sentences for the three…
While the local mosque condemned “any violation of U.S. law,” Snell reported, “Nagarwala’s husband, Moiz Nagarwala, is listed as a leader of the Farmington Hills mosque …”
Unlike the broadcast network news shows, Fox News host Tucker Carlson is following the “dreadful story.” He reported the latest development Saturday.
“It's hard even to talk about, it’s so bad,” he stressed. “We’ll continue to follow this story and those like it until this barbaric practice is stamped out in this country as it should have been long ago."
If only the networks would do the same. As the liberal media can cover “women’s rights” like abortion and taxpayer-funded birth control, they overlook women and girls facing grave human rights violations.
According to the World Health Organization, “More than 200 million girls and women alive today have been cut in 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia” and is “mostly carried out on young girls between infancy and age 15.”
Methodology: MRC Culture searched for “Nagarwala,” “female genital mutilation” and “Michigan AND doctor” in network transcripts from ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening news shows since April 13, 2017.
