The liberal media enthusiastically report the “War on Women” when it comes to issues like funding Planned Parenthood. But their terminology falls flat when they neglect stories like the genital mutilation of little girls.
On Thursday, the Department of Justice publicized charges against Michigan Doctor Jumana Nagarwala for performing female genital mutilation (FGM) on girls between 6 and 8-years-old. The case was particularly noteworthy because it is “believed to be the first case brought under” U.S. federal law that forbids FGM. But that wasn’t enough to compel the three broadcast networks to cover the ghoulish story.
ABC, CBS and NBC have yet to mention it during their morning and evening news shows. But the devil’s in the details.
In a Monday hearing, a judge pronounced Nagarwala a “danger to the community.” Present at court, The Detroit News also learned Nargarwala, a U.S. citizen, “belongs to a small, insular group of Shia Muslims." Employed by Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital, she is now on administrative leave.
The complaint that led to the charges, by FBI Special Agent Kevin J. Swanson, listed three offenses committed by Nagarwala: FGM, “transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and conspiracy” and “making a false statement to a federal officer.”
Swanson’s complaint 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 voiced that she could barely walk afterwards. The parents admitted they took their daughter for a “cleansing” of extra skin, and a medical doctor later discovered an incision and tear on her.
Each little girl was originally told to keep her mutilation a secret.
Based on his investigation, Swanson 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 the Monday hearing, Detriot Free Press reported that Nagarwala's attorney admitted her client "removed the membrane from the girls 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."
While the network news shows couldn't spare a second on the news, Fox News host Tucker Carlson covered the “very important story.”
During his show Friday night, Carlson reported on Nagarwala’s arrest after “running a female genital mutilation racket.” “I hate even to say that,” he added, “but it happened.”
He cited immigration as a possible explanation:
“The practice is still widespread in other parts of the world, universal in some places in Africa. And it's considered morally obligatory by some Muslims. And these communities plant their roots in America, supply apparently is rising to meet demand, which is exploding. According to the CDC, more than a half a million girls are now at risk of this. That’s a figure that’s quadrupled in the past 20 years, amid steadily rising immigration levels from those parts of the world.”
Carlson also noted the hypocrisy by feminists who have remained silent on the tortured little girls:
“And yet oddly stopping this practice, which again is real, isn’t a major concern for American feminist organizations. Nowhere near the top of their list. You can check. You’d think stopping actual violence against women would be a bigger priority than, say, stamping out catcalling or sending women into combat. But it's not.”
He’s right. Especially in regards to the feminist liberal media. Search for “Nagarwala” or “female genital mutilation,” and many women’s sites say nothing of the story. Outlets that so often claim to concern themselves with women’s well-being – Cosmopolitan, Elle and Salon – showed nothing in their search bars (except for, in Salon’s case, an AP story).
When it comes “women’s rights,” the liberal media would rather whine about abortion and taxpayer-funded birth control than women and girls facing grave human rights violations. The “why” is anyone’s guess.
Methodology: MRC Culture searched for “Nagarwala” as well as “female genital mutilation” in network transcripts from ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening news shows since April 13, 2017.
