DETROIT: Two other people have been charged in Detroit in connection with the alleged genital mutilation of young girls in a Muslim sect. Conspiracy and other charges have been filed against Dr Fakhruddin Attar, owner of a suburban Detroit clinic where alleged procedures were performed on two girls from Minnesota, in February. His wife Farida Attari has also been arrested and charged. Investigators said the couple knew Dr Jumana Nagarwala was performing genital mutilation at the Livonia clinic after business hours.
Arrested last week, Nagarwala had denied the allegations through her lawyer, Shannon Smith, insisting she had conducted a benign religious ritual for families of a Muslim sect. Her defense contradicted the state's position that the two seven year old girls were forced to undergo a painful, bloody procedure at a Michigan Clinic that left them with scars and lacerations on their genitals. Smith's explanation came to light during a hearing to determine whether Nagarwala would stay locked up without bond, following her arrest and a judge said she was a threat to the public and refused to release her.
The Attar couple and Nagarwala belong to a Muslim sect called Dawoodi Bohra. The community is mostly concentrated in India. Investigators found the families of the Minnesota girls also belong to the same sect. Smith, meanwhile, partly blamed the allegations against Nagarwala on a “political divide” within the group's mosque in Oakland County, Michigan.
