It's another glorious first for our multicultural tapestry. It's right up there with the Muslim Ms Marvel. Except it's real life.
Jumana Fakhruddin Nagarwala has become the first person arrested in America for female genital mutilation. Unsurprisingly this has happened in an area with a high concentration of Muslims. And even more predictably, the media is carefully avoiding the "I" word.
Jumana Nagarwala, an emergency room physician at Henry Ford Hospital, was arrested today for allegedly performing the procedure on victims between the ages of six and eight.
Nagarwala, a 44-year-old graduate of Johns Hopkins University’s medical school, performed the genital mutilation surgery at a medical clinic in Livonia, a Detroit suburb. Nagarwala, investigators allege, does not work as the clinic “and there is no record of her billing for medical procedures there.”
As detailed in a criminal complaint accusing her of multiple felonies, Nagarwala (seen above) performed mutilation surgery on a pair of girls who traveled to Michigan from Minnesota in February. One child told a forensic interviewer that she was brought to Detroit for a “special” girls trip. While there, the girl recalled, she and the other minor went to the doctor because “our tummies hurt.” While at the doctor’s office, the child added, a procedure was performed “to get the germs out.”
The second Minnesota girl told a forensic interviewer that, “her parents told her the procedure is a secret and that she is not supposed to talk about it.” The girl added that after the procedure she “could barely walk, and that she felt pain all the way down to her ankle.”
An FBI investigation, the complaint notes, has identified other children “who may have been victimized by Nagarwala.” Multiple Michigan girls interviewed this week told federal agents that “procedures had been performed on their genitals by Nagarwala.”
FBI Agent Kevin Swanson reported in the affidavit that female genital mutilation is practiced by “some members of a particular religious and cultural community,” of which Nagarwala is a member. One purpose of the surgery, Swanson noted, was to “curb the sexuality of girls and women by making sex painful.”
A "particular religious and cultural community". Guess which one.
Media accounts carefully stick to calling her Jumana Nagarwala. She appears to be an Indian Muslim and this makes her religion appear more ambiguous. But her full name is Jumana Fakhruddin Nagarwala. Fakrhuddin means Pride in Religion. And it isn't the Amish religion.
The Detroit News, which often reads like a local version of Al Jazeera, claims that FGM is a Christian, Jewish and Muslim practice. Then it mentions...
Nagarwala was arrested Wednesday night and arraigned in federal court Thursday. She was dressed in a light-colored, matching dress and khimar, or veil that covered her head, neck and shoulders.
The Khimar is a Muslim head-covering.
And so we have a long series of stories about the first FGM arrest in America that never mention the "I" word. Because this is how our fake news media operates.