(Image source from: ZocDoc)

In a major blow to the federal government, the United States District Judge Bernard Friedman has dropped almost all the charges against an Indian-origin doctor accused of carrying out female genital mutilation on at least nine juvenile girls by ruling that America's law over the practice was unconstitutional, enraging women's rights groups in the country.

In April last year, the grand jury has indicted Jumana Nagarwala, MD, 44, Fakhruddin Attar, MD, 53, and his wife, Farida Attar, 50, all Michigan residents, for performing Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) on minor girls in the U.S., a first-of-its-kind federal prosecution over the "brutal practice" which federal authorities said will not be tolerated in the United States.

Read: 60% Women in India Depend on Pills for Abortion

The ruling that America's female genital mutilation law was unconstitutional has lead to the dismissing of key charges against the Michigan doctors accused of endangering at least nine minor girls to the cutting procedure in the nation's first FGM case.

The judge's ruling also dismissed charges against three mothers, including two Minnesota women who prosecutors said tricked their 7-year-old daughters into thinking they were coming to metro Detroit for a girls' weekend, but instead had their genitals cut at a Livonia clinic as part of a religious procedure.

Serious Blow to Rights of Girls

The AHA Foundation, which advocates human rights and individual liberties and leads programs to protect women from honor violence, expressed shock at Friedman's decision, saying the ruling that effectively throws out a federal law criminalizing female genital mutilation since 1996 is a serious blow to the rights of girls in this country.

Senior Director at the AHA Foundation Amanda Parker said it has taken years for whistleblowers, police, Federal Bureau of Investigation and attorneys to work together to bring this trial to the court.

"Dropping the FGM charge is a real blow to the human rights of women and girls in the United States. This is outrageous. The judge's ruling that the federal statute against FGM is unconstitutional sets a precedent that cutting girls genitals is not a concern at the national level," Parker said.

She said the ruling means that those 23 states that do not have laws protecting girls from FGM could potentially become destination states.

She said if a perpetrator risks life imprisonment in Minnesota, where anti-FGM laws are in place, why would they not have girls trafficked across states lines to Iowa to mutilate them? This is exactly how we got here.

The perpetrators, in this case, had the victims transported from Minnesota to Michigan and the lone way of holding them responsible for FGM was the federal statute.

The organization said judges regularly prosecute assault and other forms of mutilation at the federal level but prosecuting those who cut little girls genitals is not a priority for this court.

It sends the message that the authorities are not serious about protecting girls, especially those in immigrant communities, from this form of abuse, Parker said.

Friedman's Ruling

In his ruling, Friedman had concluded that "as despicable as this practice may be," Congress did not have the authority to pass the 22-year-old federal law that outlaws female genital mutilation, and that FGM is for the states to regulate.

FGM is banned worldwide and has been outlawed in more than 30 countries, though the U.S. statute had on no occasion been tested before this case.

"As laudable as the prohibition of a particular type of abuse of girls may be federalism concerns deprive Congress of the power to enact this statute," Friedman wrote in his 28-page opinion, noting: "Congress overstepped its bounds by legislating to prohibit FGM.

Female Genital Mutilation

FGM is a 'local criminal activity' which, in keeping with age-old tradition and our federal system of government, is for the states to regulate, not Congress.

A report in the Detroit Free Press said currently, 27 states have laws that criminalize female genital mutilation, including Michigan, whose FGM law is stiffer than the federal statute, punishable by up to 15 years in prison, compared with five under federal law.

Michigan's FGM law was passed earlier this year in the wake of the historic case and applies to both doctors who conduct the procedure, and parents who transport a child to have it done.

The defendants, in this case, can't be retroactively charged under the new law.

Gina Balaya, the spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said the government is reviewing the judge's opinion and will make a determination whether or not to appeal at some point in the future.

The defendants have claimed that Congress lacked authority to enact the genital mutilation statute, therefore the female genital mutilation charges must be dismissed.

They also argue that they did not in fact practice FGM, but rather performed a benign procedure involving no cutting.

Nagarwala's lawyer Shannon Smith said while the government could appeal against the ruling, "but we are confident we will win even if appealed."

Smith has upheld all along that her client did not involve in FGM.

The World Health Organisation had said female genital mutilation comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or another injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

Over 200 million girls and women alive today have been cut in 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where FGM is intense.

WHO said FGM, which is mostly carried out on young girls between infancy and age 15, is a violation of the human rights of girls and women.

-Sowmya Sangam