A woman in Texas was charged for allegedly transporting a minor girl from the United States to a foreign country for the purpose of female genital mutilation in 2016, the US Department of Justice said on Thursday.
This was the first time that the federal agency indicted someone under a clause of the anti-female genital mutilation (FGM) law that specifically deals with the transporting of minor girls outside the country to facilitate the prohibited practice. While FGM has been illegal in the United States since 1996, this clause was introduced in 2013, according to a release by the Department of Justice.
The accused, Zahra Badri, who is originally from the United Kingdom, was charged in an indictment with “knowingly transporting a minor from the United States in foreign commerce for the purpose of FGM”. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI, which is investigating this case, said the 39-year-old woman allegedly transported the child sometime between July 10,…