A Texas woman has been indicted for transporting a minor from the United States to a foreign country for the purpose of female genital mutilation.
Zahra Badri, 39, of Houston, who is originally from the United Kingdom, is charged in an indictment with knowingly transporting a minor from the United States in foreign commerce for the purpose of genital mutilation from about July 10, 2016 through Oct. 14, 2016.
Title 18, United States Code, Section 116(d), defines FGM as circumcision, excision, or infibulation of “the whole or any part of the labia majora or labia minora or clitoris of another person who has not attained the age of 18 years.” Since 1996, the United States has prohibited the practice of female genital mutilation. In 2013, Congress amended the statute to add section 116(d), which prohibits the transportation of a person from the United States to another country for purposes of having female genital mutilation performed upon them. This is the first such indictment under section 116(d).
“The brutal practice of female genital mutilation not only subjects victims to the immediate trauma of the violent act, but also often condemns them to suffer a lifetime of physical and psychological harms,” said David Burns, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “This indictment represents the first time the Department has brought charges against a defendant for transporting a child outside U.S. borders to facilitate this abhorrent form of gender-based violence and demonstrates that we will not rest in pursuing and holding to account those who engage in this cruelty.”
“It is rare this type of crime is brought to the attention of law enforcement,” said Perrye Turner, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Houston Field Office. “We want the American people to know it is the FBI’s responsibility to investigate allegations of Human Rights violations, like female genital mutilation. This is an example of our commitment to protect Human Rights.”
The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Houston Field Office, with the support of the Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center.
Established in 2009, the center furthers the government’s efforts to identify, locate and prosecute human rights abuses in the United States, including those who are known or suspected to have participated in persecution, war crimes, genocide, torture, extrajudicial killings, female genital mutilation and the use or recruitment of child soldiers.
