A US doctor has been charged with carrying out female genital mutilation (FGM) on girls for at least 12 years.
Investigators received a tip off about the Michigan woman before she was arrested in what is believed to be the first case of its kind in the country.
Jumana Nagarwala, a doctor at the Henry Ford Hospital, could be sentenced to the maximum penalty of life behind bars if she is found guilty.
During an interview with police, the accused reportedly denied being involved in the procedure.
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She's alleged to have conducted FGM on girls aged between the ages of six and eight.
Sky News reports that Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco said: "Despite her oath to care for her patients, Dr Nagarwala is alleged to have performed horrifying acts of brutality on the most vulnerable victims.
"The Department of Justice is committed to stopping female genital mutilation in this country, and will use the full power of the law to ensure that no girls suffer such physical and emotional abuse."
The hospital were Doctor Nagarwala worked. Credit: Henry Ford Hospital
FGM was officially criminalised in the US in 1996, and there has been no successful prosecution since. In 2006, an Ethiopian immigrant was jailed for 10 years for mutilating his two-year-old daughter - but he wasn't charged specifically under anti-FGM law.
The UN says about 200 million girls across the world, mainly in Egypt, Indonesia and Ethiopia, have suffered some form of FGM.
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The procedure is used in some Muslim communities as a way of 'purifying the person'. It involves the partial or complete removal of external genitalia and is often performed without anaesthetic. The practice often damages a woman's sexual and reproductive functions.
According to Path.org: "Most girls undergo FGM when they are between seven and 10 years old. However, FGM seems to be occurring at earlier ages in several countries because parents want to reduce the trauma to their children. They also want to avoid government interference and/or resistance from children as they get older and form their own opinions.
"FGM is practiced in at least 26 of 43 African countries; the prevalence varies from 98 percent in Somalia to five percent in Zaire."
Some of the dirty, blunt tools used in FGM in Tanzania. Credit PA
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Last year the Black Health Initiative in Leeds warned there were 'FGM parties' taking place across England.
Heather Nelson, Chief Executive of the Black Health Initiative, told the BBC: "We know of parties happening here in England, and in West Yorkshire we recently had to break one up, and we've stopped another from taking place.
"What we're finding now is that where once girls were taken abroad to be cut, specialist midwives are now flown over and several girls are cut at the same time, which then leads to a celebration."
The City University of London published figures in 2015 which stated that 137,000 girls had been subjected to the procedure in England and Wales. If a person is convicted in the UK of FGM, they face up to 14 years in jail.
According to the BBC, the areas in England with the highest number of recorded FGM victims include Birmingham, Bristol, London and Manchester.
But like the US, no one has been convicted of FGM in the UK, which the Home Affairs Select Committee has described as a 'national scandal'.
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Source: Sky News, UN, Path, BBC, City University of London, and Parliament
Featured Image Credit: Henry Ford Hospital