METRO DETROIT— Two Oakland county mothers have been charged in the federal government’s prosecution of female genital mutilation. The mothers have been charged with subjecting their daughters to the banned ritual, which brings the number of identified victims total to six girls.

The identified victims include two from Minnesota and four from Michigan, with six charged defendants, including two doctors, a physician’s wife, two mothers and a sixth woman. All of them are accused of varied degrees of participation in subjecting the girls to the religious ritual of genital cutting over the past 12 years.

The latest defendants charged in the case are two mothers who allegedly subjected their daughters to the procedure. They are members of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim sect. A third woman, Tahera Shafiq, has also been indicted for allegedly being present for some of the procedures.

These defendants have been added to the original case charging Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, a former emergency department doctor, with the genital cutting of two Minnesota girls at the Burhani Medical Clinic in Livonia in February. The clinic’s owner and his wife, Dr. Fakhruddin Attar and Farida Attar, have also been charged due to alleged involvement.

The six people charged in the case are all members of the Dawoodi Bohra, which has a mosque in Farmington Hills. The mosque practices female circumcision as a religious rite.

One of the victims, a girl from Oakland County, was subjected to the procedure on May 30, 2015 at the Burhani clinic. Dr. Nagarwala performed the genital cutting while Farida Attar was present.

The other indicted mother is charged with bringing her daughter to the same clinic for the procedure, which occurred last year between June and Sept. 20, 2016. Nagarwala also allegedly performed the genital cutting. The mother lied to law enforcement when questioned about the procedure.

The defendants have denied any wrongdoing, claiming that they were not involved in cutting, but rather just scraping procedures.