 AUTISTIC BOY FROM PAKISTAN GRANTED ASYLUM
In what is being called a remarkable decision, INS officials in Chicago have granted asylum to a ten-year-old boy with autism. The boy, Umair Choudhry, whose mother brought him to the US from Pakistan, has severe autism, a condition that, she claimed, caused him to be persecuted there.
INS officials have been quick to point out that it is not solely the boy’s medical condition that led them to grant asylum, and that there were individualized factors that led to the decision, specifically that his condition is so misunderstood in Pakistan that it would lead to his persecution. Nonetheless, experts are saying that the decision represents a challenge to traditional notions of the grounds on which asylum can be granted. While immigration advocates have reacted favorably to the decision and the possible broader grounds for asylum that it may indicate, opponents see it as a threat.
In the asylum application, the boy’s mother said that in Pakistan he had been forced to endure a series of “treatments” designed to purge him of the “curse of Allah,” which is seen as the cause of autism. Because of this, some Islamic experts have also criticized the decision. They say that it is important to keep separate superstition and valid religious teachings, which they say maintains that illnesses are not a curse.
The family has been struggling to pay for Umair’s treatment, and now that he has been granted asylum he will be eligible for many programs that will provide him with much needed assistance.
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