Virginia Anikwata, a Nigerian woman who has lived in the United States since 1986 is fighting deportation on the basis of the United Nations Convention Against Torture. The United States ratified this treaty in 1996, and in October of this year Congress passed a law providing automatic protection against deportation for those who file claims under the Convention.

Ms. Anikwata's claim is that if she is forced to return to Nigeria, her daughter, an 11 year old American citizen, will be subjected to female "circumcision," or female genital mutilation.

Ms. Anikwata has been fighting deportation for 10 years, since her husband, also a Nigerian, who was in the U.S. on a student visa, died of cancer. She first raised her current claim in May of 1998 after she was jailed by the INS for illegal residing in the US. Earlier in the year her attempt to have her case reopened failed because the Immigration Court questioned why she waited so long to bring the claim. As her lawyer points out, because the Convention was not ratified until 1996, it could not be a basis for a claim before then.

In 1996, a woman from Togo was given asylum on the basis of fear of genital mutilation if forced to return. One of the issues facing Ms. Anikwata is whether a parent can assert this protection on behalf of a child.

The practice of female genital mutilation is widespread. According to the State Department the rate is as high as 50% in Nigeria. In 1997 three UN agencies called for an end to the practice, and Amnesty International calls it "one of the most alarming manifestation of violence against women."