WOMAN WINS ASYLUM BASED ON FEAR OF FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION

In August, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) awarded asylum to an African woman who claimed she would be subjected to the practice of female genital mutilation if forced to return to her native Ghana. Adelaide Abankwah was arrested when she entered the U.S. over two years ago for using false documents. At that time she requested asylum, saying she would be punished on her return for having had premarital sex. She was detained by the INS for almost all of the two years her case was pending.

Her case created a furor in two ways. First, it highlighted the injustice many see in the U.S. practice of detaining asylum seekers who do not enter with proper papers – when one is fleeing for their life, proper immigration documents are not at the top of the list of things to pack. Second, the case increased awareness of the dangers of female genital mutilation. Because of this case, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) will sponsor a bill that would make gender prosecution a separate basis for asylum.

In 1996 the BIA made its only other decision awarding asylum on the basis of female genital mutilation to a woman from Togo.

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