Mali Woman Presses Asylum Request Based on Genital Mutilation
A Mali woman is asking the Board of Immigration Appeals to reconsider a ruling denying her asylum even though she had been subjected to female genital mutilation and would likely be forced to marry her first cousin if she returned home.
The board said the concerns of petitioner Alima Traore were understandable, but the cutting procedure has not been identified as a basis for asylum under immigration law, Adam Liptak reports in his Sidebar column for the New York Times. The board said in its Sept. 27 decision (PDF posted by the New York Times) that because the cutting could not be repeated, it could not be the basis of a “well-founded fear of persecution.”
The board also said the forced marriage claim was insufficient. “We do not see how the reluctant acceptance of family tradition over personal preference can form the basis” for asylum, the opinion said.
The board rejected the reasoning of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which granted asylum to a woman from Somalia because she had undergone the cutting procedure, which makes sex painful. The appeals court noted in its opinion (PDF posted by the New York Times) that the procedure causes long-term health consequences, as does forced sterilization. The latter procedure is a ground for asylum, even though it cannot be repeated.
