AG, Immigration Board Should 'Affirm' Rights Of Women Seeking Asylum Because Of Genital Cutting, Editorial Says

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs;  Public Health
Article Date: 24 Jun 2008 - 10:00 PDT

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The U.S. has "seldom been shy in lecturing others in the world about human rights abuses," but "it has zigzagged between compassion and confusion in its handling of women seeking refuge from" female genital cutting -- also known as female genital mutilation and female circumcision -- a New York Times editorial says. Given inconsistent court rulings and another case pending, the Times urges "[s]wift action" by Attorney General Michael Mukasey and the Board of Immigration Appeals to affirm the rights of women seeking asylum in the U.S. who have undergone genital cutting.

According to the Times, the case of three Guinean women who had undergone genital cutting "shined a light on the urgent needs for consistent, humane policies." The Guinean women successfully asked a 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel to overturn a BIA decision to deny them asylum. According to the Times, the panel said BIA "wrongly assumed" that the women were "safe from future persecution" because "their genitals had already been cut." One of the judges on the panel "wrote separately to underscore" what BIA "failed to recognize: the ritual mutilation of girls to promote chastity and thwart sexual desire is a perpetual injury," the editorial says, adding that genital cutting is "performed without anesthesia, often with dirty instruments, and leads to disfigurement, severe complications and lifelong trauma."

The Times urges Mukasey to "establish clear, consistent refuge policies for women who have suffered such an appalling breach of their basic rights" in light of the pending case of Alima Traore of Mali, now on appeal to the U.S. Circuit Court after BIA rejected her asylum plea using the same "sloppy reasoning" (New York Times, 6/22).

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