Torture in the Name of Culture

A federal immigration appeals board in the District of Columbia should grant asylum to a young West African woman who fled Togo to escape the torture of forced genital mutilation, only to be put into a U.S. prison with convicted murderers and thieves. Fauziya Kasinga, now 19, is a victim of persecution and deserves sanctuary.

In this brutal ritual, external parts of the female genitals are removed, usually without anesthesia and often with razor blades, scissors, knives, pieces of glass or sharp rocks. Afterward, the young woman, often barely a teenager, is sewn shut. In some areas, her legs are bound for 40 days. The procedure is common in many parts of Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. It is legal in Togo.

Like countless others, Kasinga entered the United States illegally. To her credit, she didn’t hide. When she was at the Newark, N.J., airport, she indicated that her passport was fake and she immediately requested asylum. An immigration judge refused to believe her because she had not gone to the police for help in Togo. There, the authorities would have returned her to be the fourth wife of a 45-year-old stranger, who insisted she undergo the horrific procedure--a fate she believed worse than death.

The United States has compassionately granted asylum to millions of refugees on the basis of a well-founded fear of religious, political and racial persecution. Though gender-based persecution is not specified in the law, federal immigration guidelines released last May indicate female genital mutilation could be considered harmful--indeed--and a form of persecution. That should be more than enough to qualify Kasinga for protected status under the Refugee Act.