The Matter of Kasinga was a legal case decided in June 1996 involving Fauziya Kassindja (surname also spelled as Kasinga), a

Togo Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its c ...

lese teenager seeking

asylum in the United States The United States recognizes the right of asylum for refugees as specified by international and federal law. A specified number of legally defined refugees who are granted ''refugee status'' outside the United States are annually admitted un ...

in order to escape a tribal practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). The

Board of Immigration Appeals The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) is an administrative appellate body within the Executive Office for Immigration Review of the United States Department of Justice responsible for reviewing decisions of the U.S. immigration courts and cert ...

granted her asylum in June 1996 after an earlier judge denied her claims. This set a precedent in U.S. immigration law because it was the first time FGM was accepted as a form of persecution. In addition, this was the first situation in which asylum was granted based on gender. Layli Miller-Muro, the student attorney who represented Kassindja before the immigration judge, subsequently founded the

Tahirih Justice Center The Tahirih Justice Center, or Tahirih, is a national charitable non-governmental organization headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, United States that aims to protect immigrant women and girls fleeing gender-based violence and persecution. ...

to provide legal aid and medical referrals to immigrant women escaping from gender-based violence and persecution. Karen Musalo, who spearheaded the litigation leading to the Board's positive decision in the case, founded th
Center for Gender and Refugee Studies (CGRS)
a national organization based at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

Hastings College of the Law The University of California, Hastings College of the Law (UC Hastings) is a public law school in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1878 by Serranus Clinton Hastings, UC Hastings was the first law school of the University of California ...

, which works to protect and advance the rights of women, children, and LGBTI refugees that seek protection in the United States. Kassindja (aka Kasinga) is a member of the CGRS Advisory Board.{{Cite web, url=https://cgrs.uchastings.edu/about/staff, title=Staff & Board | Center for Gender and Refugee Studies

References

External links

Speak Truth to Power - Fauziya Kassindja

In re Fauziya KASINGA, file A73 476 695, decided June 13, 1996
Kasinga History of women's rights in the United States 1996 in United States case law Female genital mutilation Right of asylum case law Human rights in Togo 1996 in international relations Right of asylum in the United States Violence against women in Togo

See also

References

External links