BU fights female mutilation

When she was a child, Mali native Alima Traore had her genitals completely excised and later sought refuge in the United States. Though she said she felt unsafe returning to her Mali, U.S. officials said in 2007 she must’ retuirn home.
That stance changed last month when U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey overturned a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals that denied asylum for a woman who had been genitally mutilated after Boston University and other university medical and law professionals voiced their disapproval.
In September 2007, the Board denied asylum to Alima Traore, a woman from the African nation of Mali whose genitals were completely excised as a child. The Board claimed that, because Traore had already been excised, she could not physically be subjected to it again. Traore would have been forced to marry her cousin if she returned home, her lawyer, Bryan Lonegan, said.
‘What annoyed me about what the Board did was that they didn’t contact people with real expertise in the area,’ he said.
Mukasey refuted the decision on Sept. 22, stating that the Board ‘based its analysis on a false premise: that female genital mutilation is a ‘one-time’ act that cannot be repeated on the same woman,’ citing an example of a woman whose vagina had been sewn shut five times. Mukasey also said in his statement that the Board was wrong to claim that the persecution would have to be identical to past persecution.
BU School of Law clinical professor Susan Akram was the third signatory on a list of 31 clinical law professors who called for the attorney general to review the decision. The petition was organized by Seton Hall University and the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at University of California-Hastings.
‘I think the fact that BU faculty are involved in critical contemporary issues that contribute to the development of areas of law such as immigration and asylum sends the message that what makes BU a special place is the close integration of academia and real-world issues,’ Akram said.
A separate medical petition circulated among university medical officials. BU health law professor Michael Grodin contributed a medical brief on behalf of the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights. The brief highlighted the medical complications and possible mental health problems that could arise if victims of female genital mutilation are deported, he said.
West African Research Association U.S. Director Jennifer Yanco said female genital mutilation is not just an African practice, but is seen in many parts of the world. Even within Africa, the practice is limited, and several governments, supported by the African Union, have either denounced or outlawed it.
In the parts of Africa that do practice female genital mutilation, it is considered ‘the norm,’ Yanco, a BU African studies lecturer, said.
‘If a woman hasn’t been excised, she might have trouble getting a husband,’ she said. ‘Having kids is a woman’s role and this is a pre-requisite for that. There’s no place for single women, and to control women’s sexuality is part of it.’
Yanco said students should ‘feel proud’ that the university ‘took a stance’ supporting women’s rights abroad.
‘Many BU women want to have control of their own bodies, like having sex or an abortion. It’s the same core issue: Who controls what we do with our bodies?’