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76 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 1562 (2001)
Domestic Violence and U.S. Asylum Law: Eliminating the Cultural Hook for Claims Involving Gender-Related Persecution

handle is hein.journals/nylr76 and id is 1582 raw text is: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND U.S. ASYLUM LAW: ELIMINATING THE CULTURAL HOOK FOR CLAIMS INVOLVING GENDER-RELATED PERSECUTION ANITA SINA* In this Note, Anita Sinha examines the treatment of asylum claims involving gen- der-related persecution. Analyzing the three most recent decisions published by the Board of Immigration Appeals, Sinha illustrates that these cases have turned on whether the gender-related violence can be linked to practices attributable to non- Western, 'foreign cultures. Sinha argues that cases involving gender-related perse- cution can be given full consideration of asylum law only when their adjudication is based on an understanding of the political and institutional character of violence against women, rather than on cultural culpability. In making this argument, Sinha examines recent amendments to the regulations governing asylum law that have been proposed to improve the adjudication of gender-related claims. Identify- ing their shortcomings, Sinha offers suggestions to improve the proposed regula- tions so that they would truly mandate equal treatment of asylum claims involving gender-related persecution vis-d-vis more traditional asylum claims. INTRODUCTION In 1996, a young Togolese woman of the Tchamba-Kunsuntu Tribe applied to the United States for asylum on the ground that she faced a painful and potentially life-threatening procedure known as female genital mutilation (FGM).' The Board of Immigration Ap- * J.D., New York University School of Law, May 2001; Skadden Fellow, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. The author, not the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, is responsible for the views and opinions expressed in this Note. I am immensely grateful to Nirej Sekhon, Professor Leti Volpp, MaryAnn Sung, Anil Kalhan, and Professor Peggy Cooper-Davis for their persistent and insightful comments. I owe a special debt of gratitude to my family, Vanita Gupta, Priti Dave, Professor Rachel McDermott, Pat Walter, and the supervisors and students of the 2000-2001 N.Y.U. Immi- grant Rights Clinic for providing the examples and encouragement essential to pursue projects from the heart. Finally, I gratefully acknowledge the U.C. Hastings Center for Gender and Refugee Studies. Without their initiative, the research necessary for this Note would remain unavailable. 1 In re Kasinga, 21 I. & N. Dec. 357 (B.I.A. June 11, 1996). Female genital mutilation (FGM), also called female genital surgery (FGS), involves cutting or removing part or all of the clitoris, and sometimes also removing the labia minora and wounding the labia majora. See Semra Asefa, Female Genital Mutilation: Violence in the Name of Tradition, Religion, and Social Imperative, in Violence Against Women: Philosophical Perspectives 92, 93-97 (Stanley G. French et al. eds., 1998) (discussing history and types of FGM, and damage to health resulting from FGM); see also Shannon Nichols, American Mutilation: 1562 Imaged with the Permission of N.Y.U. Law Review

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