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Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting as Grounds for Asylum Requests in the US: An Analysis of More than 100 Cases

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Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Female Genital Mutilation or Cutting (FGM/C) is a human rights violation used to claim asylum in the US. We sought to understand the nature of these asylum requests. Analysis of 121 FGM/C-focused medical affidavits, and 132 legal case reports. Of 119 eligible affidavits analyzed, 84% were reportedly cut: 4.6% Type I, 84.6% Type II, 16.5% Type III. Average age: 9. Reported acute effects: bleeding (76.3%), infection (27.6%), shock (6.7%), broken bones (2.7%), and hospitalization (2.7%). Reported chronic issues: intercourse difficulty (81.7%), pregnancy complications (54.2%), chronic pain (42.4%), scarring (37.3%), urinary difficulty (31.8%). Psychological consequences included PTSD (72.4%), depression (65.9%), anxiety (51.1%), and lack of trust (10.1%). Co-occurring abuses included domestic violence (62.4%), forced marriage (46%), rape (33.3%), torture (33.3%), child marriage (31.3%), assault due to LGBTQ + status (2.9%). Women claiming asylum based on FGM/C report high rates of chronic health issues. Their histories suggest FGM/C co-occurs with other forms of gender-based violence.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the expert evaluators who have provided these evaluations to asylum seekers free of charge, and to the survivors who have consented for their anonymized personal information to be used for research and advocacy. We also thank Francesca Nardi, BA, B.C.L./LL.B. Candidate, McGill University Faculty of Law, Montreal, Canada for her assistance with the asylum case analysis.

Funding

We report no funding sources for this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mayo Clinic Family Medicine Residency Program, Rochester, MN, USA

    Katherine Wikholm

  2. Department of Family Medicine, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, 20007, USA

    Ranit Mishori

  3. Women’s Holistic Health Initiative, Harlem United/URAM, The Nest Community Health Center, New York, USA

    Deborah Ottenheimer

  4. Department of Biostatistics, Bioinformatics, and Biomathematics, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

    Valeriy Korostyshevskiy

  5. O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown Law, Washington, DC, USA

    Rebecca Reingold

  6. Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, USA

    Colin Wikholm

  7. Asylum Program, Physicians for Human Rights, New York, NY, USA

    Kathryn Hampton

Authors
  1. Katherine Wikholm
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  2. Ranit Mishori
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Contributions

Research idea (RM, DO, KH, RR), Protocol and data extraction plan (RM, DO, KH, RR, KW); Data extraction (KW, CW, RM), Data content analysis (KW, CW, RM, VK, DO), Manuscript drafting, editing and final approval (all authors)

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Correspondence to Ranit Mishori.

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Wikholm, K., Mishori, R., Ottenheimer, D. et al. Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting as Grounds for Asylum Requests in the US: An Analysis of More than 100 Cases. J Immigrant Minority Health 22, 675–681 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-020-00994-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-020-00994-8

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