by Jyotsna Sreenivasan

When is violence against women grounds for granting political asylum in the United States? Fauziya Kasinga, the 19-year-old woman who fled Togo to the U.S. to escape genital mutilation, was recently granted political asylum by the Board of Immigration Appeals. This decision sets a precedent for all immigration judges on the issue of female genital mutilation, that horrific cutting out of a woman’s genitals that is inflicted on over 100 million young women in Africa. Before this ruling, five women had applied for asylum on the basis of fear of female genital mutilation, but only one had been granted asylum.

This ruling is wonderful news for Kasinga and for other women who are escapting female genital mutilation. But the ruling did not answer the larger question of whether or not women can be granted asylum based on crimes that are directed primarily against women. Are the Bosnian women victims of rape as a political weapon eligible for asylum? Can women who flee forcible sterilization or abortion be granted asylum?

Under current law, people can be granted asylum if they can prove persecution based on race, religion, national origin, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. Gender is not explicitly stated in this list, but some lawyers argue that it should be considered a "social group." Last year the Clinton Administration issued non-binding "guidelines" which stated that victims of gender-based violence could be granted asylum on that basis. But not all immigration judges agree with this interpretation, and the Justice Department has not issued regulations about what constitutes gender persecution, or even whether gender is an allowable "social group."

In Kasinga’s case, the Board of Immigration Appeals said she suffered from persecution not because she was a woman, but because she was a member of the Tchamba-Kunsuntu tribe in Togo, whose members practice female genital mutilation.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) will introduce a bill in Congress requesting the Department of Justice to issue regulations on how asylum claims should be handled when the persecution is gender-specific.