Bahá’í World/Volume 32/Profile, Tahirih Justice Center

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[Page 203]

Tahirih Justice Center

Thanks to you I can sleep without fear." So wrote one client of the Tahirih Justice Center (TJC) in the Washington, DC, area after the center had assisted her to obtain asylum in the United States. The letter continued, "Thanks to all your staff for your humanitarian support to help justice triumph in favor of women and girls throughout the world who are victims of rape, genital mutilation, domestic violence, etc. May God bless you all!" Such heartfelt responses are regular fare for the workers at the Tahirih Justice Center, which has helped some 4,000 people since opening in 1997-and has won 98 percent of its cases to date. One mark of its success is that not one of its immigration clients has been forced to leave the US.

The center was born of pressing need. In 1997 a young student attorney, Leili Miller-Muro, took on the case of Fauziya Kassingja, a 17-year-old woman who ran away from her family in Togo before being forced to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) in preparation for a forced polygamous marriage. Upon arrival in the US, Ms. Kassingja was placed in detention for more than 17 months by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS); her eventual granting of asylum on appeal revolutionized asylum law in the US, [Page 204]through its recognition of FGM as gender-based persecution. Do They Hear You When You Cry?, the 1998 book based on Ms. Kassingja’s story, was a best-seller, and Ms. Miller-Muro used funds from it to establish the Tahirih Justice Center in order to assist others.

At the basis of the center’s work is the conviction that society will not progress until full equality between women and men is achieved. Its logo is an illustration of a bird in flight, inspired by the following utterance of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá:

The world of humanity is possessed of two wings: the male and the female. So long as these two wings are not equivalent in strength, the bird will not fly. Until womankind reaches the same degree as man, until she enjoys the same arena of activity, extraordinary attainment for humanity will not be realized; humanity cannot wing its way to heights of real attainment. When the two wings... become equivalent in strength, enjoying the same prerogatives, the flight of man will be exceedingly lofty and extraordinary.’

The specific mission of the center is "to enable women and girls who face gender-based violence to access justice." It is named for a Persian woman who lived during the nineteenth century and was a champion of women’s rights as well as a renowned poet and Bahá’í religious scholar. She traveled throughout her country, promoting women’s emancipation and encouraging women to oppose their own oppression. Perhaps her most dramatic act was to remove her veil the symbol of that systematized oppression-in front of a conference of men in 1848. Only four years later, she was killed by the authorities. Her final words were, "You can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women."

Leili Miller-Muro has worked hard in the light of Táhirih’s vision. The center takes a holistic approach that encompasses three broad areas of support for women: legal representation for individual cases, public policy advocacy, and education and public outreach. In the first area, the TJC provides pro bono legal representation for women to protect them from international human rights abuses and to champion their rights. The center also arranges medical, social, and psychological counseling services for its clients, thus leading them towards community resources that will help them to live [Page 205]independent, safe, and healthy lives. In the second area of focus, staff and volunteers work to transform policies, develop regulations, and set precedents to promote systematic change that will protect women from violence. This can involve litigation and statutory and regulatory development as well as collaboration with government agencies and like-minded organizations. The third focus area involves public outreach activities to educate the general public on issues such as FGM, US immigration policy, and women's rights, via media coverage and lectures at universities and conferences around the world.

The Tahirih Justice Center has initiated several specific legal programs, notably a campaign to end exploitation of women by international marriage brokers, international projects to promote legal protection for women and girls, advocacy projects for battered and refugee women and girls, and a program to provide legal protection from gender-based persecution.

The center's campaign to end exploitation by international marriage brokers (or IMBS) arose from the case of an immigrant woman from Ukraine that was taken on by the TJC. She was brutally abused by a husband arranged through a broker. Because most women who come as "mail-order brides" do not speak English and are not familiar with the US system, they are often not able to find help if they end up in violent marriages. The woman from Ukraine, for example, was both physically and emotionally abused over two years; her husband broke her ribs and once threatened her with a gun as she breastfed the couple's infant daughter. In response, the IMB did nothing, wishing to keep her in the contracted marriage. Minimizing the abuse, the president of the agency neglected to inform her about her legal rights-behavior that is all too characteristic of these brokers. When it investigated the situation, the Tahirih Justice Center found that, in fact, this unfortunate woman was not the first one placed by the IMB with this abusive man.

The majority of the center's clients come from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia-the most underserved of immigrant populations. Statistics from the United Nations provide a context for the needs of these and women from other countries. For example, throughout Africa, each year two million women are forced to undergo FGM; in Pakistan, some 850 women die at the hands of male relatives in family honor killings; in Brazil, one in four women experiences domestic [Page 206]violence; and some 50,000 women and children are brought under false pretenses from Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe and forced into prostitution, captive labor, or servitude in the US. Those who apply for asylum-in 2001 the number was over 23,000-rarely have access to an attorney.

To address these issues, the center undertakes international projects to promote legal protection for women and girls who face gender-based persecution, including domestic violence, FGM, forced marriage, rape, torture, trafficking, honor crimes, widow rituals, and sexual slavery. Working with government officials and NGOs in Australia, Brazil, the Gambia, Germany, and Ghana, for example, the Tahirih Justice Center has trained adjudicators and legal advocates, has promoted the development of legislation and regulations, has fostered grassroots empowerment of women's rights organizations, has worked with local firms to promote a culture of pro bono advocacy, and has engaged in media and public policy advocacy. In Brazil, the center met with the Minister of Justice and with NGOS to encourage better collaboration regarding the application of laws to protect women from domestic violence. In Ghana, the center worked with government officials and NGOs to see how application of the law in remote areas can be more effective in protecting young girls from a form of ritual sexual slavery in which they are given to priests in reparation for crimes committed by their family members.

One success story from the center's initiative to protect women and girls facing gender-based persecution involves a four-year-old girl in Nigeria, whose father died unexpectedly. Although he had been opposed to FGM, after his death his family threatened to perform the ritual on his daughter. She and her mother sought asylum in the US, where they were assisted by the Tahirih Justice Center. When the girl, who testified on her own behalf, signed her own asylum grant, the us Immigration and Naturalization Service staff applauded. Her mother, who would be forced to endure widow rituals if she returned home and feared death or, at the least, physical abuse from her in-laws (who accused her of causing her husband's death), was also granted asylum.

The center's Battered Immigrant Women Advocacy Project was launched in 2002 with funding from a federal grant from the Violence against Women Office. Abused immigrant women, who do [Page 207]

TAHIRIH JUSTICE CENTER

not have accurate information about their rights or legal remedies to their situation, often stay in abusive relationships thinking that the alternative is deportation. The TJC helps them access accurate information and legal protection to break free from the cycle of violence, through giving presentations that focus on immigrants' rights and needs, training for people who work with clients who have limited proficiency in English, and the kinds of immigration relief available to abused noncitizens through social service organizations. For example, under the Violence against Women Act an immigrant woman who is abused by a spouse who is a US citizen or permanent resident does have the ability to self-petition for legal permanent resident status. Many immigrant women are not aware of this, and so the center's information sessions address a real need.

The Refugee Women and Girls Advocacy Project has worked with Afghan women and their families to improve the refugee processing system and to assist women who are at risk of violence during their application for resettlement and admission to the United States. In this effort, the project collaborates with the White House, the US Department of State, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the United Nations to promote the expedient defense of refugee women and girls.

The Tahirih Justice Center is also working to change the system through public policy advocacy, including the following initiatives:

In connection with the IMB issue, the center has proposed federal legislation requiring disclosure of marital history and criminal background information to prospective brides before the contracting of marriage.

It has offered insights based on its extensive experience with victims of trafficking to press the US Department of Justice for new legislation to deal with this problem. As a result of the lobbying undertaken by coalitions of immigrant rights organizations, new visas for trafficking victims were promulgated in 2002.

The TJC has advocated for the utilization of the U-visa, which is available to immigrant victims of crime but requires cooperation of law enforcement officials, which is not always forthcoming. [Page 208]The TJC acquainted government officials with this resistance and, as a result, was able to obtain the first recommendation for an affirmative U-visa deferred action request.

Through drafting regulation comments, participating in sign-on letters, coalition meetings, press conferences, and other initiatives, the TJC vigorously opposed the restructuring of the Board of Immigration Appeals, which would limit the ability of immigrants to receive fair appellate review of their cases.

• The center has advocated for the passage of a resolution calling on Japan to acknowledge its role in—and issue an apology for the sexual enslavement of "comfort women" during the Second World War.

The TJC has supported the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) by leading meetings with Congressional representatives, participating in coalition meetings, helping to organize press conferences, and drafting letters to the editors.

In its work, the center has recognized the importance of collaborating with like-minded organizations who are also seeking justice for women and girls who are fleeing violence. The TJC has developed working relationships with some 40 such organizations.

The TJC’s work has not gone unnoticed. In March 2002 CNN’s World Report covered the center’s work in defending the rights of Afghan women and children and also mentioned its programs that seek changes in policy, systems, and law in order to protect women facing violence. National Public Radio in the US also aired an interview with center staff, who discussed how infrequently fraud is practiced by women seeking asylum for gender-based persecution. (This was in response to allegations by the INS against a woman who had fled Ghana in fear of FGM.) Glamour magazine did a feature on several Afghan women assisted by the center, and the Legal Times interviewed a center client about his request for asylum to protect his daughter from FGM. The TJC has also been interviewed by the New York Times, the Washington Post, BBC, PBS, ABC’s Nightline and CNBC. [Page 209]To meet the increasing demands on it, the Tahirih Justice Center relies on the willingness of law firms and independent attorneys to take cases on a pro bono basis, with collaboration and support from the center. The TJC Washington Lawyers' Network mobilizes and sustains a philanthropic network of Washington area lawyers who promote awareness of and provide funding for the center. Other funding support comes through philanthropic donations and grants. In 2002, for example, the center was awarded a grant by the Washington Area Women's Foundation, in recognition of its efforts to protect immigrant women and girls in that area from violence.

The Tahirih Justice Center believes that, ultimately, in order for women to achieve justice, laws and societal institutions must be transformed. Only then will they become more effective in protecting women from violence. In the meantime, the center also helps women to attain freedom from persecution and to begin to deal with the abuse they have suffered as first steps towards achieving not only a sense of well-being but a larger sense of justice in their lives.

NOTES

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by Abdu’l-Bahá during His Visit to the United States and Canada in 1912, rev. ed. (Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1995), p. 375.