Fauziya Kassindja

Fauziya Kassindja[1] was born in 1977 in Kpalimé, Togo, Africa.[2] She is the author of Do They Hear You When You Cry?[3] an autobiographical story of her refusal to submit to kakia, the Togo ritual of female genital mutilation, and a forced marriage.[4] She fled Togo and traveled first to Germany, where she obtained a fake passport, and then to the United States where she immediately informed immigration officials that her documents were false and requested asylum.[5] She was detained by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and imprisoned.[5] Fauziya's family hired a law student, Layli Miller Bashir, to advocate for her asylum, who in turn enlisted the help of Karen Musalo, an expert in refugee law and then acting director of the American University International Human Rights Clinic.[6] Fauziya was granted asylum on June 13, 1996, in the landmark decision Matter of Kasinga.[2] In 2002, Kassindja contributed an essay called Remaining Whole While Behind Bars to the book That Takes Ovaries!: Bold Females and Their Brazen Acts, (Three Rivers Press, 2002).