Product Description

The story of Fauziya Kassindja, who fled her African homeland to escape female genital mutilation and forced polygamy. Fauziya's progressive father had shielded her from the tribal practice of polygamy and female genital mutilation in Togo, Africa, but when he died in 1993, everything changed. At the age of 17, she was forced to marry a much older man who already had three wives, and to undergo preparation for female genital mutilation without any painkillers or antibiotics. Days before the ritual was to take place, Fauziya's sister helped her escape to Germany, and from there she travelled to the United States seeking political asylum. When she arrived in the US she was stripped, shackled and imprisoned for 16 months by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Layli Miller Bashir, a second-year law student assigned to Fauziya's case, found a broken, emaciated girl who had been shuffled from prison to prison, was suffering from an untreated bleeding ulcer, had been subjected to several strip searches, and denied the right to follow her daily religious practices. She enlisted law professor, Karen Musalo, an expert in refugee law, who assembled a team to fight on Fauziya's behalf. Fauziya was finally granted asylum on 13 June 1996, a landmark decision.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #99350 in Books
• Published on: 1999-03-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 683 pages

From the Back Cover
Fauziya Kassindja's harrowing story begins in Togo, Africa, where she enjoyed a sheltered childhood, shielded by her progressive father from tribal practices. But when he died in 1993, her life changed dramatically. At the age of seventeen she was forced to marry a man who already had three wives and to prepare for the ritual of female circumcision. Hours before the brutal ceremony was to take place, Fauziya escaped and fled to the United States to seek asylum. However, her nightmare was far from over. On arrival in America she was stripped, shackled and imprisoned by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Enter Layli Miller Bashir, a young law student, who took on Fauziya's case and fought for her freedom. In a landmark decision that has given hope to many seeking refuge on the grounds of gender-based persecution, Fauziya was finally granted asylum on 13 June 1996.

In the tradition of the international bestsellers Princess and Not Without My Daughter, this is the dramatic and inspirational story of a woman fighting to free herself from the injustices of her culture. It is a story that you will not easily forget.

About the Author
Fauziya Kassindja
Fauziya Kassindja was born in 1977 in Kpalime, Togo, the youngest daughter of a wealthy, prominent family. She now lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

Layli Miller Bashir is a recent graduate from the American University Washington College of Law. She lives in Virginia with her husband.

Layli Miller Bashir
Fauziya Kassindja was born in 1977 in Kpalime, Togo, the youngest daughter of a wealthy, prominent family. She now lives in Alexandria, Virginia.
Layli Miller Bashir is a recent graduate from the American University Washington College of Law. She lives in Virginia with her husband.
Gini Kopecki is a freelance writer who lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

I laughed, I cried, I could not put it down
I bought this book in the UN shop, New York and did not put it down until I got on the plane back to the UK. The book draws you into a sense of what this poor girl went through and her strength and courage shines through immensely. It will make you laugh and cry and seriously consider your own life and you realize what you take for granted very quickly. It provides you with an insight into the injustice that is the asylum seeking process. Throughout the book, Fauziya remains to be careful of how she explains her detention by the US, she does not appear to be bitter or angry to those that caused her so much suffering which if I were to be in her shoes, I doubt that I would be so calm or understanding.

Fauziya arrived in the US with a fake passport after fleeing her tribe in Togo, Africa but immediately told the immigration she was seeking asylum and that the passport was not hers. The result of this honesty was further imprisonment and injustice. We are constantly informed by the media how people ‘flock to the UK’ trying to be granted asylum but we never stop to think of the stress and fear and uncertainty that these people suffer in the process. We consider the USA to be a country of free speech and of justice in comparison to where Fauziya came from but it is a shame that these principles were forgotten or perhaps ignored when Fauziya arrived but a blessing that the young Law student Layli Miller Bashir, and the team of lawyers that fought for her, came into her life.

I have never been touched so much by a book and I praise Fauziya for her faith and strength that got her through the worst journey I have ever heard. I too cried with her and laughed with her and if there is any chance of a follow-up book to tell everyone what she is doing then it needs to hurry up!

A real insight into a practice little known in the west...
Although the first part of the book is overly long, and quite naively written, Fauziya's background and upbringing is an important part of what follows. The treatment metered out to her Mother after her father dies, and Fauziya's realisation that a polygamous marriage, at the age of 17, is her future, and the requirement that she was to be "cut" as a precursor would panic any sane person into escaping from Togo, her homeland. Her appalling treatment at the hands of the US Immigration Service, when she applies for asylum, beggars belief! This book should have women all over the world, protesting this barbaric practise.

It Never Should Have Happened
Fauziya's story is, unfortunately, a common one in the US, an also here in England. Following the death of her beloved father, Fauziya's world crumbles when she is told that she is to be married off to a man thirty years her senior. Furthermore, she learns that she will have to undergo the barbaric practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). However she manages to escape and travels to the US to seek asylum. Unfortunatley, she is then imprisoned for being an illegal immigrant. The majority of the book recounts her experiences at the various prisons she was detained at over a period of some 18 months or so. This book is surely an indictment on a country that advocates "Justice" and "free libery"! The prisons are harsh places, often with only basic amenities, and people like Fauziya, whose only "crime" was to legitimately seek asylum, are treated worse than dogs. Surely as we are now in the new Millennium, we should be striving to abolish practices like FGM? A very moving and thought provoking read which I will never forget.