Background information
on gender and asylum issues4

Ms. A's Story

Ms. A fled to the United States in 1991 because she feared being the victim of an "honor killing" in her home country of Jordan.

The term "honor killing" refers to the practice in Jordan and other Middle Eastern and South Asian countries in which male members of the family are duty-bound to kill a female family member whom they think has brought dishonor and shame to their family. The male members of the family believe they can only regain their honor by murdering the woman for her alleged sexual transgressions. Amnesty International's report on "Honor Killings in Pakistan" states that the notions of what defiles honor have continually widened beyond defiance of sexual norms to include other forms of perceived defiance of social norms by women. These include the desire of women to choose a marriage partner and to seek divorce. Women victims of rape have also been seen to defile their male relatives' honor.

If returned to Jordan, A faces death by the hands of the male members of her family because of her alleged sexual transgressions. In the summer of 1991, A and her now-husband, H., secretly started spending time together. In August, they had premarital sex, and in September H. proposed marriage. However, A’s father forbade the marriage because H. is Palestinian and had a low paying job. A feared that she would be killed if her family found out she had lost her virginity, and she decided to flee Jordan with H. and to get married abroad. The airport police told A’s father that she left the country.

Since A lost her virginity to H. prior to marriage, left Jordan without her family's permission and married against her family's wishes, her father has ordered the male members to kill her on sight. A has learned through letters from her sister that her father is enraged and has declared that the shame she has brought on the family can only be removed by "blood". He has made her brothers swear to kill her at any place and time they find her, and he has also demanded that all her male relatives – including uncles and cousins – kill her if they ever come in contact with her. In the most recent letter, A learned that her father said that he cannot rest in peace even if he dies, and if he dies before he can kill her, he will only rest in peace if her male relatives carry out the killings.

Honor killings are prevalent in Jordan and have been recognized as a gross human rights violation that is inadequately dealt with by the Jordanian government. According to the 1998 U.S. State Department Report on Human Rights Practices, more than 20 "honor killings" were reported in Jordan that year. The report points out, however, that most honor killings go unreported and the actual number is believed to be four times as high. Fully 25% of the murders in the country are estimated to be honor killings. The only form of protection offered by the Jordanian government for women who fear becoming victims of honor crimes is their own imprisonment. In 1998, there were up to 50 women involuntarily detained in this form of "protective custody". News programs such as "Nightline," "20/20" and human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch have extensively reported on the problem of honor killings in Jordan.

Article 340 of the Jordanian Penal Code provides that men accused of honor killings are not prosecuted for murder but instead for "crimes of honor,"which carry lenient sentences, averaging three months to a year. (The penalty for murder under the Jordanian Penal Code, by comparison, is death.) Recently there was a governmental proposal to abolish Article 340. Despite being supported by a worldwide campaign, the proposal was defeated in Parliament in November 1999. Members of Parliament stated that abolishing Article 340 would amount to "legislating obscenity" and that the efforts in support of the proposal "are attempts by the West to infiltrate Jordanian society and demoralize women."

A applied for asylum in the U.S., but an immigration judge in California denied her claim on January 8, 1998. The immigration judge ruled that A did not have a well-founded fear of persecution because there was no evidence that her father had been violent towards her in the past, and because she had not directly spoken with her father to confirm his threats. The judge ignored the three letters from A’s sister, received over a five-year period, that explicitly state her father's orders to the male members of the family to kill A on sight. Although the judge acknowledged that honor killings do occur in Jordan, the judge stated that they are violent episodes in specific families and not a pattern or practice against Jordanian women in general. The judge rejected the claim that A’s fear of persecution was on account of her membership in a social group defined in part by her gender, and instead ruled that A’s fear of becoming a victim of an honor killing was a "personal problem" that "without more, cannot be the basis of an asylum claim."

The BIA upheld the judge's decision on August 20, 1999, ruling that A’s fear of being the victim of an honor killing was speculative, and that such harm would not be persecution on account of social group membership, but, rather the unfortunate consequences of a "personal family dispute."

On February 14, 2000, Senator's Leahy, Brownback, Jeffords, Kerry, Kennedy, Feingold and Schumer sent a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno asking her to reverse the BIA's decision in Ms. A's case, expressing concern that "the BIA lacks sufficient understanding of current standards in both United States asylum law and policy and international human rights law."

On April 10, 2000, Representative Carolyn Maloney and 17 other Congresspeople wrote a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno, expressing concern about Ms. A's case and asking her "to consider withdrawing U.S. government opposition to Ms. A's application for asylum."

Update

Ms. A- was granted asylum by the Board of Immigration Appeals in May 2002, after the INS withdrew its opposition to her case. The BIA issued a per curiam decision without opinion.

See the Refugee Urgent Action issued in Ms. A's case by Amnesty International (February 11, 2000).

Support CGRS's work on behalf of women refugees

Media

Judy Mann, A Desperate Woman Is Denied Asylum, Washington Post (February 2, 2000)

Barbara Bradley, Asylum Denied to Jordanian Woman Who Will Be Killed for Her Family's Honor If She Returns, National Public Radio (January 14, 2000)

"Killed to Clear the Family Name," Marie Claire, pp. 34-36 (January 2000)