Matter of S-F-

In 2008, in an unpublished decision, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) granted asylum to a young woman from Senegal based on fear of forced marriage (or punishment for having refused such a marriage) on account of her moderate religious beliefs.

CGRS Involvement

CGRS filed an amicus brief to the BIA in this case and supported Ms. S-F-‘s attorney, Russell Bikoff of Washington, D.C.

Basic Facts

Ms. S-F- was informed by her father that he would require her to enter into a polygamous marriage with a cousin fourteen years her senior. Ms. S-F-’s father beat her when she objected to this arrangement, which she did because her religious beliefs, which are more liberal than those of her family, allowed for women’s rights. Many had described the cousin as a violent man, and Ms. S-F- feared abuse from him as well. Ms. S-F- attended school in France and extended her studies to stall the marriage, but she agreed to live with her father’s conservative family members in France and to return to Senegal in May 2006 for the marriage. Instead of returning to Senegal, Ms. S-F- fled to the United States.

Procedural History

The Immigration Judge denied Ms. S-F-’s applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture, and ordered her deportation. The Judge found that Ms. S-F- was not credible and that the marriage she would enter, despite being without her consent, did not constitute persecution.

On appeal to the BIA, CGRS filed an amicus brief arguing: (1) that the Judge’s credibility finding was in error; (2) that Ms. S-F- suffered past persecution at the hands of her father on account of her feminist-defined political opinion and membership in a particular social group defined as “young, single daughters from the Wolof ethnic group in Senegal who oppose forced marriage;” (3) that forced marriage, rape, enslavement, and serious physical abuse all constitute persecution; and (4) that Ms. S-F- would face these harms on account of her feminist political opinion, moderate Islamic religion, and membership in a particular social group of “Senegalese women from the Wolof ethnic group who have been sold into marriage (whether or not the marriage has taken place.”).

The BIA reversed the IJ and, in an unpublished 2009 decision, granted Ms. S-F- asylum, holding that she had demonstrated a well-founded fear of persecution in Senegal based on her religious beliefs.

Documents

CGRS amicus brief to the BIA (May 2008)

See Kim Thuy Seelinger, Forced Marriage and Asylum: Perceiving the Invisible Harm, 42 Colum. H. R. L. Rev. 1 (2010)

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