By Cindy Trinh
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SYDNEY, Australia – Two Kenyan women in Australia are facing deportation after their asylum applications were rejected. The two women, Grace Gichuhi, and Teresia Ndikaru Muturi, face possible genital mutilation if they are deported back to Kenya. Many Australians have expressed outrage, and urge the Immigration Minister to intervene and allow the two Kenyans to stay in Australia.

A refugee’s fear of persecution must be based on “race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.” Because fear of genital mutilation does not fit into one of these categories, the women could be sent home to Kenya.

In parts of Africa, female circumcision is still practiced, and is mainly done for cultural purposes as an initiation into womanhood. In some cases, older women perform the circumcision with a broken glass or a tin lid. In other cases, the female is held down by 10 men, and her clitoris is cut off with a knife.

Both women left Kenya because they feared for the safety of their lives. Grace Gichuhi’s mother was killed for refusing to be circumcised. Grace Gichuhi is 22 years old. Teresia Muturi, only 21 years old, fled from an arranged marriage with a 70-year-old man and angered her family when she refused to be circumcised.

The two women applied for refugee status, but were denied by the immigration department. A spokesman from the immigration department stated that “[u]nder the refugee convention, they weren’t found to engage with Australia’s international obligations.”
An appeal was filed to the Australian Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, but he rejected the appeal. A second appeal was filed, but nothing has yet been determined. Currently, the women have been told by the immigration department to prepare for deportation.

Senator Nick Xenophon urged Chris Evans to grant the women visas to stay in Australia. The Senator expressed opposition to the laws of Australia, stating that “[i]f the laws are changed, these women have a clear case for asylum,” and urged the minister “to exercise discretion to give these two women asylum.”

Senator Nick Xenophon is joined by many political adversaries, lawyers, and refugee groups who also want Chris Evans to intervene.

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young believes the women are “prime candidates” for proposing “complementary protection” laws targeted at expanding on existing refugee criteria.

Spokeswoman for Opposition, Sharman Stone, took a different perspective than Sarah Hanson-Young, stating that the existing intervention powers were sufficient to give the two Kenyan women asylum. Sharman Stone contends that the minister is not obligated to adhere strictly to any convention, and can exercise his “own sense of what is right and just and humane.”

Mary Crock, a professor of public law at the University of Sydney, opposed Sharman’s Stone’s view, stating that proposing new “complementary protection” laws that would more certainly give protection to women, such as Grace Gichuhi and Teresia Muturi, is the better choice.

News of the Kenyan women has also raised debate and controversy amongst citizens of the local community. After an article about the two women was published in The Age, an Australian newspaper, concerned readers contacted the newspaper to express their outrage at the situation.

In the online spectrum, Penny Eager, a blogger, wrote to Chris Evans expressing her belief that the “torturous practi[c]e of genital mutilation is abhorrent, and that to deny these women refugee visas is to take a weak stance on this issue.” She further urged Chris Evans to intervene, to not only help the women, but to also “send a clear message to Kenya that Australia does not condone these practi[c]es.”

A Facebook “Causes” page titled “Help save these Women from Genital Mutilation” was created to support the two Kenyans. The Facebook page was launched by Vanessa Muradian, a citizen of Swinburne, to show support for the women’s efforts to remain in Australia.

For more information, please see:

Facebook – Help save these Women from Genital Mutilation

The Age – Huge support for Kenyan fugitives – 23 September, 2009

Global Voices – Australia: Kenyan women refused refugee status – 23 September, 2009

Pocket Carnival – Grace Gichuhi and Teresia Ndikaru Muturi – 22 September, 2009

Embrace Australia – Refugee Girls Face Deportation and Mutilation – 21 September, 2009