## Facts

- S-A-, a young Moroccan woman with limited schooling, entered the United States and applied for asylum and withholding of removal.
- She testified that she was a liberal Muslim and that her father held orthodox religious views about women and enforced them through escalating physical and emotional abuse.
- She stated her father beat her at least weekly, using his hands, feet, or a belt, while not mistreating her brothers.
- After her father saw her wearing a short skirt sent by an aunt, he burned her thighs and prevented her from obtaining hospital treatment.
- After her father saw her speaking to a man, he beat her severely, causing bleeding.
- In 1997, after she left home without permission, he slapped, punched, and kicked her.
- She testified that the abuse led her to attempt suicide twice.
- She and her aunt testified that the police would not intervene when her mother sought help, and that local norms treated a father’s treatment of a daughter as a private family matter.
- Evidence indicated her father would view her departure from Morocco without male supervision as a further violation of his religious rules and would likely kill her if she returned.
- The Immigration Judge found her inadmissible and removable and denied asylum and withholding based on an unexplained adverse credibility finding.
- On appeal, the Board accepted a late brief but declined to consider new evidence attached to it.

## Issues

1. Whether the harm inflicted by S-A-’s father rose to the level of past persecution and was inflicted on account of a protected ground, particularly religion.
2. Whether persecution by a private actor could support asylum where the government was unable or unwilling to control the abuser.
3. Whether the Immigration Judge’s adverse credibility finding and denial of asylum were supported by specific reasons grounded in the record.

## Decision

- The Board sustained the appeal and reversed the denial of asylum.
- The Board found S-A- credible and concluded the Immigration Judge’s adverse credibility finding lacked specific, cogent reasons.
- The Board held S-A- established past persecution and a well-founded fear of future persecution by her father on account of her religious beliefs, which conflicted with his orthodox views about women.
- The Board found Moroccan authorities were unable or unwilling to protect her from the abuse.
- The Board granted asylum and admitted S-A- as an asylee, while declining to consider new evidence first offered on appeal.

## Legal Principles

- Persecution for asylum purposes may be inflicted by private actors when the government is unable or unwilling to control them.
- Severe, repeated family violence may constitute persecution when the record shows the abuse is motivated by a protected ground, including religion as expressed through gender-linked religious restrictions.
- Adverse credibility determinations must rest on specific, cogent reasons supported by the record; conclusory findings are insufficient on appellate review.
- A showing of past persecution creates a presumption of a well-founded fear of future persecution, which the government must rebut with record evidence.
- The Board functions as an appellate tribunal and generally will not consider new evidence offered for the first time on appeal; the evidentiary record is to be made before the Immigration Judge.

## Conclusion

The Board granted asylum after finding that S-A- credibly proved severe, recurring abuse by her father motivated by religious conflict over women’s roles, that Moroccan authorities would not provide effective protection, and that past persecution established an unrebutted presumption of future persecution if returned.


In re S-A-, 22 I. & N. Dec. 1328 (B.I.A. 2000)