## Facts

- Fauziya Kasinga was a young woman from Togo and a member of the Tchamba-Kunsuntu tribe, where female genital mutilation (FGM) was customarily performed on girls around age 15.
- Kasinga did not undergo FGM as a child because her father opposed the practice.
- After her father died, her paternal aunt asserted authority and arranged a forced, polygamous marriage to a much older man.
- The aunt insisted Kasinga undergo FGM consistent with tribal practice as part of the marriage arrangement.
- Kasinga fled Togo, traveled through other countries, and entered the United States using another person’s passport.
- She requested asylum upon arrival, asserting she faced near-certain FGM and could not avoid it by relocating within Togo due to familial and tribal control and lack of effective protection.

## Issues

1. Whether FGM, as practiced in Kasinga’s tribe, constitutes “persecution” under the Immigration and Nationality Act’s asylum framework.
2. Whether “young women of the Tchamba-Kunsuntu Tribe who have not undergone FGM and who oppose the practice” constitute a “particular social group.”
3. Whether Kasinga showed a well-founded fear of country-wide persecution on account of membership in that group, including lack of a reasonable internal relocation alternative.
4. Whether asylum should be granted as a matter of discretion given her manner of entry and surrounding circumstances.

## Decision

- The Board of Immigration Appeals (en banc) sustained the appeal and reversed the immigration judge’s denial of asylum.
- The Board held that FGM causing permanent disfigurement and serious health risks can constitute persecution.
- The Board recognized as a particular social group: young, uncut women of the Tchamba-Kunsuntu tribe who oppose FGM.
- The Board found Kasinga credible and concluded she established a well-founded fear of country-wide persecution on account of her social group membership, with no reasonable internal relocation option.
- The Board granted asylum as a favorable exercise of discretion, treating her use of another passport as explained by urgent flight from threatened harm and noting the absence of significant adverse factors.

## Legal Principles

- Severe gender-based harm, including FGM involving permanent bodily injury and serious medical risks, can satisfy the “persecution” element for asylum.
- A “particular social group” may be defined by characteristics that are immutable (e.g., sex, tribal membership) and by opposition to a practice when that opposition is fundamental to personal identity and bodily integrity.
- A well-founded fear may be “country-wide” where the applicant lacks a reasonable internal relocation alternative due to family/tribal reach and the absence of meaningful state protection.
- Asylum remains discretionary; manner of entry and document use are weighed against the context of flight and other equities.

## Conclusion

The Board granted asylum after finding that the applicant credibly demonstrated a well-founded fear of being subjected to FGM and forced marriage in Togo on account of membership in a recognized particular social group, and that discretionary factors favored relief.


Matter of Kasinga, 21 I. & N. Dec. 357 (B.I.A. 1996)