An Open Letter to the New Jersey Committee on Women and Children

The AHA Foundation is encouraging New Jersey legislators to take action on an important state Bill that will protect women and girls from female genital mutilation (FGM).  We've written an Open Letter to the Assembly Committee on Women and Children, where this legislation has been stalled since May of last year.
 
How You can Help:

Repost this letter and share it with friends and colleagues.  If you live in New Jersey, find your Assembly Representative here and encourage him or her to support Bill A.2601.  You may also contact members of the Committee on Women and Children directly to urge them to move this important legislation forward (emails are linked below).

 

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE NEW JERSEY ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN

Chair: 

Pamela R. Lampitt, Email

Vice-chair: 

Angel Fuentes, Email

Members:               

Caroline Casagrande, Email

Bettylou Decroce, Email

Gabriela Mosquera, Email

Gary S. Schaer, Email

Benjie E. Wimberly, Email

 

May 1, 2013

 

Dear Committee Members: 

We are writing on behalf of the AHA Foundation in support of a Bill that would provide crucial protections to at-risk women and girls in the state of New Jersey.  We are respectfully requesting that you take action to move this Bill forward.    

Bill A.2601, which was referred to the Assembly Committee on Women and Children in May 2012, criminalizes the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) in New Jersey.  The Bill prohibits individuals from performing female genital mutilation in New Jersey, as well as taking a girl out of the state to undergo the procedure.  The companion version of this Bill passed the full Senate on March 15, 2012.

Bill A.2601 was referred to the Assembly Committee on Women and Children one year ago.  Since that time, the President has signed into law the Transport for Female Genital Mutilation Act, which strengthened the existing federal FGM ban by making it illegal to knowingly transport a girl out of the country for the purpose of undergoing the procedure.  Last month, Kansas became the twenty-first state to enact robust criminal prohibitions against FGM.  Yet New Jersey still has no specific criminal laws to protect women and girls from this violent procedure.

While many people think of FGM as a custom that only occurs in foreign countries, the threat of female genital mutilation is a reality for a significant number of girls in the United States, and New Jersey specifically.  Research conducted by the African Women’s Health Center of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital found that approximately 228,000 women and girls in the U.S. had either been subjected to female genital mutilation or were at risk.  According to this study, there are roughly 18,000 girls in New Jersey at risk of FGM – the third highest number among all the states.  An additional 5,800 girls are suspected to be at risk in the Philadelphia-Wilmington-Atlantic City area.

Female genital mutilation has significant and lasting medical consequences for victims.  Immediately following the procedure, girls are at risk for severe pain, shock, bleeding, bacterial infection, and injury to nearby tissue.  Some girls die from the procedure itself.  In the long term, girls and women who have suffered this procedure are at risk for recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections, cysts, infertility, and complications during intercourse and childbirth.  Women who have survived FGM describe significant sexual, emotional and psychological consequences, some of which persist throughout their lives.   The age at which the practice is carried out varies, from shortly after birth to a woman's first pregnancy.  The most common age is between four and ten years old.

Enacting Bill A.2601 would send a strong message that FGM – a brutal crime and human rights violation – is not acceptable in New Jersey.   Accordingly, we urge you to support A.2601/S.1171 and prioritize its enactment.   To this end, please encourage Assemblywoman Lampitt to bring this Bill up for a Vote so that it may be considered by the full Assembly as soon as possible.

For more information on FGM and the threat to girls in the United States, please visit our website:  www.theAHAfoundation.org. 

 

Sincerely,

 

The AHA Foundation

130 7^th Avenue, Box 256

New York, NY 10011

www.theAHAFoundation.org

info@theAHAfoundation.org

New Federal Law Strengthens Protections Against FGM: The AHA Foundation Supports the ‘Transport for Female Genital Mutilation Act’

Since its inception, the AHA Foundation has worked to prevent female genital mutilation (FGM) through advocacy, education and legislative reform.  Last week, President Obama significantly advanced these efforts when he signed into law the ‘Transport for Female Genital Mutilation Act’, which was passed as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.  While FGM has been illegal in the United States since 1996, the Act strengthens the existing federal FGM ban by adding an “extraterritoriality” component, making it illegal to knowingly transport a girl out of the country for the purpose of undergoing the procedure.  This amendment was designed to address the all-too-common practice of “vacation cutting”, in which girls living in the United States are taken to their parents’ country of origin during school breaks to undergo the procedure. Those found guilty under the new legislation will be sentenced to up to five years imprisonment (the same penalty imposed on those who commit FGM within the United States). 

Senator Harry Reid and Representatives Joseph Crowley and Mary Bono Mack -- three legislators with a demonstrated commitment to women’s issues -- spearheaded the Transport for Female Genital Mutilation Act.   The AHA Foundation commends their efforts, and applauds the President for signing this bill into law.

FGM is a traditional practice that involves the partial or complete removal of female genitalia and causes lifelong physical and psychological harm.  The World Health Organization estimates that between 100 and 140 million girls and women have been subjected to FGM worldwide.   According to research conducted by the African Women’s Health Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA, approximately 228,000 women and girls living in the United States have undergone or are at risk of undergoing FGM. 

The AHA Foundation has consistently advocated for the expansion of FGM legislation to include procedures performed abroad.  For the past several years, we have lobbied for extraterritorial FGM bans to be enacted on both the state and federal levels.  Ayaan Hirsi Ali, founder of the AHA Foundation, and our Executive Director specifically consulted with Representative Crowley on the issue of “vacation cutting”, and expressed our support for the language contained in the new Bill. 

"The AHA Foundation and organisations like it are the first line of defence for victims of these horrific behaviours. They need the tools to do their job and any law that protects victims is welcome. FGM is an attack on womanhood, it's a terrible indictment of man and his attempt to control a woman or a girl's behaviour. It cannot be allowed to go unchallenged," said Nazir Afzal OBE, Director of the UK's Crown Prosecution Service.

While the AHA Foundation believes that the five-year maximum sentence is too lenient, we regard the Transport for Female Genital Mutilation Act as an important development in the ongoing struggle against FGM.  In response to the passage of the Bill, Hirsi Ali acknowledged the work that is yet to be done, saying "As we celebrate this victory we know that this Bill is only a first step." The Act sends a strong deterrent message to parents considering taking their daughters overseas for FGM, and reflects the global condemnation of FGM as a human rights violation and form of gender-based violence.  We acknowledge, however, that legislation alone will not eradicate this practice.  If we are truly committed to ending FGM, sufficient resources must be allocated to investigating and prosecuting instances of FGM, educating at-risk populations, and ensuring that victims have access to adequate support and assistance within their communities.   

In the words of Ayaan Hirsi Ali:  "I will not accept little girls in my country to be forced into marriage, or their genitals to be cut, for them to be pulled out of school, for them to be condemned to a life of submission or violence or death through an honor killing.  What you want for that girl is what you want for your own little girl.”

Marching Orders: Empower Women to Forge Their Own Way

The AHA Foundation is proud to announce that our founder, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, is one of the featured speakers at this year’s Trust Women Conference, which opens today in London.  Presented by the Thompson Reuters Foundation and the International Herald Tribune, the Trust Women Conference aims to bring together leading voices in the fight for women’s rights to “help spark new collaborations and solutions” to some of the most urgent issues facing women around the world.   Ayaan participated in a discussion about the clash between law and culture that arises in Western countries around issues like honor-based violence, forced marriage, and female genital mutilation.

The tragic results of this clash between our Western democratic culture and legal system and more conservative, oppressive, and male-dominated cultures have been evidenced in recent cases of honor violence in the U.S.  Increasingly, we are hearing stories of teenage girls who are brought to the U.S. by their parents at a young age and raised in a conservative and oppressive household, while at the same time exploring and embracing American culture.  We hear about girls like Noor Almaleki, who grew up to be a typical American teenager who wore jeans and make-up, had friends and boyfriends, and wanted nothing more than to make decisions about her own life.  Tragically for Noor, her decisions to resist a forced marriage arranged by her parents, to move out of her parents’ home and have friends they disapproved of, and to resist their repeated demands that she conform her behavior to their strict expectations resulted in her brutal murder by her father.  We hear about girls like Aiya Altameemi, who attempted to make her own decisions about her life by refusing to submit to a forced marriage and having conversations with boys that were not sanctioned by her parents.  For these acts of defiance, Aiya was threatened at knifepoint, bound and beaten, and burned with a hot spoon by members of her family.

Noor and Aiya and all the other girls like them who suffer at the hands of their families want nothing more than what is promised to all American girls:  the opportunity to work hard, dream big, and become anything they want to be.  This sounds like a modest wish, yet for untold numbers of girls in this country, the desire to guide their own way through life represents an affront to their families and communities and places them in danger of physical harm and disownment.  Around the world, there are women who cannot make their own decisions, who are bound to a male guardian to determine their destiny.

As Ayaan famously once said, “It is a matter of principle that women are free and equal.”  At the AHA Foundation, we believe that these are more than just words – these are our marching orders.  We will keep working – raising awareness, training, urging legislators to take action, supporting victims – until all of our girls are able to safely, confidently, fearlessly, and joyously forge their own way in this world.  We hope you will join us in this mission.

Forced Marriage / Honor Violence in the News

Shaima Alawadi, murdered in California in what was widely though to be a hate crime is now suspected to have been the victim of an honor killing.

If you don’t think forced marriage and honor-based violence are real problems in North America, recent news stories may surprise you.  This week alone, the following incidents were reported by the media:     

• In Arizona: Yusra Farhan was convicted and sentenced for tying her 20-year-old daughter to a bed with rope and a padlock and burning her face with a hot spoon when she refused to marry a man nearly 20 years her senior.  The girl’s father and sister were also arrested for their complicity. 

• In California:  Kassim Alhimidi was charged with the murder of his wife, Shaima Alawadi.  While police initially believed the case to be a hate crime, investigators uncovered the fact that Alhimidi had plans to send his daughter to Iraq to marry a cousin, and that Shaima intended to divorce him.  The case is now being characterized as an honor killing.

•  In Toronto:  Peer Khairi was convicted of second-degree murder in the brutal stabbing death of his wife, Randjida.  The trial heard that the killing was honor-based:  Khairi was enraged over Randjida’s “disobedience” and her acceptance of their children’s Western attitudes to clothing and dating. 

• In Edmonton:  Muhammad Rafi and Najma Khokhar were arrested and charged with assaulting and forcibly confining their 21-year-old daughter after she refused to be taken abroad to submit to a forced marriage.

At the AHA Foundation, we know that reported incidents of honor violence and forced marriage represent just the tip of the iceberg.  Each year, untold numbers of young women and girls in the United States fall victim to these practices, and many more remain at risk of oppression and violence perpetrated in the name of religion and culture.  

The AHA Foundation is dedicated to bringing these abuses to light, and protecting the women and girls at risk.  We are working tirelessly on initiatives that include: 

• Strengthening U.S. criminal laws to protect women from honor-based violence

• Training law enforcement, educators and service providers on how to identify these issues and protect victims

• Investigating the frequency of these crimes through data collection and research partnerships. 

• Developing the first-ever forced marriage hotline in the United States

• Providing direct assistance and referrals to girls who contact us to avoid a forced marriage or escape honor violence.

To support these programs, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the AHA Foundation today, or purchasing one of our HONOUR products.  Your gift will go directly towards our crucial initiatives, and could help save the life of an at-risk woman or girl – before she becomes another headline.

Understanding Honor Violence: Lessons from the Jessica Mokdad Case

The verdict has been entered in the case against Rahim Alfetlawi for the murder of his 20-year-old stepdaughter, Jessica Modkad – guilty of murder in the first degree.  From the first days of this investigation, we have paid particular interest to this case as a possible honor killing.  Early reports from police indicated that Alfetlawi tracked his daughter from Minnesota to Michigan and shot her in the head because she had left home and was not following Islam.   Police explained that Mokdad was more “Americanized” than her strict Muslim stepfather, and that this tension contributed to her murder.[1]

In the months following Jessica’s murder, the prosecutor backed away from the possibility that this was an honor murder, stating that religion did not play a role in the case.[2]  Instead, prosecutors argued that Alfetlawi had been sexually abusing Mokdad for years and snapped when he learned she had told her mother about the abuse. [3]  The investigating officer explained that as the investigation continued, he came to believe that Alfetlawi was an abuser who went to great lengths to control every aspect of Jessica’s behavior and that it was this desire to control that was the primary motive for his violent conduct, not religion.  Jessica’s family has also been adamant that this was not an honor murder, explaining that Jessica was, in fact, a practicing Muslim and that Alfetlawi was not himself a particularly devout individual.[4]

We can debate the reported facts of this case to argue whether this was, in fact, an honor-motived crime, but to do so may be beside the point.  What this case offers is an opportunity to clarify what we mean when we talk about honor violence and how shining light on this form of violence against women is not an attempt to demonize entire religions or cultures, but rather an effort to protect untold numbers of girls and women in the U.S. from suffering a similar fate as Jessica Mokdad.

At the AHA Foundation, we define honor violence as a form of violence against women that is committed with the motive of protecting or regaining the honor of the perpetrator, family, or community.  Victims of honor violence are targeted because their actual or perceived behavior is deemed by their family or community to be shameful or to violate cultural or religious norms.  Honor violence involves systematic control of a victim that escalates over a period of time and may begin at a young age.  Honor violence can take many forms, including verbal or emotional abuse, threats, stalking, harassment, false imprisonment, physical violence, sexual abuse, and homicide. While honor violence does occur in Muslim communities, it is not a problem unique to Islam or any other religion.  Honor violence has been found in a variety of cultural and religious communities that have a strong sense of a collective identity and emphasize the well-being and honor of the collective community over that of any one individual.  It is from this mindset of protecting the collective – either familial, cultural, or religious – that the perpetrator of honor violence acts.  The primary objective of honor violence is to control the behavior of the victim, with force and violence if necessary, to bring her conduct into line with community expectations.

Religious beliefs are certainly a factor in many cases of honor violence, but the inquiry does not begin and end there.  To reduce the issue of honor violence to an attack on Islam or any other religion and dismiss it as a legitimate area of study and form of violence against women does a grave disservice to the women and girls in the U.S. who are daily victims of this form of control and abuse.  We cannot properly investigate these cases or ensure the safety and support of victims of honor violence without understanding the dynamics involved and the dangers posed by misguided notions of honor.  Brave young women like Jessica Mokdad and Noor Almaleki were not afraid to stand up to their oppressive communities to seek a life of their own choosing.  We owe it to them and every other girl like them who struggles against honor-based abuse and oppression not to be afraid to call out honor violence when we see it.  Only by doing so can we move forward to helping prevent these types of heinous murders. 

 

 

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A ‘Brave’ Stand: The Fight to End Forced Marriage

This blog first appeared on the Girls Not Brides website.

By the Executive Director/General Counsel for the AHA Foundation

Mission TX Police Quick to Dismiss Honor Motive in Attempted Murders

Few details about a recent shooting of three in Texas have surfaced, but police officials are certain of one thing:  this was not an episode of honor violence.   Talal Nimer, a native of Lebanon, is charged with attempted murder after allegedly shooting his estranged wife, daughter, and daughter’s boyfriend.  When questioned by police, Nimer reportedly explained that he did not approve of his daughter’s relationship with her boyfriend because he is not Muslim.  He also reportedly stated that he was upset and felt that the boyfriend was taking over as the “man of the house.”  And yet, police are certain that this was not an attempted honor killing, explaining that Nimer’s religious beliefs will not be taken into account during the investigation.

At this early stage in the investigation it may indeed be too early to determine whether this was an attempted honor murder.  But police should not be too quick to dismiss this theory.  By rejecting honor as a possible motive for these shootings, the Mission Police have shut the door on a potentially crucial line of investigation before they’ve even begun.

Honor violence is different from other forms of family violence and these cases pose unique challenges to law enforcement.  For example, a perpetrator of honor violence believes that his violent conduct was justified because of the victim’s actions, which are considered to be shameful or to violate cultural or religious norms.  This belief that the violence was justified, or even required, to address the victim’s behavior is often shared by other members of the family and the cultural community.  This collective support for the perpetrator poses two unique challenges for investigators.  First, members of the family and community will likely rally around the perpetrator and create a wall of silence to impede an investigation.  Even individuals sympathetic to the victim will likely refuse to cooperate with law enforcement due to fear of retaliation or ostracism by the greater community.  Police will therefore have a difficult time finding witnesses willing to cooperate with an investigation and may have to approach the case less like a case of family violence and more like a case involving gangs or organized crime.

Second, collective support of the perpetrator’s conduct makes it likely that he received some assistance in committing the crime, either in planning and carrying out the violence or in fleeing from law enforcement afterwards.   In order to fully understand the scope of the crime that has been committed and ensure that the victims are protected from future harm, police must investigate the involvement of other individuals in the criminal activity.  This is different from other forms of family violence in which there is usually just one perpetrator who must be apprehended and prosecuted.

Investigating whether an act of violence was motivated by honor is not an indictment of a particular religion – indeed, honor crimes occur in a number of religious communities.  Following this investigative lead when there are clues suggesting that honor may have been part of the perpetrator’s reason for violence is simply good policing.  To discount this theory at the outset of an investigation does a disservice to the victims and the entire community and potentially immunizes Nimer from being held fully accountable for his actions.

LA Governor Jindal Signs Bill Criminalizing Female Genital Mutilation

Only these 20 states have laws against FGM

The AHA Foundation congratulates Governor Jindal and the Louisiana legislature for passing a bill that criminalizes female genital mutilation (FGM).  We also applaud the sponsors of this legislation for taking our advice and amending the bill to include the AHA Foundation's model language that also makes it a crime to remove a girl from the state for the purpose of FGM.

This bill, which will go into effect August 1st, 2012, makes Louisiana the 20th U.S. state to outlaw FGM.  The AHA Foundation has made a priority of outlawing FGM in all 50 states.  There is a currently a federal law against FGM, but it is NOT illegal to take your daughter out of the U.S. for the procedure.  Enacting new laws criminalizing FGM in every state would have a significant deterrent effect and would send a strong message that this conduct is not acceptable anywhere in the U.S.

FGM is a crime in the following 20 states:

• California

• Colorado

• Delaware

• Florida

• Georgia

• Illinois

• Louisiana

• Maryland

• Minnesota

• Missouri

• Nevada

• New York

• North Dakota

• Oklahoma

• Oregon

• Rhode Island

• Tennessee

• Texas

• West Virginia

• Wisconsin

Please help the AHA Foundation in our mission to ensure that girls in the U.S. are not forced to suffer this debilitating procedure; contact your representatives asking them to introduce bills banning FGM in your state.  Our model FGM bill can be found here: the AHA Foundation Model FGM Bill.  We've already put together a Sample Letter to Your Representative that you can use to ask them to ban FGM; use our Legislative Outreach Tool to contact them.

A Family's Honor: 48 Hours Mystery to Highlight US Honor Killing

COMING UP ON 48 HOURS MYSTERY: PRIMETIME NETWORK BROADCAST TO SHED LIGHT ON UNITED STATES HONOR KILLING
 

“A FAMILY’S HONOR”
SATURDAY, APRIL 7 (10:00 P.M., ET/PT)

 

In October 2009 two women, 20-year-old Noor Almaleki and 43-year-old Amal Khalaf, were struck by an accelerating SUV while crossing a parking lot in suburban Phoenix. The driver of the vehicle was identified as 49-year-old Faleh Almaleki, Noor’s own father. He fled the scene and became the target of an international manhunt. He was finally apprehended by customs officials in London and extradited to Arizona.

Even more shocking than the callousness of the crime was what investigators believed was the motive.  

“In certain traditions and in certain cultures, if a father believes that a female has acted in a dishonorable or disrespectful way, the only way to restore that honor is to kill them,” said Detective Chris Boughey, who led the investigation.  

In 2011 Faleh Almaleki was tried for murder. His defense claimed this was a terrible accident, that Almaleki had never intended to hurt his daughter. But the State charged him with first-degree murder, making this one of the first cases in the United States prosecuted as an honor killing.

Although most common in the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa, honor violence and honor killings are now becoming more common in Europe, Canada and now the United States. According to the United Nations, an estimated 5,000+ women are murdered annually in the name of honor. “If it can happen in Peoria, Arizona,” Boughey tells 48 HOURS MYSTERY correspondent Troy Roberts, “it can happen anywhere.”

The primetime broadcast which explores the alleged honor killing of Noor Almaleki, entitled “A Family’s Honor,” will air on Saturday, April 7 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS network.

The producers are Lisa Freed and Jonathan Leach. The senior producer is Anthony Batson. Susan Zirinsky is the executive producer of 48 HOURS MYSTERY.

AHA Foundation Supporter Update

Chaz Akoshile, Joint Head of the UK's Forced Marriage Unit; Jasvinder Sanghera, founder of Karma Nirvana and Sabatina James, founder of Sabatina EV attend the AHA Foundation's International Women's Day and HONOUR Launch cocktail reception.

AHA Foundation staff have been hard at work during the first months of 2012 and we are pleased to report on our recent projects and accomplishments.

On November 17th, the AHA Foundation was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from the U.S. State Department for our support and guidance in assisting victims of forced marriage.  We continue to work with the State Department on forced marriage and keep in regular contact with them about their efforts to combat forced marriages and how we can work together on this issue.

Our legislative efforts are successfully gaining traction.  We continue to receive positive feedback from federal legislators on our Violence Against Women Act proposal and have met with the offices of interested senators and representatives.  On the State level, we are thrilled to report that New Jersey State Senator Weinberg introduced our Female Genital Multilation bill.  That bill has now been introduced in both houses of the New Jersey legislature and appears to be on a track to passage.  A state legislator in Louisiana has also recently introduced an FGM bill.

We have initiated a substantial research project with The John Jay College of Criminal Justice that seeks to quantify the incidence of honor killings in the US, and forced marriages and FGM in New York City - something that has never before been done.  The honor killing portion of the study is moving along well and we expect to have at least preliminary results by early summer.  Additionally, we met with the students working on the forced marriage and FGM studies and are very impressed with the team.

We have identified a number of opportunities to provide training to law enforcement and child protective service professionals on honor violence and forced marriages and are working to create training materials on these topics.  This program will be a primer on these issues and provide basic information and best practices for handling cases of honor violence and forced marriage.

In February and March, we made significant progress toward creating a pilot national forced marriage hotline.  We are in contact with non-profit organizations from both the US and the UK, with whom we are planning to partner.  We are hopeful that this pilot will be up and running later this year.

Our Research Director has completed a nearly final draft on a report on Sharia law.  The report describes why Sharia law is problematic from the perspective of women's rights, explains why there is cause to be concerned about Sharia in the United States and other European countries, and proposes legislative remedies to prevent a proliferation of Sharia law. The report also analyzes what exactly Sharia is and why it tends to be resistant to change.

We continue to connect girls that contact us for help to appropriate services.  We recently helped a girl connect with a pro bono lawyer to help her avoid a forced marriage.

Last week, we attended the Women in the World Summit in New York City.  The AHA Foundation has been listed on the Women in the World Foundation website as a Solutions partner, which is a great spotlight for us.  As part of the conference, we hosted a cocktail party last Thursday evening to celebrate International Women's Day and launch our new HONOUR products.  To date, we have an HONOUR tote bag, tie, pink and white candles.  The cocktail reception was a major success, particularly in the caliber of guests who attended.  We were thrilled to host Jasvinder Sanghera, founder of Karma Nirvana; Chaz Akoshile, Joint Head of the UK's Forced Marriage Unit; Phyllis Chesler, honor violence scholar; and Sabatina James, forced marriage survivor and founder of Sabatina EV.

We have begun planning our Annual AHA Foundation Conference, which will be held in New York City at the end of September.  Last year's conference was a huge success and we are looking forward to an even bigger and better event this year!

We couldn't do all of our important work without your support.  To help us continue in our fight against the oppression of women and girls, please consider making a donation or purchasing one of our HONOUR products today.