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The Minister of the Interior rejected an asylum request by an applicant who claims that she and her daughters will be forced to change the name of women in their country | Israel today

2022-11-29T10:09:47.785Z


The advisory committee did recommend that the immigrant be granted refugee status, but the Minister of the Interior stated that its recommendation was wrong • The applicant immigrated to Israel illegally from Sierra Leone and will now be forced to return to her country


The Minister of the Interior, Ayelet Shaked, rejected the advisory committee's recommendation to grant refugee status to an illegal immigrant from Sierra Leone who claimed that she would be forced to emigrate against her will.

In a detailed document, the minister stated that there should be a distinction between different degrees of severity of oral procedures and that in any case there is no fear that an adult woman will be forced to go through it against her will.

In a reasoned decision spanning dozens of pages, the minister stated that although the Supreme Court ruled that women's rights can be grounds for deportation in certain cases, the Refugee Convention was not designed to address all types of difficulties and negative effects suffered by hundreds of millions of people in developing countries, and therefore it is necessary to set a certain threshold that can be considered persecution.

The Supreme Court ruled that the word women can be grounds for expulsion, illustration, photo: Oren Ben Hakon

As a matter of principle, the minister stated that the custom known as "women's word" does not consist of one part and there are different types of procedures that need to be distinguished between them.

In practice, some of the procedures are similar to or even easier than the ceremony of naming boys, and only some of them have the potential for more serious damage that can be considered persecution in the appropriate cases.

While all types of women's speech are obscene in the Minister's eyes, it is unlikely that the State of Israel will recognize any type of cultural custom that affects hundreds of millions of people as a reason for deportation in Israel.

The Minister emphasizes that this is not a quantitative question, because naturally the Refugee Convention does not deal with the number of people who can be considered refugees, but rather with a question of principle that underlies the rationale of the Convention. 

The Knesset refused several initiatives to ratify the Refugee Convention into law, photo: Oren Ben Hakon

The Nationality Law states that the State of Israel is obligated to ensure the safety of Diaspora Jews and to work to "preserve their cultural, historical and religious heritage".

Therefore, Shaked claims that the possible consequences of blanket and undifferentiated recognition of all types of women's speech as grounds for deportation must be taken into account in Israel's efforts to curb these legislative initiatives.

While the State of Israel signed the Refugee Convention and is committed to it, the Knesset refused several initiatives to ratify it into law.

In addition, the Law on Entry into Israel explicitly states that illegal residents must be removed as soon as possible.

In the individual asylum request that was rejected, the Minister of the Interior stated that the committee's recommendation is wrong because it is mainly based on the high proportion of women who went through the procedure in Sierra Leone, while it is a cultural custom that receives broad public support, among women even more than men, including women who have already gone through the procedure.

According to Shaked, it is not possible to establish a blanket concern for women in a particular country based on data that includes women who support the procedure, and sometimes even perform it themselves on others.

Also, with all the sadness, in the vast majority of cases the custom is carried out by the parents and the extended family on their daughters in childhood without asking their opinion.

Shaked further explained: "Hence, there is a necessity to examine what the expected risk is for an adult woman of the applicant's age who opposes the procedure, and whether she will be forced to go through the procedure or perform it on her daughters reluctantly. According to this test, the sources of information show that in general, adult women in Sierra Leone are not required to go through the procedure And among the daughters of the applicant's tribe, there is no report of women who were forced to go through it above their mid-twenties. Also, there is considerable information showing that women who oppose it, manage to stick to their decision and not confront their daughters involuntarily, even if there is indeed social and family pressure to do so this. 

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Source: israelhayom

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