Woman Flees Nigeria To Canada To Help Her Daughters Escape Female Genital Mutilation

A Nigerian woman has fled the country to
Winnipeg, Canada, to help her daughters escape
Female Genital Mutilation.
According to CBC.ca , the woman's father-in-law
had insisted that the woman's first daughter
must undergo FGM when she was just a few
months old. That procedure almost led to the
death of the baby.
To avoid the same from happening to her other
children, the woman who is currently pregnant
with triplets sought refuge outside the shores of
the country.
CBC quoted a lawyer, Bashir Khan, who assisted
the woman in obtaining a refugee status in
Canada as saying, the woman was forced into
vehicle and driven to a rural area where she
couldn’t bear to stay and watch while her first
daughter was forcibly mutilated.
FGM, also known as female circumcision,
involves removing all or part of the femalecore
as well as, often, the labia to make young girls
appear “more virginal.”
In the case of the woman’s first daughter, ''they
cut off too much of her femalecore, and she
nearly died from the infection.'' Said Khan.
When she became pregnant with triplets – all
female – the woman was told she could have
the procedure done on the babies when they
were born or abort them, Khan added.
Instead, she fled Nigeria, and arrived in Canada
in November 2015, when she was 29 weeks
pregnant.
''It was pretty hard for her to get refugee
status.'' Said Khan.
She was assigned Khan as a lawyer by legal aid,
who assembled the documents for her refugee
status claim.
But in January, Khan uncovered a letter alleging
the woman was involved in FGM and thereby
aggravated assault on her first daughter.
''The minister's consul that is the minister of
citizenship and immigration here in Winnipeg —
wrote a scathing four-page letter calling my
client a bad mother and saying my client should
not be able to make a refugee claim.'' Said
Khan. ''Statistics tell us that ministerial
interventions in the last few years have
skyrocketed in the past few years.''
Khan said there was no evidence that that had
taken place.
''That was something that sat uncomfortably
with me, my client and the board member who
heard the case.'' He said.
Khan called the statements disturbing and
traumatising for his client.
''This is a horrible cultural practice. The
purpose of FGM is to discourage sexual
promiscuity and to promote chastity.'' Said
Khan.
''Parents subject their daughters to FGM based
on the social belief that a young woman who
refuses to undergo this will have difficulty in
labour or will be unfaithful to her husband.''
He said she was in a state of shock when he
explained to her what was happening.
''She was just horrified.'' He said. ''It was a
disturbing and uncomfortable moment. The room
got really cold.''
Since then, the woman was granted refugee
status.
According to Khan, the woman is currently doing
well in Canada and hopes to raise her three
daughters there.